TORONTO – Two weeks into Bo Bichette’s only season at double-A New Hampshire, the then star shortstop prospect went cold at the plate for the first time in his career. Over a 30-game stretch, he batted just .202/.275/.339 in 138 plate appearances and after he’d stomped opponents at the rookie-ball, low-A and high-A levels, the struggles came as a shock. He admitted to “freaking out” at the time because he didn’t know how to cope.
Bichette, of course, corrected soon afterwards, resuming the accelerated trajectory that carried him to his big-league debut a year later, at just 21 years old. The rough patch was merely a blip, although the experience has provided him a reference point as he’s started the 2021 season at a more-than-respectable-but-beneath-his-high-standards pace with the Toronto Blue Jays.
“I’m not nearly going through what I did in double-A at all,” he said before Wednesday night’s date with the New York Yankees was rained out and rescheduled as a doubleheader Thursday. “A big reason is I’ve been able to separate the way that I feel in the box from how my mind’s working in the box. I’ve been able to compete regardless of feeling good or bad. In double-A, it was the first time I ever felt uncomfortable in the box and I didn’t know how to handle that mentally. So it went straight down. But I think I’ve been able to compete well and get the most out of how I’ve felt. But I’m feeling better and just working on the consistency.”
Now, lots of players would happily take batting .270/.318/.469 in 211 plate appearances over 47 games when feeling at their best, which is what makes Bichette’s numbers impressive given that he’s felt “a little bit off.”
Struggles for veteran players with several seasons under their belt can easily spin out of control, underlining why the approach Bichette, all of 23, has used the past two months is so important.
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Though he feels “a lot of things need to get better” at the plate, he’s mostly avoided allowing his discomfort at the plate to gnaw away at his mind while in the box.
“I’ve done a pretty good job of not worrying about how I feel with my swing or whatever and just going out there and competing,” he said. “There have been times where I have thought about it and those times I’ve not done very well. But I think for the most part I’ve separated the two, competed and I think that the consistency is coming. I’m way more consistent now than I was earlier in the year. So as long as that keeps on improving, I think I’ll be in a good spot.”
That he’s able to take such an outlook and trust in his ability to adapt and recover speaks to the benefits of having players experience challenges in the minor-leagues before they transition to the majors.
Young prospects breaking in and contributing are no longer the rarities they’ve been in years past and the Blue Jays have been aggressive in that regard. Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who debuted at 20, are rare talents, but Alejandro Kirk debuted at 21 last year despite never having played above A-ball. Nate Pearson was 23 when he broke through despite only 36 pro starts under his belt, although injuries played a role in that.
Alek Manoah, whose debut was pushed back to the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader, has made only nine professional starts, not including his time at the alternate training site in 2020. The 23-year-old faced lots of bumps in high school and college, when for long stretches he was a one-pitch guy who profiled as a potential reliever, but he won’t have a well of struggles to draw from when he hits a rough patch in the majors.
Experience overcoming failure “doesn’t hurt,” said Bichette, “but at the same time, you’re going to have to learn to get over it in the big-leagues, too. Manoah, obviously, has a lot of talent. Maybe he won’t go through struggles but if he does, he’s going to have to learn at this level anyways. So to me, I don’t think it’s essential that you learn how to get over that stuff before.”
There is no universal formula, of course, and what works for one player isn’t guaranteed to work for another. One school of thought is that waiting too long to promote a prospect won’t harm the player’s development but doing it too early will. Another school argues that if a player can’t recover from a rough patch in the majors, he was never going to be good enough anyway.
Sometimes, though, a player may simply need the big-leagues to show him what he doesn’t know.
“Yeah, I was definitely at that point,” said Bichette. “Getting to the big-leagues at a younger age can speed up your development process, too, because I always say every level is something to get over. Struggling at double-A is not the same as struggling at triple-A. Struggling at triple-A is not the same as struggling in the big-leagues. You can get over all those humps in the minor-leagues. But it’s not the same in the big leagues. You’ve got to learn how to do it here. I definitely felt ready when I was coming up. And coming up and playing well in the big-leagues can give you that confidence that you can do it.”
Such an approach worked for Bichette, and the Blue Jays really need it to work for Manoah right now, too.
