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Arbitration is off the table

Bichette, Jays agree to three-year contract ahead of scheduled hearing

GREGOR CHISHOLM TWITTER: @GREGORCHISHOLM

Concerns about Bo Bichette’s upcoming arbitration case are now a thing of the past after the Blue Jays reportedly signed the reigning American League hits leader to a multi-year deal on Tuesday night.

The financial details of Bichette’s new contract remained unknown as of late Tuesday night, but it will be a three-year deal, according to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith was the first to report that Bichette and the Jays had reached an agreement.

The new contract, which has yet to be confirmed by the Jays, would buy out Bichette’s years of arbitration eligibility. It would not impact his free agency, which is still scheduled to begin following the 2025 season.

Tuesday’s development came the same week Bichette and the Jays were set to square off in an arbitration hearing. The 24-year-old was seeking $7.5 million (U.S.) for the upcoming season while the Jays filed at $5 million. The $2.5-million difference was tied with Kyle Tucker and the Houston Astros for the largest discrepancy between any team and player.

The Jays are considered a file-and-trial team, which means once they exchange arbitration numbers with a player they intend to participate in a hearing. Per team policy, one-year settlements aren’t enough to avoid that process, but exceptions are made for multi-year deals. That would appear to be the case here.

Bichette led the AL in hits each of the last two seasons and has one all-star appearance on his resumé. He has hit .297 with 69 career home runs and 239 RBIs in four bigleague seasons.

The former second-round pick still has room to grow defensively but has improved in recent years and brings elite offensive production to the position.

Bichette endured a slow start to the 2022 season and went through some prolonged struggles that resulted in him being dropped to seventh in the batting order on Aug. 16. Shortly after that, he went on a tear with one of the most productive stretches of his career. He hit .406 with seven homers and 27 RBIs in September.

The three-year deal ensures there won’t be any arbitration drama, and finding common ground now could bode well for future deals between Bichette’s agent and the Jays. But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t change much either because Bichette was going to be under club control for the next three seasons.

What this deal does provide is some cost certainty for the Jays and some guaranteed cash for Bichette. There are benefits to both and yet far bigger negotiations remain. In some ways, the arbitration years are easy, it’s the free agency years — when any team can enter the bidding — that are much harder to quantify.

Plenty of work remains for the Jays and Bichette on that front but, for now, it appears they can each take solace in a three-year deal. Those other complicated talks can wait, at least for now.

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2023-02-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

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