Blue Jays manager John Schneider confirms major Bo Bichette news

Bichette suffered the injury a week-and-a-half ago when he collided with Yankees catcher Austin Wells in a play at home plate. The Blue Jays announced the issue as a left knee sprain when they placed him on the injured list last week. Schneider specified that it’s a PCL sprain. Tuesday's second opinion was viewed as more of a routine follow-up than an indication the team feared a serious injury.

It’s decent news, all things considered, though the Jays have yet to firmly announce that he’ll be ready for the start of the playoffs. Jon Morosi of The MLB Network reported that a postseason return remained a possibility. That will clearly be Bichette’s goal. He would return without having logged game reps for three weeks. It’s a suboptimal situation but one the Jays would be happy to live with if it meant getting one of their best hitters back in October.

Bo Bichette's regular-season performance

Bichette’s regular season concludes with a .311/.357/.483 slash across 628 plate appearances. He still leads the majors in hits (181) and doubles (44), though he’ll probably relinquish the hits lead to Trea Turner within the next day or two. He’s 15 knocks up on Bobby Witt Jr., so it’s possible he’ll lead the American League in hits for the third time in his career despite the injury. Bichette also connected on 18 homers with a career-low 14.5% strikeout rate. He’s on track to cash in as he hits free agency going into his age-28 season.

Blue Jays manager comments on Bo Bichette's future

It’s possible he has played his final regular-season game in a Jays uniform, though he and the team will hope to finish this year with a long playoff run. It remains to be seen whether he’d be mobile enough to play shortstop next month. 

“In a perfect world, if he can come back and play short, great,” Schneider said Monday night, via Keegan Matheson of MLB.com. “We’ll see how this goes. With how he’s moving, it seems to me that hitting will be a little bit in front of everything else. I think we’ll know more tomorrow or the next day, but if we can get his bat back, hell yeah, I’ll take that.”

How will Blue Jays adapt without Bo Bichette?

Bichette’s injury has kicked Andrés Giménez from second base to shortstop. Ernie Clement is playing second regularly, leaving third base to Addison Barger. That’s a better defensive grouping than they had with Bichette up the middle, but Barger’s move to third base leaves Nathan Lukes as the everyday right fielder. Lukes has been a league-average hitter overall but is batting .225 with a .238 on-base percentage in September.

If Bichette is able to hit but too injured to take the field, they’d be left to press George Springer into regular right field work. Springer has had a resurgent season at the plate but only started 48 games and logged 411 2/3 innings of outfield work. Toronto also hasn’t closed the door on a late-season comeback from Anthony Santander.

The switch-hitting Santander has been a non-factor in the first season of a five-year deal. He hasn’t played an MLB game since the end of May because of a left shoulder issue but started a rehab assignment at Triple-A Buffalo last week. He’s working as a designated hitter with the Bisons. Santander might be limited to a bench role if he gets back for the playoffs, especially if Bichette is questionable for defense. Even if Santander’s first season in Toronto has been a disaster, Schneider would surely welcome the opportunity to turn to a player who hit 44 home runs last year as a power bat off the bench.

The Blue Jays have a magic number of four to clinch a playoff berth. That should happen by the end of this week. They hold a five-game cushion over the Yankees in the AL East. They’re three games ahead of the Tigers for the AL’s top seed and six games up on the AL West-leading Mariners. Locking down the division would almost certainly ensure they finish as a top-two seed and secure a first-round bye. The Division Series begin on Oct. 4.