Blue Jays are dearly missing old friend Bo Bichette during playoff push

With the Toronto Blue Jays fighting for their playoff lives on a nightly basis, perhaps now isn't the best time to be looking across the league-wide landscape. It's eat or be eaten in the AL Wild Card race, and this team can afford nary a momentary slip in their focus.

Then again, the allure of Bo Bichette can only be staved off for so long. The New York Mets' third baseman hasn't garnered a lot of attention since the trade deadline since his team is out of it, and also because he had such a slow start to his tenure in Queens.

However, he's been on fire over the past few months, playing exactly like the Bichette we all know and love. His presence in the lineup would be a welcome one right now, especially given the struggles of the Blue Jays' infield since the All-Star break.

Blue Jays can't help but miss Bo Bichette as Kazuma Okamoto, Ernie Clement struggle in second half

Bichette broke out of his early season slump a ways back, but we'll use the Midsummer Classic as our arbitrary break point. Prior to that, he had posted a .677 OPS and 88 wRC+. Since then, he's improved those marks to .788 and 120, respectively. For reference, only four Blue Jays players have better marks in the same time frame: Alejandro Kirk, Brett Bateman, George Springer, and Josh Smith (who has fewer than 60 plate appearances).

The Mets' star was particularly excellent in August, producing a 135 wRC+. Yet he actually contributed negative win probability added (WPA) during the month, mostly because the lineup around him was atrocious. He's wasting away in New York right now, which makes it all the more frustrating that he's not still in Toronto.

Extra frustarting is the fact that the Blue Jays' starting third baseman, Kazuma Okamoto, and second baseman, Ernie Clement, have been bad in the second half. The former (playing Bichette's new position) has a 100 wRC+ since the All-Star break, while the latter (playing what would have been Bichette's new post in Toronto) is getting benched down the stretch while outputting -0.4 fWAR. There's a lot of important production being left on the table at those key spots.

Of course, there's nothing to be done about it now, other than grieve and wax poetic about the seasons of yore when Bichette was still around. Maybe the two sides could even reunite this offseason in free agency, assuming he opts out of his deal with the Mets ahead of the lockout.

But, more than anything, this whole saga has become a lesson to the wise: You can't have enough star power in baseball, especially if you're trying to replicate deep postseason runs.

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