TORONTO — There’s one word almost every player uses when they talk about the feeling that arises from returning to a place they played for so long: “Weird.”It’s weird, Matt Olson said, arriving at an old ballpark’s visitors entrance on a coach bus for the first time. It’s weird, Bryce Harper said, finding your nameplate in a road clubhouse, gravitating to your former stall in a stadium that should feel familiar. It’s weird, George Springer said, navigating foreign tunnels to find a field you played on hundreds of times.That’s the weirdness Bo Bichette has in store for him Monday, when he returns to Rogers Centre for the first time as a member of the New York Mets. Bichette, after seven years and 748 games with the Blue Jays, in January signed a three-year, $126 million deal to play elsewhere. He aided Toronto to four playoff appearances and one World Series run, and delivered a pair of All-Star seasons. He helped put a stop to a rebuild and kickstart a new era in Toronto. Now, he comes back as a temporary visitor.Bichette is far from the first star to anticipate returning to old stomping grounds. So The Athletic asked some of Major League Baseball’s highest-profile players who left their longtime teams: What’s it like going back home?The significance of that first game back, Dylan Cease said, depends on the temperament of the player. The boisterous fan favourites might thrive in the welcome-back spotlight while quieter types shy away. For some, such as Kevin Gausman and Harper, returns are etched in their memories. For others, they’re a bit foggier.Cease remembers walking through the streets of Chicago more than his actual first start back, after five years with the White Sox. Revisiting his favourite restaurants, such as RPM Seafood and Pizzeria Portofino, resonates more than his six strikeouts back on the South Side.Olson hit a three-run homer in his return to Oakland, sparking the Atlanta Braves to a win over the team that traded him away. But, more than anything, Olson recalls just how tired he was that day. A late cross-country flight the night before left the first baseman exhausted as he hugged former teammates, chatted with old coaches and drove a deep fly ball in his old park.After spending the first six years of his MLB career with the Baltimore Orioles, Gausman will never forget his first start back in Maryland — because he remembers specifically what was missing.The 14-year veteran had seen video board tributes for returning franchise staples, “Welcome Back to Birdland” playing through the sound system, and standing ovations from Orioles fans. Some of his former teammates, including Dylan Bundy, received that honour. Gausman did not.