Toronto Blue Jays' Injury Update on Shortstop Bo Bichette Not as Rosy as Originally Thought

Earlier this week, we thought that Blue Jays star Bo Bichette had a chance to play this weekend, but he's still not 100 percent recovered from his injury.

It turns out that the initial optimism around the recovery of Toronto Blue Jays star shortstop Bo Bichette was a little too premature.

We heard earlier this week that Bichette could be back and playing by this weekend but that doesn't appear to be the case.

The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

Bichette (knee) has been hitting in the batting cage and jogging but is not yet running at full speed, Keegan Matheson of MLB.com reports.

ANALYSIS
The Blue Jays are encouraged by Bichette's progress so far, but they're not able to put out a timetable for his return until he shows he can run the bases without issue. Bichette has missed all of August with right patellar tendinitis.

Despite the recent success the Jays have had without him, Bichette is integral to their lineup. He's hitting .321 this season, which leads the American League. He also has the most hits in baseball at 144. The two-time All-Star has 17 homers as well.

Entering play on Thursday, the Blue Jays are 65-51 and in the third wild card spot in the American League. They lead the Seattle Mariners by 2.0 games for that final spot.

The Jays are wrapping up a series with the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday afternoon before starting a weekend series with the Chicago Cubs back in Toronto.

Game one of that series will be Friday night at 7:07 p.m. ET as Javier Assad (CHC) pitches against veteran right-hander Jose Berrios (TOR).

Assad is 1-2 with a 3.35 ERA while Berrios is 9-7 with a 3.38.

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