Blue Jays: 10 stars the club missed out on that would've changed franchise history

Xander Bogaerts

This may come more of a surprise to Blue Jays’ fans, but it was revealed by agent Scott Boras that the Jays were one of the teams that went hard after Xander Bogaerts during the 2022 offseason. With the Jays’ priorities this past offseason focused primarily on upgrading the outfield, defense, and acquiring lefty bats, Bogaerts would not fall under any of those needs at all. As a matter of fact, the two positions he could mainly play are third base, where the Jays had Matt Chapman already, and shortstop, which Bo Bichette currently occupied as well. 

So if they were indeed in on Bogaerts, either he would serve as the full-time DH for the team, which does not seem like the best possible setup, or he would need to bump Bichette to second base, which would probably not sit too well with Bichette. Nevertheless, with Bogaerts' track record of being a perennial All-Star, as well as a Silver Slugger, while maintaining close to a .300 AVG with 17 HR and 75 RBI each year, his consistent production would be a warm welcome to the Jays’ ballclub that was already quite strong in firepower, and may help answer the current question marks they still have at DH and second base.