Bo Bichette walked back into Rogers Stadium on Monday for the first time as a visitor. The crowd didn’t boo. They stood.
Seven years in Toronto buys you a certain kind of respect, and the Blue Jays fanbase showed it. Bichette got a standing ovation before his first at-bat as a member of the New York Mets. After the game, he didn’t dodge the moment.
“It’s nice knowing it meant a lot to people, the city meant a lot to me, spent a lot of years here… so felt good,” Bichette said following the Mets’ 2-1 loss.
A homecoming that mattered
Bichette broke into the big leagues with Toronto in 2019 and turned himself into one of the American League’s best shortstops. Two All-Star nods. Two AL hit titles. Last season he added his first All-MLB selection. He was the kind of player a franchise builds around.
But baseball moves fast. After the Blue Jays made a World Series run last fall, Bichette hit free agency and signed a three-year, $126 million deal with the Mets. The money was huge. The fit was weird at first glance — New York already had Francisco Lindor at shortstop. So Bichette slid over to third base, a position he hadn’t played regularly in years.
It’s been an adjustment. His average sits at .251 with 10 homers. Not bad, but not what Mets fans expected when they heard the price tag. And Monday’s game didn’t help the narrative. Bichette went 0-for-4 against his old team, grounding out twice and lining out once. He never found a groove.
The game itself was quiet until it wasn’t
Toronto jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the fifth inning and held on. The Mets’ only run came off Lindor’s bat — a solo homer in the seventh to cut the lead in half. That was as close as New York got. The bullpens held, the bats went cold, and the Blue Jays walked away with the win.
For Bichette, the night wasn’t about the box score. It was about walking into a building where the fans still remember what he did. The ovation said more than any hit could have.
He’ll face them again Tuesday. Maybe then he gets a knock. Either way, Toronto already gave him the one thing that doesn’t show up in the stats.
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