Blue Jays 40-man Roster Review: Bo Bichette needs to have a rebuild year if the Jays wish to contend in 2025

If the Toronto Blue Jays want to be competitive in 2025, Bo Bichette will need to have a good season.

This is Blue Jays Nation’s annual 40-man Roster Review, where we look at the players on the Blue Jays’ 40-man roster. We’ll look at how the player performed in 2024, his season projections for the 2025 season, and any storylines heading into this coming season. In this article, we’ll look at Bo Bichette.

In the last article, we look at how Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a career year, setting him up for a nice payday after the 2025 season. Bichette is in the same situation, as he is also a free agent at the end of the year, but had a polar opposite season as his 2024 season was the worst of his career.

Last season, Bichette slashed .225/.277/.322 with four home runs in 336 plate appearances for a 71 wRC+ and a 0.3 fWAR. In his three prior seasons, Bichette had slashed .298/.339/.476 with 73 home runs in 1,988 plate appearances for a 125 wRC+, so it’s a fairly significant drop-off.

A big reason for Bichette’s struggles is due to injury. After starting the season off rough, Bichette was placed on the 10-day Injured List with a calf injury. He spent the minimum amount of time on the IL but was placed on the IL again due to the same injury 13 games after returning. Late in the season, Bichette returned and had two hits in that game, but a fluke injury while fielding ground balls before the following game saw him miss the rest of the season.

Although Bichette had a rough 2024 season, Fangraphs projects him to rebound to his usual form. His Steamer projections have him slashing  .278/.324/.441 with 20 home runs in 641 plate appearances for a 118 wRC+ and a 3.9 fWAR. That alone will help the Blue Jays be better than they were last season, if only by a little bit.

According to a recent article from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, “Bichette is as good as gone”, noting that his friends say he has no interest in returning to the Blue Jays. Of course, Bichette himself has said that his goal is to play with Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays. So take Nightengale’s report with a grain of salt.

All this is to say that if the Blue Jays have any hope of contending, no matter who they add, they need Bichette to have a good season. There’s also a possibility that the 2025 season will be his final as a Blue Jay.