DETROIT -- When Bo Bichette speaks, listen to him.
It’s not complicated. So much effort has been put into misunderstanding Bichette in his career, both on the field and in front of the cameras. Everything Bichette says and does comes with purpose, though. No word is wasted.
Bichette came up as the strong, silent type on teams that spilled over with personality. Even now, you can’t step foot in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse without hearing George Springer putting on a one-man show. You can’t watch five seconds of the pre-game workouts without Vladimir Guerrero Jr. shaking his hips from side to side, suddenly overtaken by song. If you look at just the right time, you might catch a flicker of Bichette’s smirk, but that’s all.
It’s been a favorite topic of body language experts, a fast-growing industry in Toronto, and has colored in too many conversations about Bichette’s future in a contract year. But it’s never been Bichette’s job to be an extrovert. When Bichette speaks -- those rare, important moments -- you learn what really matters, what’s really taking up space in the 27-year-old’s head. This is when you hear a player with not just a feel for the moment the 2025 Blue Jays are having, but an understanding of how rare and special it is.
“This is the best this fan base has been for us since I’ve been in the big leagues,” Bichette said after a win over the Yankees earlier this week. “It’s been amazing. This is what I remember watching on TV when I was 17 years old. I was home watching [José] Bautista and [Josh] Donaldson. [The fans] make it really fun to play.”
Bichette was drafted just weeks before the Blue Jays made their second consecutive American League Championship Series run in 2016, the end of that incredible, two-year stretch that brought baseball back to life in Toronto and across Canada. Bichette was already a baseball nut, watching that ‘15 run, but being selected in the second round of the MLB Draft in the height of that frenzy lit something on fire in Bichette’s mind.
Someday, he could do the same. By the time Bichette and Vladdy became fast friends as teenagers, he had his running mate. They could take over the baseball world together. That hasn’t happened yet, though. The Blue Jays, despite their three trips to the postseason since, haven’t won a single game in October.
“We’ve had opportunities to do it, but right now, it feels different,” Bichette said. “When I was a kid, I was watching on TV and the camera was shaking. It was a wide-eyed moment ... now, we’re here.”
Bichette keeps coming back to one idea, too, which is his own appreciation for the moment. A year ago, calf injuries hampered his season. Half of 2024 was spent on the IL and the other was spent battling himself as much as the pitcher on the mound. Now that Bichette is starting to look like himself again, batting .281 with a .771 OPS entering Thursday, he’s focused on the scarcity of these moments. They can blur by you in an instant if you don’t reach out to grab them at the right time.
“I’m super grateful that not only am I in this position, but the team is in this position,” Bichette said. “Honestly, I just want to do my best to enjoy every part of this. There’s nothing better than coming to the field when the No. 1 thing is winning and it’s fun to be doing that again. It’s as simple as waking up and thinking about how you can win instead of thinking about where my swing is or what I can do. I wake up and I just want to win the game that day. It just makes baseball fun.”
It’s about more than 2025, though. This is the only organization Bichette has known for a decade. A pending free agent, Bichette has always said that he and Guerrero want to play their entire careers together, which he reiterated in Spring Training.
Asked about his future again this week, Bichette paused for a moment. Remember, with Bichette, no word is wasted, no idea is accidental.
“My priorities have always been to win, to be part of an organization that has that same goal in mind and I want to play in an exciting environment. We’re checking all those boxes,” Bichette said. “It’s a special time right now and the fans are definitely making their case known.”
When Bichette speaks, listen to him.