How Bo Bichette could upset Yankees and Phillies fans with a strong finish

2025 has been a tremendous bounce back season for Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette. The impending free agent is currently leading all of MLB in hits and is third in the league in batting average. With a strong finish, Bichette could end up as the league leader in both, upsetting fans of the Yankees and the Phillies in the process.

How Bo Bichette could upset Yankees and Phillies fans with a strong finish

Heading into Friday night's game, Bichette was leading all of baseball with 178 hits, just 13 shy of his career high of 191, which he achieved in 2021. It's two ahead of fellow shortstop Trea Turner who is having another great season with the Philadelphia Phillies. Turner's career high for hits is 195, which he also accomplished in 2021 when he started the year with the Nationals before being traded to the Dodgers.

While Bichette has twice led the American League in hits, he has never topped all of MLB in that category. The last time a member of the Blue Jays was the hit king of MLB was in 2003 when Vernon Wells' 215 hits just edged out Albert Pujols' 212 in 2003. Wells and Paul Molitor (211 hits in 1993) are the only Blue Jays to have end the season with the most hits in MLB.

Ironically, Molitor beat out a member of the Phillies in that category that season, when Lenny Dykstra had 194 for the NL Champions and Bichette is hoping to make history repeat itself in 2025. If the stats stay as they are now it will be the second time in five years that Turner and Bichette lead their respective leagues in the same season. However, as mentioned, Turner was not yet with the Phillies when that happened.

Philadelphia hasn't had a member of their team lead MLB in hits since 1990 when Dykstra tied the Brett Butler of the Giants with 192 hits, beating out Rafael Palmeiro who hit 191 for Texas.

And if Bichette keeps racking up hits, that batting average will keep climbing. And if that average keeps climbing, Bichette could make a push to taking away the batting title from the Yankees Aaron Judge, who enters this weekend with a MLB leading .321 batting average.

At one point it looked like Judge could contend for the traditional triple crown. He was keeping pace with the top marks for home runs, RBIs and batting average, but due to his injury and his subsequent sub-par performance, Judge has fallen back.

He is eight home runs back of Cal Raleigh, who also leads the league with 109 RBIs, 12 more than Judge. And while Judge still leads the AL with that batting average, he's hit just .242 since returning from his injury at the beginning of August, with 23 hits in 95 at-bats, although he still has an incredibly impressive .415 OBP and .888 OPS.

Over that same span, Bichette has hit .369 with 45 hits in 122 at-bats and has an even more impressive .430 OPB and 1.003 OPS. It would be incredibly fitting for Bo to keep on hitting and usurp Judge from that top spot as that is the way things have been going this season for Judge and the Yankees.