The Toronto Blue Jays didn’t get Bo Bichette back.

No matter what else gets taken away from their offseason, that’s going to loom large.

Kazuma Okamoto may turn out to be a decent replacement. Dylan Cease could be key in the pitching rotation.

But there’s no Bichette.

For much of the offseason, Toronto thought it’d get Bichette to return. In the end, the New York Mets paid Bichette $126 million in a three-year deal to lure him away.

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ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle asked a question in a new article on Friday: “Why the heck didn’t the Blue Jays get Bo Bichette back?”

“The question isn’t fair, but when you look at the Blue Jays as spring training begins, it’s hard not to look at the position group as being ostensibly the same, save for Kazuma Okamoto filling the spot of Bichette,” Doolittle writes.

The overall takeaway of the ESPN blurb is that the Blue Jays may come to regret not having Bichette anymore.

“There’s a lot of need for Okamoto to hit the ground running and become an AL Rookie of the Year candidate,” Doolittle writes. “Sure, Bichette missed some time in 2025, but he was still a key driver of Toronto’s offensive surge and adjustment in collective approach. Failing that, a Toronto offseason that began so successfully with the signings of Dylan Cease, Okamoto and Cody Ponce might be more remembered for another round of Blue Jays pursuits that came up short in the weeks that followed.”

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The Blue Jays’ lineup can still be potent, even with Anthony Santander out with an injury.

But Bichette was a homegrown star, and now he’s gone, and that has the potential to loom large.

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