All through a disappointing season for the Blue Jays, the long-term way forward for stars Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been a focus. Rumors surrounding the pair of second-generation stars dominated headlines early in the summertime because the Jays struggled, although they had been considerably quelled by GM Ross Atkins saying in early June that buying and selling both Guerrero or Bichette “doesn’t make any sense” for the group.
At the same time as their 2024 playoff hopes dwindled, the Jays solely offered off impending free brokers prematurely of the commerce deadline. Yusei Kikuchi, Danny Jansen, Yimi Garcia and Trevor Richards had been all on the transfer. Bichette, Guerrero, Chris Bassitt, Kevin Gausman and others stayed put, with the clear indication being that the Blue Jays hope to retool this offseason and get again on monitor to contend in 2025.
Bichette and Guerrero are solely managed via the top of the 2025 season, which has introduced continued hypothesis about the opportunity of one or each gamers being moved this winter. A number of the Guerrero hypothesis has died down within the weeks for the reason that commerce deadline, although. USA At present’s Bob Nightengale reported after the deadline that the workforce nonetheless hoped to signal Guerrero long-term. Bassitt appeared on Chris Rose’s podcast and voiced his perception that although Guerrero has not but signed an extension, he certainly desires to be in Toronto long-term. Now, it seems Bichette’s teammates needn’t do any speaking or speculating on his behalf. He’s publicly making it clear that he hopes to remain in Toronto alongside his longtime pal, Guerrero, and win a title as a Blue Jay.
“After I had time to consider what I would like, mainly, my final aim actually is to play with Vladdy (Guerrero Jr.) without end, to win a championship with him and to do this with this group,” Bichette advised Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. “I’m one hundred pc dedicated to doing no matter it takes to perform these issues. That’s the place I’m at.”
As Davidi explores at size in a chunk Jays followers, specifically, will wish to learn in its entirety, that units the 2024-25 offseason as one of the pivotal in franchise historical past with regard to participant personnel choices. There’s nothing that claims the Jays can’t let Guerrero and/or Bichette attain free company, take a look at the market, after which re-sign each gamers anyhow — nevertheless it’s actually a neater and extra managed course of once they’re not competing with an open market and different potential bidders for the 26-year-old Bichette and 25-year-old Guerrero.
From a payroll perspective, the Jays ought to be capable of make twin extensions for the pair of former All-Stars work. Jose Berrios and Yariel Rodriguez are the one gamers signed past the 2026 season. Berrios, Rodriguez, the aforementioned Gausman and George Springer are the one 4 Blue Jays on assured contract past the 2025 marketing campaign. Toronto opened the 2024 season with a roughly $225M payroll, at the moment sits at about $217M after its deadline sell-off and solely has about $124.5M in commitments for the 2025 season in the meanwhile, per RosterResource.
That quantity notably doesn’t embody an arbitration increase for Guerrero — a determine that’ll doubtless shoot effectively past $25M on the heels of his excellent 2024 season. Arb raises for Jordan Romano, Erik Swanson, Genesis Cabrera, Daulton Varsho, Alejandro Kirk, Dillon Tate, Alek Manoah and Ernie Clement may all be within the offing as effectively, although some members of that class shall be non-tendered or traded.
Even when the majority of that class is retained, it’s affordable to assume that between arb raises and rounding out the roster with league-minimum gamers, the Blue Jays may nonetheless are available round $185M-190M in complete commitments. New contracts for Guerrero and/or Bichette wouldn’t essentially want to come back with substantial raises till the 2026 season. That’d depart $35M-40M for the Blue Jays to nonetheless increase their present roster even whereas merely adhering to final yr’s payroll ranges.
In fact, nothing says that the payroll can’t and gained’t rise. The Jays are owned by a multi-billion greenback firm — Rogers Communications — in principle giving them room to pursue nearly any participant they need (as we noticed with final offseason’s earnest pursuit of Shohei Ohtani). There’s no agency indication but that they plan to be aggressive bidders for prime free brokers like Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman or Willy Adames, however there’s additionally no cause to assume they’ll’t swim within the deepest waters the free agent pool has to supply.
The query dealing with the Jays shall be certainly one of how a lot they wish to tie up in long-term allocations. Extending both Guerrero or Bichette would presumably require signing stated gamers effectively into the 2030s. So would signing Soto, whereas the remaining prime names available on the market may all signal via someplace within the 2030-32 vary if their markets come collectively as hoped. Lengthy-term offers for homegrown skills like Bichette and Guerrero will solely keep the established order; it’s clear there are additional reinforcements wanted, so Atkins and president Mark Shapiro — assuming each keep in place after this yr’s disappointing marketing campaign — might want to steadiness potential extensions with the necessity to additional fortify a roster that fell woefully shy of expectations in 2024.
Apparent because it appears, it additionally bears emphasizing that Bichette’s pledge solely carries a lot weight. He doesn’t have any no-trade safety below the three-year, $33.6M contract he signed to purchase out his three arbitration seasons. He has no direct say over whether or not he’ll even be in Toronto subsequent yr, not to mention for the subsequent six, seven, eight, 9 or 10 years. On the identical time, his assertion to Davidi plainly underscores that he’s not solely open to however hopeful of signing a long-term deal to remain in Canada alongside his longtime teammate and pal.
Bichette spoke to Davidi about reflecting throughout his present damage absence, considering again to his A-ball days with Guerrero when the 2 had been fresh-faced 18-year-olds speaking about successful as many championships as attainable collectively. He provides that via reflection, he’s “realized much more about myself via failure,” referencing his 2024 struggles, each by way of what he hopes to perform on the sphere and as a pacesetter within the Blue Jays’ clubhouse. (Once more, Jays followers are inspired to learn the interview in full, because it’s rife with candid quotes and earnest self-assessment from Bichette.)
The 2024 season has certainly been an unpleasant one for Bichette. Even earlier than sustaining the calf damage that’s sidelined him for greater than a month (his second calf pressure of the season), he was stumbling via the worst season of his skilled profession. In 331 plate appearances, he hit simply .222/.275/.320 with 4 residence runs and 5 stolen bases. Bichette’s 19% strikeout price is definitely decrease than his profession 20.6% mark, however whereas he was nonetheless making frequent contact, the standard of his batted balls took a nosedive. Bichette has career-low marks in exit velocity, barrel price and hard-hit price this season. His line-drive price is the third-lowest of his profession. His ground-ball price is the third-highest. He hit solely six infield flies in 601 plate appearances in 2023 however popped up 5 instances on this yr’s 331 plate appearances. Bichette’s contact price on pitches within the strike zone was a career-best 91.7% — however his contact price on balls off the plate was a career-worst 57.5%.
All of that can complicate any extension talks with Bichette, after all. With a typical season, he’d have been on monitor to be a free agent heading into his age-28 season — a center infielder with elite offense at a younger-than-typical age without cost company. Discuss of a $250M+ and even $300M contract may have been in play. Such lofty heights most likely aren’t attainable on the heels of a career-worst yr on the plate that’s now seen a number of calf accidents preserve him on the bench for 2 to a few months. Discovering a center floor could possibly be tough, although an extension that permits Bichette to extend his incomes energy — whether or not by way of opt-out alternatives or maybe by way of a collection of vesting choices, a la Carlos Correa in Minnesota — may provide create alternate options to assist bridge the hole.
For now, the aim will merely be to get again on the sphere in 2024. Bichette advised Davidi that getting again on the sphere, understanding the damage is behind him and feeling like himself once more will all be a psychological enhance heading into the offseason. Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling tweets that Bichette is slated to start a rehab project with the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate Tuesday, which can doubtless final 4 to 5 video games and embody time at each shortstop and designated hitter. That would a minimum of give Bichette two weeks to really feel assured that his calf is again to full power, however the larger questions — for each him and the group — are looming because the winter approaches.
