Everything we know about Bo Bichette, the guy who may be the Blue Jays’ next great slugger

Everything we know about Bo Bichette, the guy who may be the Blue Jays’ next great slugger

Photogrpah from Blue Jays/Instagram

Has the next great Blue Jay arrived? Toronto baseball fans have their fingers crossed after the debut of Bo Bichette, a 21-year-old shortstop who was promoted to the major leagues on Monday. In his first three games with the team, against the Kansas City Royals, he batted .462 with a home run. It’s a small sample size, but Jays obsessives are already thinking big. Here’s what you need to know about the ascendant slugger.

He’s got an MLB pedigree

Bo’s father, Dante Bichette, made his MLB debut in 1988 with the California Angels. In 1998, the year Bo was born, he led the league in hits and played his fourth All-Star Game as a member of the Colorado Rockies. Over 14 seasons, Dante amassed 274 home runs and nearly 2,000 hits, collecting 1,141 RBIs.

Bo’s older brother, 26-year-old Dante Jr., is currently playing third base in the Washington Nationals minor-league system. If that’s not enough of a baseball lineage, here’s another interesting fact: Bo is named after Bo Jackson, the multi-sport star who suited up for the Royals and the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.

He can hit

Apparently, batting is a hereditary trait. During Bichette’s three-plus years in the minor leagues, he routinely finished with eye-popping numbers. As an 18-year-old with the Blue Jays’ Gulf Coast League affiliate, he hit .427. He’s barely slowed down since. He’s equally dangerous on the base paths, where he has succeeded at 75 per cent of his steal attempts.

He’s got sick flow

No baseball cap can contain Bichette’s mane, man. With his shoulder-length locks, he evokes his dad’s era, when mullets ruled the field:

“Everyone thinks I take a good amount of time on my hair,” Bichette wrote during a Twitter Q&A. “But I really just roll out of bed and use Mane ‘N Tail shampoo and conditioner.”

He’s good at hitting homers into the ocean

While Bichette has, as of the moment of this writing, hit just a single big-league home run, he has made quite a splash elsewhere. He’s a two-time champion of the Don’t Blink Home Run Derby in Paradise, an obscure competition held on Montagu Beach in the Bahamas. At the derby, Bichette and other baseball pros swing not for the fences, but for the waves of the Atlantic. Hopefully the Bahamian fish weren’t too frightened by the barrage of cowhide.

He has high hopes for his career

In a 2017 interview with Sportsnet, Bichette made clear his ultimate aim: “My goal is to be the best player that’s ever been on Earth,” he said. “Seriously. It’s been my goal since I was probably, like, 14. I want to be the best to ever play this game. And I work hard at it every single day to try to pursue that dream. Every single day, I try to figure out something that I can do better. My dad always told me, ‘Don’t let anybody outwork you.’ So, I don’t. Every day I just keep working. I don’t know if it’ll all translate. But at least you can live with yourself when it’s all said and done.”

He’s deeply religious

Bichette is open about his Christianity. He regularly posts Instagram photos captioned with New Testament verses:

And his Twitter bio begins with “IJNIP,” which apparently stands for “In Jesus’ Name I Play.”