Surprising statistic shows Bo Bichette was in elite company in 2023

It may have only been just a few years now, but Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette has definitely established himself as one of the top young stars currently active today. Especially over the past three seasons, Bichette has shown to be one of the most prolific hitters in all of baseball, including leading the American League in hits for both 2021 and 2022.

Bichette may have been on the injured list for a little while during the 2023 season that prevented him from leading the league once again in hits. But that didn’t stop him from being among elite company in a surprising statistic that was established this season.

Despite struggling a bit down the stretch after returning from injury in mid-August, Bichette still managed to keep his batting average above .300 at the conclusion of the regular season, finishing at .306 in the end. In doing so, he became one of only nine batters in all of baseball this year that had a batting average of .300 or higher. As a result, for the first time since 55 years ago in 1968, there were fewer than ten players who batted .300 or better in an MLB season.

That is certainly shocking to know because with the abundance of offensive talent in the MLB today, including the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Ronald Acuna Jr., Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Juan Soto and others, one would think many of them could easily be hitting above .300 per season. So perhaps dominant pitching is indeed on the rise, making life much more difficult for the hitters. If that is indeed the case, that makes Bichette's feat of maintaining a .300 average this season despite his struggles coming back from injury that much more impressive.

Nevertheless, good chances are that the best of the best will figure out a way to rebound in 2024 to make offense the driving force in Major League Baseball once again. In the meantime, it's at least great to know that Bichette is continuing to make history with his play.