No Blue Jays player needs to hit the reset button more than Bo Bichette in 2025

It wasn't supposed to be like this. The Toronto Blue Jays were going to ride the dynamic duo of Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to the pinnacle of the sport. It hasn't worked out as we had all envisioned years ago.

The 2024 season was an unmitigated disaster for Bichette. His struggles encapsulated the catastrophe of a season for the entire team, and he needs a fresh do-over in 2025 more than any other Blue Jays player.

No Blue Jays player needs to hit the reset button more than Bo Bichette in 2025

The two-time All-Star shortstop came into 2024 as a career .299 hitter, boasting a beefy .826 OPS and 653 hits in 528 games. Coming off three straight seasons in which he received AL MVP votes, the Blue Jays and the fans expected Bichette and Guerrero to pair up again to carry the offense.

It went about as backward as you can imagine for the 26-year-old. Beset by multiple injuries, primarily dealing with a recurring right calf injury, he had a hard time getting on track. He worked around other ailments like neck spasms to open the season and a bruised forearm in July before capping his year with a fractured middle finger on his throwing hand.

Bichette hit a somber .225 while being shuffled around the top half of the lineup through his 81 games this year — he even found himself batting sixth for a three-game stretch in May. His .598 OPS was easily a career-low. For a player who had, at one point in his career, flirted with being the MLB hit leader, the ineptitude he showed at the plate was mind-boggling.

Curiously, he didn't strike out any more than usual. In fact, his 19 percent strikeout rate was a tick better than his 19.1 percent rate in 2023. Bichette's problem was his quality of contact. His career-worst 4.4 percent barrel rate (he had a career 9.7 percent rate coming into 2024) can easily explain why he only hit four home runs and drove in 31 runs this year.

While it may have seemed like Bichette was more obsessed than usual with going the opposite way, he actually hit balls to right field at a lower rate than in 2023. His plate discipline metrics were all in line with his career norms, more or less, signaling that a return to form is a strong likelihood.

With the Blue Jays planning to be competitive next season, Bichette is a big piece of that. They need him to be Bo Bichette again for any hope of challenging for a postseason berth. There were rumblings about a trade this season, but general manager Ross Atkins has already made it clear that Bichette isn't on the trade block this offseason.

It would be hard to find anyone within the organization, or outside Toronto for that matter, who isn't of the mind that the star hitter will look more like himself in 2025 — as long as he's healthy.