{"id":78247,"date":"2024-06-28T15:31:41","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T19:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=78247"},"modified":"2024-06-28T15:31:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T19:31:41","slug":"blue-jays-bo-bichette-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/28\/blue-jays-bo-bichette-trade-rumors\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Shortstop Sparks Trade Buzz With Viral Comment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid growing trade buzz, Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette would not be &#8220;surprised at all&#8221; if he was traded at the deadline. Earlier this month, Toronto general manager Ross Atkins said trading Bichette or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/guerrvl02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201cdoesn&#8217;t make any sense.\u201d But at 37-43 and 6.5 games back in the Wild Card race, Toronto could decide to sell at the deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Blue Jays Shortstop Sparks Trade Buzz With Viral Comment<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Star shortstop <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bichebo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bo Bichette<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, under team control for one more season, is drawing trade interest from multiple contenders. After an All-Star campaign in 2023, the 26-year-old is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/06\/bo-bichette-surprising-batting-average\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">batting a career-low<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> .233 through 68 games this season. Bichette recently spent time on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain before being reinstated on June 25th. The two-time American League hits leader has just one hit in nine at-bats since returning from the injured list.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bichette will earn $17.6 million on an expiring contract next season after last year\u2019s three-year, $33.6 million extension. Jon Heyman of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/06\/27\/sports\/blue-jays-spiraling-toward-trade-deadline-about-face\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New York Post<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reported that prior long-term negotiations with Bichette \u201cnever came close\u201d to an agreement. Heyman wrote, \u201cfolks who know the pair believe the Jays have little to no chance to lock up Bichette.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Thursday, he was asked if he would be surprised if the Blue Jays decided to move him ahead of the July 30 trade deadline. His response, \u201cno. not surprised at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Spoke to Bo Bichette about trade rumours and deadline talk. I asked him whether he\u2019d be surprised if he were moved at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. Not surprised at all.\u201d<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BlueJays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#BlueJays<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hazel Mae (@thehazelmae) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thehazelmae\/status\/1806431268340678827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After the game, he expanded, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s the business of the game.\u201d Bichette added, \u201cI\u2019m focused on what we need to do now, (which) is to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Where Could Blue Jays Shortstop Bo Bichette End Up?<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite pushing back on the idea that Bichette or Guerrero would be traded, Atkins acknowledged that other teams expressed interest in the duo. After a seven-game losing streak, Toronto has secured back-to-back wins, yet their window to re-enter the playoff race is narrowing. Should the Blue Jays change course and decide to trade Bichette, the star shortstop would likely command a substantial return.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saying Bichette\u2019s season has been rough would be an understatement, yet he\u2019s still a valuable upgrade for almost any team.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Los Angeles Dodgers<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rumors about a blockbuster Dodgers-Blue Jays trade for Bo Bichette have been swirling for a while now. Should Toronto decide to deal with him, Los Angeles would be one of the more obvious destinations for the star shortstop. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bettsmo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mookie Betts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> took over as the Dodgers\u2019 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/08\/dodgers-mookie-betts-shortstop\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">everyday shortstop<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> this year but is expected to miss <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/17\/dodgers-place-mookie-betts-on-injured-list\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">six to eight weeks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a fractured hand. The Dodgers are rumored to be a shortstop trade destination, allowing Betts to move to second, where he\u2019s a better defender.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Cleveland Guardians<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this month, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNCleveland\/status\/1797984402259198175\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan said<\/a> \u201cthere might be no better fit\u201d for Bichette than the Cleveland Guardians. Cleveland has the second-best record in the American League but has gotten next to no production from their shortstops. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rocchbr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brayan Rocchio<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had a promising spring but has batted just .211\/.312\/.299 with two homers over 69 games. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/ariasga01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gabriel Arias<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hasn\u2019t been much better, batting .241\/.270\/.383 with a 31.8% strikeout rate through 47 appearances. Despite having a career-low season, Bichette would be a clear upgrade over Rocchio and Arias.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>While the Toronto Blue Jays may not actively seek to trade Bo Bichette, he still holds a lot of value, which Toronto could cash in on if they are not able to sign him to a long-term extension.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: <em>John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amid growing trade buzz, Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette would not be &#8220;surprised at all&#8221; if he was traded at the deadline. Earlier this month, Toronto general manager Ross Atkins said trading Bichette or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. \u201cdoesn&#8217;t make any sense.\u201d But at 37-43 and 6.5 games back in the Wild Card race, Toronto [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":78276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,7],"tags":[6525,5042,28568,92,4527,250,49,640],"class_list":["post-78247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-bluejays","tag-brayan-rocchio","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-gabriel-arias","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb-trade-rumors","tag-mookie-betts","tag-trade-deadline","tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}