Bo Bichette’s wild 2025 season nearly finished with a World Series winning home run for the Toronto Blue Jays early in Game 7. Until it didn’t. But he’s still going into free agency on a high, having recovered famously from a poor 2024 season with one of his best years in ‘25.
However, just how well he fares as a free agent could hinge on one major determining factor. As noted by ESPN Baseball Insider and former MLB front office type Kiley McDaniel, Bichette’s decision on whether he’s open to playing a position other than shortstop could be worth tens of millions of dollars to him.
The longtime shortstop had a renaissance year at the plate, recovering from a season of batting just .225 with four home runs and a .598 OPS, to nearly leading the league in hitting, with a .311 average, 18 homers, 94 RBIs and an .840 OPS. But his fielding? Never known as the best at shortstop, his defense was even more of a trouble spot this year.
Bichette had the worst fielding metrics of his career in 2025
Per Baseball Savant, his minus-13 Outs Above Average placed him, almost incredulously, in the 1st percentile of major leaguers. This is not a stat where being No. 1 is a good thing. In fact, it’s the worst thing. His arm strength, never a strong suit of Bichette’s, was in the 36th percentile, with the lowest arm strength percentage of his career. His Fielding Run Value was in the 4th percentile.
But his brief move to second base in the World Series seemed to solve a lot of those problems, and he fared just fine there, albeit in a small sample size. McDaniel suggest that a move to third base might also be an improvement defensively (though it wouldn’t solve those throwing issues). Overall, the insider figures that Bichette might not be able to land a deal in the $200 million range, as many pundits are predicting, if he doesn’t agree to move off of shortstop.
”His defensive contributions (though a position change addresses that), his durability and his 2024 offensive showing might make some teams pause…”
Blue Jays should ask Bichette to move to 2B if he re-signs
Even the Toronto Blue Jays, who have re-signing Bichette as their top priority, would be smart to stick with the far superior Andres Gimenez at short, and ask Bo to shift to second. Most observers, however, do expect the two sides to somehow get a deal done.
If he doesn’t return to Toronto, Bichette might have to take the same sort of shorter-term deal with opt-outs that Alex Bregman took with the Boston Red Sox last year, as McDaniel suggests. “This has a real chance to happen because Bichette could hit the market in his 20s next winter, and a full, healthy 2026, maybe even with better defense, would really help his case for a big long-term deal”.
McDaniel projects a five year, $130 million deal as his market value. That’s a far cry from the seven-year, $189 million contract that The Athletic’s Jim Bowden predicts. And if he does in fact re-sign in Toronto, Bowden’s number seems like a far more likely scenario.
