Where is Bo Bichette going to sign this winter? That's a question that can – must, really – be taken in more than one way.
There’s the obvious "where" of location, whether that’s back to Toronto or somewhere new. But there’s the secondary "where" of position, too, because the long-time shortstop, who has still yet to play a regular season game anywhere other than at the six, made his debut at second base in the World Series, of all places – and looked pretty good doing it.
That added another dimension to his player profile going into free agency, but some complications, too. How does it change his market? How does it change his value? “Being willing to play somewhere new” is valuable, but “being able to play shortstop” is pretty darn valuable on its own. If he’s willing to play a different infield spot, which new teams might now be interested that wouldn’t have been otherwise?
Mostly: Where can he add the most value?
There’s a lot going on here. Let’s sort it all out.
Wait, why wouldn’t a shortstop want to stay there – in a winter when you can’t find one?
Well, he might.
Take a spin over to the Statcast Hot Stove shortstop list, and you’ll notice there’s exactly three names listed. There’s Bichette, of course. There’s Ha-Seong Kim, the former San Diego star who got into only 48 games in 2025 due to shoulder and back injuries, posting a mere 83 OPS+ when he was available for Tampa Bay and Atlanta. There’s Orlando Arcia, who hit so poorly for Atlanta in 2024-’25 that the club simply released him in late May, before he moved on to post a 44 OPS+ for Colorado.
That’s … it. There’s not a lot of choices here.
Sure, there are utility types who can handle the position as needed (think Willi Castro, Miguel Rojas, Isiah Kiner-Falefa) but no one who’s an everyday starter. The trade options likely aren't much better. After years of shortstops being a load-bearing part of the market, with big contracts going to the likes of Dansby Swanson, Carlos Correa, Willy Adames, Xander Bogaerts, Trea Turner, Javier Báez and Corey Seager over the last few winters, the well is dry.
That might be enough for Bichette to be able to continue to sell himself as a shortstop, yet the flip side here is clear: He has never rated well there defensively. In 2025, he rated as baseball’s weakest defensive shortstop, per Statcast metrics. It’s not a one-year thing, as he’s been consistently below average there, to the point that over the last five seasons, his -23 Fielding Run Value is second weakest among shortstops.
Obviously, the early-September knee injury that cost him the rest of the regular season and most of the playoffs hurt Toronto’s lineup, which missed his bat. But it was hard not to notice the impact that moving Andrés Giménez to short and making Ernie Clement the regular second baseman had, either. Toronto’s infield defense was 15th best, or average, through the day Bichette got injured; it was eighth best for the remainder of the regular season; it was the best in the playoffs.
It’s why you’ll see reports like this, indicating that Bichette’s ability -- likely at less than full strength, mind you -- to handle another spot against the Dodgers didn’t go unnoticed.
Let's stick with second base over third, since we saw him do it in October. Really, this comes down to a fundamental question that Bichette and interested suitors will need to answer:
What’s more valuable: a below-average shortstop, or a solid-to-strong second baseman?
There’s perhaps a lesson to be learned by Bichette’s former middle-infield partner in Toronto, Marcus Semien.
The best-case scenario: Semien
Semien spent two years as a utility infielder for the White Sox, then became the A’s regular shortstop for the next six seasons. While his bat sprang to life, it mostly covered up for below-average shortstop play. Semien was baseball’s fifth-weakest defensive shortstop in his time with the A’s, which ended after 2020, a partial season in which he ended up tying for the weakest defense at any position.
In 2021, Semien signed a one-year deal to join Bichette in Toronto’s infield. While that’s mostly remembered as the massive 45-homer season that earned him a top-three AL MVP Award finish and a seven-year deal with the Rangers, it was also the end of his time as a shortstop, with the exception of cameos in 2021 and '22. Over the past three seasons, Semien hasn't played there at all. He moved to second, in deference to the then-23-year-old Bichette, and in recognition that shortstop hadn’t worked out that well.
A few weeks after he signed in Toronto, we dug into how well suited he was to play second base, and as it turns out, Semien wasn’t just good there: He was fantastic. A two-time Gold Glover, Semien has spent the last five years as an elite defender, ranking second only to Giménez in Statcast’s defensive ranking at the keystone.
We’re not saying that Bichette would be guaranteed to be a star defender at second, just that we have a good recent example in Semien, and that the (very limited) sample we saw in October offers optimism that a fully-healthy Bichette could do it.
So, since we’ve got Semien to look at, we can answer our question: Was he more valuable playing a harder position in below-average fashion? Or the somewhat-less-difficult position, but in excellent fashion? Fortunately for us, we’ve got seasons where Semien was merely “very good” at second base (2021, ‘22, and ‘25) as well as a pair where he was about as good as you can be (2023, ‘24), which lets us game out different futures for Bichette.
How can a second baseman be as valuable as a shortstop? Here’s how.
Bichette just put up a very strong offensive year, with a 129 OPS+ that looks a whole lot like every other full season of his career. (No, really: Bichette had played more than 81 games in three previous seasons, and his marks were 121, 128, and 122. Including his injury-wrecked 2024, his career mark is 121, or 21% better than average. It’s what he does.)
Take that offensive value, add his somewhat negligible baserunning value and the porous shortstop defense, and it comes out in the wash to 3.8 WAR, essentially tied with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the third-most valuable position player season on the Blue Jays – and 10th-best among all primary shortstops. (Yes, missing the last few weeks cost him, but he still got 628 plate appearances, so it’s more than close enough to a full season.)
That’s a pretty good year. It shows how valuable the bat was, and how the defense was a lot more “leaves something to be desired” than it was “unplayable.” But because of the way WAR works, it’s pretty easy to fiddle with the inputs, which is exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to leave Bichette’s 2025 hitting performance exactly as it was, and see what happens if we change his defensive value – both what he did on the field, and how that’s valued differently whether it was coming from a second baseman or a shortstop. (All of this is going to be via FanGraphs' version of WAR.)
Bichette’s 2025 bat paired with these defensive values gets you …
- Weak shortstop (2025, in reality): 3.8 WAR
- As an average shortstop: 4.9 WAR
- As an elite second baseman: 5.7 WAR
- As a solid second baseman: 4.8 WAR
- As an average second baseman: 4.3 WAR
We threw in what it would look like as an average shortstop defender – let’s say Báez, who was about average there in 2025 – just to show how much value that would add, but Bichette’s track record here doesn’t give you much reason to think that’s a likely future. (Once an above-average runner who stole 25 of 26 bases in 2021, Bichette is now one of the slowest regular shortstops in baseball, ahead only of Seager.)
Instead, it’s the outcomes at second base that are most interesting. If Bichette had taken his 2025 offensive performance and played second base as well as Semien did in '24, when he was essentially tied with Giménez for the best in baseball, that leads to a massive estimated WAR of 5.7. This is a satisfying result, because when Semien had a similar offensive season in 2023 (126 OPS+) with elite defense, he posted 6.5 WAR, thanks in part to playing all 162 games.
Too much to ask, to be immediately elite? Perhaps. If he’s more “solid” than “great,” as Semien rated in 2025, that’s still a 4.8-WAR season, which would make him the best second baseman in baseball. If he’s just average there, neither standout nor a detriment, then doing that with that kind of offense gets him into the conversation as a top-five option, at least. (We didn’t list the worst-case scenario, but if it turns out he’s the same kind of defender at second as he is at short, that’s more like a 3-WAR season. Which, believe it or not, is still good.)
So the answer, then, is more or less what you’d think: An elite second baseman is more valuable than a poor shortstop, and a solid second baseman is about equal to an average shortstop. You just have to pick which kind of fielder you think Bichette can be.
On the other hand, we need not be all-or-nothing about this. Just about nobody thinks that Bichette is a long-term shortstop, but assuming he signs a deal of five years or more, that change doesn’t have to happen right now – not with Bichette turning only 28 in the spring. It’s not like Bogaerts hasn’t found himself at both middle-infield spots in his San Diego tenure, right?
Knowing all that, we can figure out what teams might actually be the best fits, and break them into three groups.
Teams that need a SS right now and for the future
This group is pretty thin. As we noted above, most teams have this spot well spoken for, at least among those likely to meet this kind of contract demand. The Braves, who currently have the weakest-projected shortstop situation, are maybe the only really obvious fit, especially because their current listed starter, Mauricio Dubón, is much better suited as a utility player. Toronto may be willing to flip him back with Giménez, or they might prefer their World Series configuration. Anywhere else really requires moving an incumbent either via trade or position.
Teams that might use him at SS to start, then move him to 2B
This opens things up a little, but not a ton, since, again, most teams have shortstop handled right now. Perhaps the Tigers, if they want to give star prospect Kevin McGonigle time to acclimate, or think he himself is best served at a different infield position. The Rays probably won’t be at this level of contract, but Bichette is from the Tampa area, and their short-term shortstop situation is more than a little unsettled.
Teams that might love him at 2B for years to come (aka the Semien path)
Now we’re talking. If it’s hard to find teams that really need a shortstop, it’s also hard to find teams that really don’t need a second baseman. A return to the Blue Jays works here, too, but it’s not at all hard to see the Dodgers being interested in pairing him with Mookie Betts. How about the Giants, who currently have baseball’s weakest second-base projection? Might the Phillies want to shake things up by moving the somewhat-stalled Bryson Stott? How about the Red Sox, who could put him alongside Trevor Story in the infield and free Ceddanne Rafaela from ever wearing an infield glove again? Or the Royals, who badly need another bat and have no good options at second base? Would it be ironic if the Rangers signed Bichette to replace none other than the recently traded Semien?
It all comes out to “a really interesting situation,” because there aren’t any shortstops, yet most teams don’t really need one, and while more teams do need a second baseman, we haven’t exactly seen Bichette do it long-term yet.
Bichette’s future is probably not at shortstop. It’s hard to say exactly when that future begins, though.