The Toronto Blue Jays landed one of the top free agent pitchers in the offseason after Dylan Cease agreed to a seven-year, $210 million contract with the reigning American League pennant winners.
With their starting rotation bolstered for the 2026 MLB season, the next question for the Blue Jays will be about the lineup. More specifically, whether that means Toronto intends to pay Bo Bichette or if the front office will go a different route to replace his bat.
On December 1, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi shared an update on what he’s hearing about the Bichette situation and whether a return to the Blue Jays is on the table.
“I do think there continues to be mutual interest on both sides,” Davidi said during an appearance on MLB Network. “I’ve felt all along that both the Blue Jays and Bo Bichette have needed the market to help them frame the value, and that part of it is taking shape. You hear that a lot of teams are getting involved, and in some ways, you hear people say the market for him is still fully developing.”
Bo Bichette Could Decide to Wait Before Making a Decision
Moreover, Davidi speculates that Bichette could wait for Kyle Tucker to sign and potentially boost his market for any teams that miss out on landing the all-star outfielder.
“There’s one school thought, I don’t know how accurate this is, that maybe there’s some benefit for him waiting for Kyle Tucker to settle and then seeing where that lands, and then more teams perhaps become a little bit more focused on him once the Tucker situation is resolved,” Davidi added. “I think there’s just a lot of stuff at play. The Blue Jays do continue wanting to bring him back.”
Bo Bichette Could Cost Marcus Semien Money From Blue Jays
With the market not yet set for Bichette and the situation playing out, there’s no clear comparable benchmark for financial demand. Davidi noted that the two players he’s heard mentioned are Marcus Semien and Xander Bogaerts.
“The closer a player gets to free agency, the more difficult it becomes to keep them from free agency, so I just think with Bichette [not reaching an in-season contract extension with the Blue Jays] was more a timing thing,” Davidi said. “I do get a sense, and just in talking to some people, that he’s a really interesting case in terms of how do you value him.
“I’ve heard people suggest that the spectrum of anywhere from Marcus Semien money to Xander Bogaerts’ money on the high end, I don’t think it’s going to get to Bogaerts necessarily, but there’s a wide range of possibilities that people peg his value at.”
Semien, who was traded this offseason to the New York Mets, locked in a seven-year, $175 million contract with the Texas Rangers in 2021, per MLB.com. A year later, Bogaerts reached an 11-year agreement with the San Diego Padres worth $280 million, per MLB.com.
It will be interesting to see whether the contract Bichette signs this offseason, whether with the Blue Jays or another team, falls anywhere between these figures.
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