{"id":532559,"date":"2026-01-22T12:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/532559\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T12:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:49:12","slug":"bo-bichette-opens-up-on-leaving-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/532559\/","title":{"rendered":"Bo Bichette Opens Up on Leaving Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like any seven-year marriage, Bo Bichette and the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> had their ups and downs. But this past week, Bichette got the infamous \u2018seven-year itch\u2019 and filed for divorce from the Jays, signing a huge deal with the New York Mets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday,\u00a0Blue Jays beat reporter Shi Davidi caught up with Bo<\/a>\u00a0in his crisp new blue and orange threads, and the shortstop-turned-second baseman-turned third baseman opened up on how his offseason led him to Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A lot of conversations with teams, several good conversations. But with a lot of prayer and conversation with my family and my agents and even some friends, came to the conclusion that it was very obvious that I wanted to be a Met.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, it was also obvious that he wanted the outrageous $42 million annual stipend that came with the insane three-year, $126 million deal the Mets offered him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t Bichette once say he wanted to finish his career with Vladdy & the Jays?<\/p>\n

When Davidi asked him whatever happened to his previously stated goal of finishing his career with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and winning a World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays, Bichette had this to say:<\/p>\n

Vladdy\u2019s a brother for life, a friend for life, so, always love him and value our friendship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays were in touch all off-season. They showed interest. But at the end of the day, it just became clear for me that this was the decision that I needed to make.<\/p>\n

As for reflections of his career with the Jays, Bichette said, \u201cI only have fond memories of my time with the Blue Jays. I only have fond memories of the fans. They supported me through so much. I remember my first at-bat in the (2025) World Series where they had my back and believed in me after not playing for that long.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was open to it\u2026 but (a return to Toronto) just didn\u2019t pan out.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his final words to the fans of Toronto:<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for all the support. You guys mean a lot to me. Toronto will always be in my heart, and I guess I\u2019ll see you guys in June.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was referring to his first and only appearance north of the border in the 2026 season, which will come in a three-game series when the Mets visit the Jays at Rogers Centre on June 29-31.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike the not-so-fond greeting that former Maple Leaf Mitch Marner will receive on Friday upon his return to the city, Bichette will certainly be afforded a red-carpet warm reception from the Toronto fans. <\/p>\n

In seven seasons with the Blue Jays,\u00a0Bichette recorded a .294 career batting average with a .337 on-base percentage and\u00a0an .806 OPS. He slugged\u00a0111 home runs and notched 437 RBIs. He was a two-time All-Star (2021, 2023).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like any seven-year marriage, Bo Bichette and the Toronto Blue Jays had their ups and downs. But this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,3537,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-532559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb-news","10":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115938837651548158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}