Toronto Blue Jays weighing spot for Bo Bichette on ALCS roster - ESPN

TORONTO — Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Saturday the team has not decided whether to carry shortstop Bo Bichette on its American League Championship Series roster.

Bichette has not played since spraining his left knee in a collision on Sept. 6. He ran for the first time Wednesday, hit live pitching Friday and ran the bases for the first time Saturday.

Game 1 against the Seattle Mariners is scheduled for Sunday night at Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays have until 10 a.m. Sunday to finalize their roster.

Schneider hinted that the club would not carry Bichette on the roster if he is not available to play immediately, though he opened the door to carrying Bichette if he's not available to play every day.

«I'm trying to weigh out, is [his availability] every day?» Schneider said. «Is it off the bench? Obviously, you want his bat in the lineup. 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 affects everyone else that we're going to try to use and deploy.

»To say every-day availability would be best-case scenario, yeah, that's pretty easy. But I think it's a weird time crunch with the series starting tomorrow and him having to check some boxes here today too."

Toronto's offense did not falter without the 27-year-old Bichette in the AL Division Series. The Blue Jays scored 34 runs in the four games and pounded the New York Yankees' pitching for 23 runs in the first two contests at home. But Bichette was one of the team's three best hitters during the regular season.

A free agent this winter, Bichette rebounded from a dreadful, injury-plagued 2024 season in which he posted a .598 OPS in 81 games