The Dodgers are apparently interested in Bo Bichette, though there’s been no suggestion the Blue Jays would move him
8 months ago
The off-season always comes with some… interesting trade proposals.
One of these such proposals came from MLB.com’s Juan Toribio, who noted that the Dodgers are “monitoring the trade market for a shortstop, mainly Milwaukee’s Willy Adames and Toronto’s Bo Bichette.”
Dodgers Nation (no relation) also wrote about this speculation, noting that Los Angeles, like most teams, value the fact that Bichette has more than a season remaining on his contract. The article also says that the Jays have underperformed in recent seasons, so trading Bichette may be a way of shaking things up.
Now, I don’t need to tell you how good Bo Bichette is, but I’ll do it anyway.
The 25-year-old shortstop slashed .306/.339/.475 with 20 homers in 501 plate appearances, along with a 4.5 BB% and a 19.1 K% for a 125 wRC+ during the 2023 season. He earned the second All-Star nod of his Major League career last year, with the first coming in 2021 when Bichette hit 29 home runs and drove in 102 runs, both career-highs.
So, with all of that in mind, let’s just get this out of the way right now: So long as the Blue Jays are trying to win, Bo Bichette will be a part of the team’s plans.
To me, moving one of the best shortstops in the league would make an underperforming team into a lottery team. While the Dodgers have a lot in terms of exciting young prospects and quality roster players, there isn’t really a way that the Jays could recoup Bichette’s value in a trade. He’s a significant catalyst to their offence and his defence has improved considerably since he made his debut in the Majors in 2019.
Now, it’s entirely possible that Bichette leaves through free agency in a couple of years, in which all the Blue Jays would receive is a compensation pick, assuming he’s issued a qualifying offer and declines. However, the organization has World Series aspirations right now, and trading Bichette would significantly impact their chances of winning it all.
The only way that trading Bichette would really make sense is if the team was moving into a retooling or rebuilding phase, which isn’t the case right now.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads @Brennan_L_D.
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