Blue Jays Record-Setting Power IF Set For Breakout Amid Bichette Signing Drama

The calendar has turned to the new year, but the Toronto Blue Jays appear no closer to re-signing their free agent power-hitting infielder Bo Bichette. According to longtime ESPN baseball insider Jeff Passan, Bichette, like other still-unsigned free agents, “view themselves as worth more than teams are willing to offer,” according to an account by The Sporting News.

With projections ranging from a five-year deal worth $150 million all the way to seven years at $210 million, the gap between the 28-year-old and his former employer seems wider than ever.

But a Blue Jays future without the two-time All-Star may not be as bleak as it might appear. Though he may not be able to take a place in Toronto’s infield right away, one 2024 Toronto draft pick has been named by a top statistical analyst as the organization’s top breakout candidate for the coming season.

And he already holds one home run record.

Sean Keys Sets Vancouver Franchise HR Mark

Sean Keys is a 6-foot-2, 232-pound corner infielder who was Toronto’s fourth-round draft pick in 2024, after producing what SB Nation scribe Tom Mullie called “video game numbers” at academically prestigious Bucknell University.

Keys produced collegiate OPS numbers of 1.122 and 1.333 in his second and third of his three seasons at the Patriot League school.

“More meaningfully, he raked with wood bats in quality summer leagues, launching 15 home runs in just 153 PA between the Hamptons League and the Cape Cod League the summer before his draft year,” Mullie recounted. That performance earned Keys a $570,000 bonus — the full amount designated for his draft slot — to sign with the Blue Jays.

In 2025, his first full-length season at High-A, Keys got off to a slow start but picked it up as the season went on, breaking the franchise single-season home run record on September 5, blasting his 19th of the year.

Top Analyst Eyes Keys For Breakout Season

As a result of that strong finish, but more importantly Keys’ underlying offensive metrics, data analyst Thomas Nestico of TJ Stats named the Bucknell mechanical engineering grad the Blue Jays’ top breakout candidate of 2026.

“Keys looked poised for a breakout in 2025 after a strong start in his 22-game sample following his fourth-round selection just a year prior. Despite the encouraging outlook, Keys delivered a good but not great season, appearing pedestrian for much of the year until a strong finish boosted his final line,” Nestico wrote in his roundup of breakout prospects.

“He will look to carry that momentum into 2026, supported by an exceptional eye (17 percent O-Swing percentage), average contact rates, and both the power (104.8 mph 90th percentile exit velocity) and swing to deposit pulled fly balls over the wall,” the analyst concluded.

“O-Swing percentage” represents the rate at which a hitter swings at pitches outside of the strike zone.

Deeper Look Inside Keys’ Numbers

Despite his franchise-record home run total in Vancouver, Keys’ final line for 2025 looked underwhelming, with a .773 OPS and a .217 batting average. But according to Mullie, it is his underlying metrics that tab Keys, currently ranked by MLB Pipeline as Toronto’s No. 26 prospect, to become only the second former Bucknell Bison to reach the high leagues.

“Keys has excellent plate discipline,” Mullie wrote in his evaluation of the prospect. “That allowed him to run a 16.3 percent walk rate that was eighth among all qualifiers in A+ this season and a .365 OBP that was 25th in spite of his bottom-tier batting average. Keys pairs that patience with potentially plus game power. He was sixth among A+ hitters with 19 home runs in 2025, and the underlying data backs the performance up.”

In addition, 29 percent of all batted balls by the lefty-swinging Keys in 2025 were pulled in the air, a rate that would rank him near the top 10 of MLB hitters. “Pulled fly balls are the source of almost all home runs,” Mullie noted. “A swing geared to maximize them can help players with just solid raw strength put up surprisingly strong home run totals.”

Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.

This article was originally published on Heavy Sports

The post Blue Jays Record-Setting Power IF Set For Breakout Amid Bichette Signing Drama appeared first on Heavy Sports.