The Toronto Blue Jays will likely be without Bo Bichette in the American League Championship Series.
Bichette has been sidelined since Sept. 6 due to a knee injury and was hopeful he would play in the ALCS. However, the star shortstop was running the bases on Saturday and walked off the field in apparent discomfort, according to Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi.
“Bichette led off from first base, took off for second and grimaced after rounding the bag before pulling up,” Davidi wrote in an article published on Saturday. “He walked over to third base where Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly, first base coach Mark Budzinski, medical director Andrew Pipkin and strength and conditioning coach Scott Weberg were overseeing his running and dropped to the turf.
“The group conferred for a couple minutes before Bichette, visibly frustrated, walked off the field gingerly,” Davidi added.
Bichette suffered the injury when he slid into New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells at home. The shortstop has since been rehabbing and was optimistic he would be ready for the ALCS, but that appears unlikely.
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Blue Jays manager John Schneider, meanwhile, said he wasn’t sure about Bichette’s availability for the ALCS.
“We’re trying to weigh out – I’m trying to weigh out is it every day? Is it off the bench? Obviously you want his bat in the lineup,” Schneider said, via Sportsnet. “I think just kind of getting to the spot with him and getting his feedback, him being part of it, how much, if at all, he’s going to be compromised, and if not, OK, and how that kind of affects everyone else that we’re going to try to use and deploy.
“To say everyday availability would be best-case scenario, yeah, that’s pretty easy, but I think it’s a weird time crunch with the series starting (Sunday) and him having to check some boxes here today, too,” Schneider added about Bichette.
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Toronto will host the Seattle Mariners in Game 1 of the ALCS on Sunday.
