TORONTO — Watching from the sidelines as his Toronto Blue Jays first won the American League East, then beat the New York Yankees in the division series and then rallied past the Seattle Mariners in the league championship, Bo Bichette pushed and pushed and pushed as far as the sprained PCL in his left knee allowed, hoping to play in the World Series.
“All I’ve been thinking about is this moment,” the star shortstop said Thursday afternoon ahead of one last workout to help rubber-stamp his status for the Fall Classic, which opens Friday night at Rogers Centre. “I’ll be ready for whatever opportunity comes my way.”
Manager John Schneider was understandably coy — Bichette could return at short, second or as the DH, he said — but what’s telling is that he was on the right side of the infield, with Andres Gimenez to his left at shortstop, as the Blue Jays ran through their infield drills.
Gimenez’s defensive work up the middle has helped to backbone the club’s deepest post-season run since winning the second of back-to-back championships in 1993, and Bichette isn’t on the cusp of returning with demands. He’s taken in the past 6½ weeks with pride rather than envy as the Blue Jays kept winning, and now “feeling good enough” to be a part of things, he’s down for anything, befitting the team-first ethos that’s carried them here.
“This team, I think, made it pretty obvious they don’t need me to come here and be the hero,” said Bichette. “They need me to come in here and be a part of the team, do my job, whatever that’s asked of me, to the best of my ability. And that’s been what this team has been made of the whole season. So, I mean, really like, huge lessons for all of us to look around and see what a real team is.”
