Bichette injured his knee Saturday in New York on a hard collision at home plate with Yankees catcher Austin Wells. Bichette made a hard, feet-first slide into home but collided knee-on-knee with Wells’ shin protectors.
In the moment, it looked serious, with Bichette hobbling off the field in clear pain. The game was immediately put into a one-hour, 48-minute rain delay following that play at the plate, though, and Bichette was able to finish the game when play resumed. He’d received some serious cuts up his left shin, manager John Schneider said following the game, but X-rays came back clean and the initial diagnosis was optimistic.
The Blue Jays have called up Joey Loperfido from Triple-A Buffalo to take Bichette’s spot on the roster. While we could see Loperfido in the outfield against certain right-handed pitching, shortstop will now be left to Ernie Clement and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, whom the Blue Jays claimed off waivers from the Pirates just more than a week ago.
There’s no replacing Bichette, though, one of the hottest hitters in baseball who has been coming through in some big spots for the Blue Jays lately. Going back to the beginning of July, Bichette is batting .372 with a .996 OPS, and his season-long average of .311 puts him behind only the A’s Jacob Wilson (.315) and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (.321) in the race for the AL batting title. This is a contract year for Bichette, too, and he’ll be one of the hottest names on the market come November.
Clement gets the first crack at shortstop Tuesday night against the Astros, batting seventh.
