Tainted relationship prompted Bo Bichette's split with Toronto Blue Jays, former teammate says
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Former teammate Whit Merrifield sheds some light on Bo Bichette's rift with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Toronto Blue Jays thanked Bo Bichette for his time with the team on Wednesday, posting a highlight video on their social media channels just hours before he was unveiled as the new third baseman of the New York Mets.
Whit Merrifield, a former teammate during Bichette's time with the Blue Jays says things weren't always so civil between the player and his bosses, a friction that could likely have factored into his exit.
«Here's what I know about Bo and Toronto,» former Jays utility man Witt Merrifield told his co-host, Lindsay Dunn, on the 6ix Inning Stretch Podcast which aired on Wednesday. «Bo loves the Jays, loves the city, loves the fans there.
«I also know that there was some stuff along the way that happened with Bo and the coaching staff.»
Merrifield, who was a teammate of Bichette's when Merrifield played 199 games with the Blue Jays over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, didn't elaborate on the issues.
He did say, however, that the strain between certain individuals running the team affected the relationship.
«There is some stuff that went on with Bo and the Jays as far as some of the front office and the coaching staff that I think maybe tainted that relationship a little bit,» Merrifield said.
Bichette indicates that the Mets were far more serious about his future than the Blue Jays
In that sense, Merrifield expected that the former all-star shortstop would ultimately land with a team like the Mets and wouldn't return to the team that selected him in the second round of the 2016 MLB draft.
«I wasn't surprised that he didn't go back to Toronto,» Merrifield said on the podcast. «I really would have been more surprised if he would have been back in Toronto, just from some of the stuff that happened along the way.
«It's not that I think that they ended on bad terms, but I just think it was probably best for for both parties that (Bichette) ended up somewhere else.»
In fairness, the reality is the biggest reason that «somewhere else» is Queen's is because of the money the Mets offered a four-year, US$126-million deal that the Blue Jays weren't willing to go anywhere near.
Once the reality of free agency was upon him following the final out of Game 7 of the World Series, it seemed inevitable that Bichette would end up elsewhere.
That said, Bichette indicated on Wednesday that the Mets showed interest from the start of free agency and thus were always a far more serious contender for his future than the Blue Jays.
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JANVIER 22|180 ANSWERS Tainted relationship prompted Bo Bichette's split with Toronto Blue Jays, former teammate says Do you agree with Whit Merrifield's take on Bo Bichette's strained relationship with the Toronto Blue Jays? | ||
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