Wilner: Blue Jays Had "No Interest" In Re-Signing Bo Bichette as a Shortstop

[Leo Morgenstern]

Speaking to the Toronto Star's Mike Wilner, manager John Schneider divulged that the Blue Jays never had any intention of re-signing Bo Bichette to play shortstop. This new information conflicts with the front office's public messaging while Bichette was still a free agent.

A week after the World Series ended, The Athletic's Mitch Bannon wrote: "The Jays, [GM Ross] Atkins said, are comfortable with [Andrés] Giménez as their long-term shortstop, if needed...If Bichette is set on a return to shortstop, though, the Jays are open to that configuration, too."

Yet, per Schneider's latest comments, the team didn't take long to inform Giménez that he would not be returning to second base. “We communicated that to him in November so he could get physically ready for it,” the skipper explained.

It's not surprising that the Jays wanted Giménez to be their shortstop, whether they re-signed Bichette or not. Giménez has been the best defensive second baseman in MLB for the past four seasons, and he proved last fall that he could handle the transition to short. Bichette, meanwhile, was arguably the worst defensive shortstop in the league last year, and he ended up signing with the Mets to play third base. 

Still, it's interesting to learn that Giménez's full-time move to shortstop was always the plan. Bichette's bat will be missed, but there's no doubt that Toronto's up-the-middle alignment of Giménez, Ernie Clement, Alejandro Kirk, and Daulton Varsho (plus Tyler Heineman and Myles Straw on the bench) will be one of the team's biggest strengths in 2026. 

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[Spanky__99]

Honestly, I don't think any team wanted Bo signed as a SS... not surprising at all.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I also would not want to sign Bichette as a shortstop, so no complaints there.

[Brownie19]

I'll take "A Nothingburger" for $500 Alex.

[G-Snarls]

Guess what 

He's not playing shortstop in NY either 

[Jays24]

What a waste of having him as our SS all those years when he was clearly below average for the spot from the moment he came to the bigs.  

[Stangstag]

3 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

What a waste of having him as our SS all those years when he was clearly below average for the spot from the moment he came to the bigs.  

Yeah why did we keep him at SS so long, i thought the whole point was to keep him happy so he’d take an extension. Dumn.

[Laika]

15 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

What a waste of having him as our SS all those years when he was clearly below average for the spot from the moment he came to the bigs.  

Waste of what? lol 

[Stangstag]

1 minute ago, Laika said:

Waste of what? lol 

Left wins/WAR on the table by keeping him at SS. Also probably passed on a few free agents that could’ve been signed to play SS because we didn’t wanna move Bo (Swanson, Turner, Adames off the top of my head)

[BTS]

I still think Bo’s legs are just about cooked 

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Stangstag said:

Yeah why did we keep him at SS so long, i thought the whole point was to keep him happy so he’d take an extension. Dumn.

To be fair the team didn't have a starter quality short stop alternative until they acquired Gimenez. I'm sure Bo would have been moved if the right player was acquired with Lindor being the first player that comes to mind.

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, BTS said:

I still think Bo’s legs are just about cooked 

Definitely. Im confident I could beat him in a foot race and im older.

[Stangstag]

26 minutes ago, max silver said:

To be fair the team didn't have a starter quality short stop alternative until they acquired Gimenez. I'm sure Bo would have been moved if the right player was acquired with Lindor being the first player that comes to mind.

We signed Semien to a 1 year deal back in 2021, and he was an elite SS that we moved so Bo could stay there. 

So no, im not certain they entertained bringing in any full time SS without also trading Bo. 

[max silver]

42 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

We signed Semien to a 1 year deal back in 2021, and he was an elite SS that we moved so Bo could stay there. 

So no, im not certain they entertained bringing in any full time SS without also trading Bo. 

That's a commonly held misconception that Semien was still an elite short stop defender when he signed with the Blue Jays. His 2020 defensive metrics were actually worse on a rate basis than Bo's awful 2025 numbers, and Bo outperformed him at short stop in 2021 as well. On top of that this was a single season signing and once Semien left the Blue Jays yet again had nobody other than Bo that was capable of full time short stop duties.

Semien 2020

451 Innings

-6 DRS (-13.3 DRS/1000)

-9 OAA (-20 OAA/1000)

Bo 2025

1139 innings

-12 DRS (-10.5 DRS/1000)

-13 OAA (-11.4 OAA/1000)

[Laika]

3 hours ago, Stangstag said:

Left wins/WAR on the table by keeping him at SS. Also probably passed on a few free agents that could’ve been signed to play SS because we didn’t wanna move Bo (Swanson, Turner, Adames off the top of my head)

This makes no sense. Bo was a 4 win player almost every year - he did well and Toronto did well. 

[glory]

The Jays were apparently close to trading for Lindor before the Mets got him. That might have been the only scenario Bo would have moved off SS. Whether the Jays could have gotten someone better to play SS from 2022-25 while moving Bo to 2B is a different story. No clue who would have been a realistic target for the team at that point.

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

This makes no sense. Bo was a 4 win player almost every year - he did well and Toronto did well. 

Kk sorry forgot you guys are never wrong my bad for questioning the higher authority 

[Jays24]

2 hours ago, Laika said:

This makes no sense. Bo was a 4 win player almost every year - he did well and Toronto did well. 

Haha no one's questioning Bo the player but majority of us questioned Bo the SS.  I wanted him off SS as soon as we tried to start winning in 2021. 

Hilarious seeing people think keeping him at SS was the right move even in hindsight lol

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Jays24 said:

Haha no one's questioning Bo the player but majority of us questioned Bo the SS.  I wanted him off SS as soon as we tried to start winning in 2021. 

Hilarious seeing people think keeping him at SS was the right move even in hindsight lol

Why don't you regale us with the wisdom of who was supposed to take over full time short stop duties from Bo. Don't try to say Semien as he was worse than Bo at short stop at that point of his career. Unless you somehow think Santiago Espinal was starting short stop material it was awfully slim pickings. 

[Laika]

10 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Haha no one's questioning Bo the player but majority of us questioned Bo the SS.  I wanted him off SS as soon as we tried to start winning in 2021. 

Hilarious seeing people think keeping him at SS was the right move even in hindsight lol

But it was the right move. The Jays got solid production from the SS position throughout Bo Bichette's tenure. SS is the hardest position to fill so sliding Bo to 2B at 24 just to force yourself to backfill SS is just playing the game on hard mode because you like to suffer. 

The Jays probably played it correctly. He was never a good shortstop but he wasn't so bad that he was costing them games or completely tanking the team. He was good enough there to be an offense-first SS and worth a bunch of WAR. 

2023 is a good example. 3.9 WAR from Bo at SS, and Matt Chapman at 3B, and then 2.6 WAR pieces together at 2B mostly from what Whit and Schneider did. 

You can't just plug a SS hole with guys like Whit Merrifield and Davis Schneider and expect 2.6 WAR out of it. But you can do it for second base! And they did! 

And Bo had a +4 DRS and -3 OAA that year. Dude was fine. 

[Brownie19]

10 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Haha no one's questioning Bo the player but majority of us questioned Bo the SS.  I wanted him off SS as soon as we tried to start winning in 2021. 

Hilarious seeing people think keeping him at SS was the right move even in hindsight lol

This isn't as black and white as you think it is.  Your ignorance is showing.

 

[John_Havok]

Jays no longer wanted him at SS? no s***. nobody else did either. 

In other news, water is wet.

[Olerud363.354]

11 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Haha no one's questioning Bo the player but majority of us questioned Bo the SS.  I wanted him off SS as soon as we tried to start winning in 2021. 

Hilarious seeing people think keeping him at SS was the right move even in hindsight lol

Who should have played short stop then?  I don't think they would have been opposed to moving him for the right guy (Lindor).  Interesting question is whether they would have been better switching Bo and Giminez starting from the beginning last season. 

I like the FG defensive rating, which tends to go from -20 (worse than a DH) to 20 (elite).  Sometimes higher or lower but those are the usual extremes.  So say Jiminez is 15 per 162 and Bo is -5 per 162.  What happens if you switch them?  I guess the expectation is that since there are more hard plays at short stop Jiminez will go up a bit and Bo closer to neutral, so maybe it ends up as 17 and -3 and you are 4 runs better....

Switching guys is a weird thing and those who follow analytics more than I maybe can give a better answer.  But the idea is a guys defensive value doesn't change too much switching between infield positions (3b/ss/2b) or outfield (lf/cf/rf).  Maybe a couple of runs because of more hard play opportunities at ss or cf.

I think people confuse this with 'replacing' a bad defensive player with an awesome one.  Like replaing Luis Aerez with Giminez could be 35 runs, or 32 year old Springer with Varsho 30 runs. 

Just switching guys around isn't nearly that much.  

[Laika]

5 minutes ago, Olerud363.354 said:

Who should have played short stop then?  I don't think they would have been opposed to moving him for the right guy (Lindor).  Interesting question is whether they would have been better switching Bo and Giminez starting from the beginning last season. 

I like the FG defensive rating, which tends to go from -20 (worse than a DH) to 20 (elite).  Sometimes higher or lower but those are the usual extremes.  So say Jiminez is 15 per 162 and Bo is -5 per 162.  What happens if you switch them?  I guess the expectation is that since there are more hard plays at short stop Jiminez will go up a bit and Bo closer to neutral, so maybe it ends up as 17 and -3 and you are 4 runs better....

Switching guys is a weird thing and those who follow analytics more than I maybe can give a better answer.  But the idea is a guys defensive value doesn't change too much switching between infield or outfield.  Maybe a couple of runs because of more hard play opportunities at ss or cf.

I think people confuse this with 'replacing' a bad defensive player with an awesome one.  Like replaing Luis Aerez with Giminez could be 35 runs, or 32 year old Springer with Varsho 30 runs. 

Just switching guys around isn't nearly that much.  

I think the Jays OBVIOUSLY would have preferred to switch Bo and Gimenez from day 1 and the only reason they did not was that they didn't want to disgruntle their star. Which is fine logic, honestly. 

Positional adjustment theory would tell you that moving a player from one spot to another is assumed neutral for overall value. So swapping Bo and Gimenez would not change their individual production or the team's WAR. But it's so complicated and the assumptions fail at some point, otherwise it would not matter where anybody plays, at all. 

[Stangstag]

2 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

This isn't as black and white as you think it is.  Your ignorance is showing.

 

Ironic, considering most of the other guys in this thread with their “im always right” attitude 

[Stangstag]

10 minutes ago, Laika said:

I think the Jays OBVIOUSLY would have preferred to switch Bo and Gimenez from day 1 and the only reason they did not was that they didn't want to disgruntle their star. Which is fine logic, honestly. 

Positional adjustment theory would tell you that moving a player from one spot to another is assumed neutral for overall value. So swapping Bo and Gimenez would not change their individual production or the team's WAR. But it's so complicated and the assumptions fail at some point, otherwise it would not matter where anybody plays, at all. 

Im just gonna flat out disagree with this. If the plan was to move Bo off SS, like they were certain they weren’t going to bring him back as a SS, then who gives a f*** about disgruntlement. Suck it up and deal with it. Guys like Trea Turner are willing to switch positions, why is Bo so special?

[Laika]

Disgruntlement could have caused him to just suck in 2025, or ruin the vibes. Lots of reasons to want a star player to be happy for one year even if you probably aren't retaining them. 

[Brownie19]

10 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Im just gonna flat out disagree with this. If the plan was to move Bo off SS, like they were certain they weren’t going to bring him back as a SS, then who gives a f*** about disgruntlement. Suck it up and deal with it. Guys like Trea Turner are willing to switch positions, why is Bo so special?

Bo was entering his age 23 season in 2021 when Semien was here.  We only had Semien for 1 season and had no other viable options who you could project to replace Bo at SS long term.

At 23 - there's still potential that he improves defensively.  Semien himself was pretty awful defensively at a younger age, but improved with experience.

And of course the relationship with the player has an impact - he was a franchise cornerstone guy.

Could they have moved Bo to 2nd last year and put Gimenez at SS?  Sure, but prior to last year, I'm not sure it made a lot of sense unless you added someone like Lindor.  Who know what conversations the team had with Bo, or how he felt about it.  It's all super grey.

[Spanky__99]

6 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Im just gonna flat out disagree with this. If the plan was to move Bo off SS, like they were certain they weren’t going to bring him back as a SS, then who gives a f*** about disgruntlement. Suck it up and deal with it. Guys like Trea Turner are willing to switch positions, why is Bo so special?

Bo has said in the past he'd move off SS(Lindor) for the team? Toronto wanted Bo back just at 2B, but the Mets gave him a 47M dollar sabbatical, haha. This really is a nothing-burger.

 

[Jays24]

39 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

Bo has said in the past he'd move off SS(Lindor) for the team? Toronto wanted Bo back just at 2B, but the Mets gave him a 47M dollar sabbatical, haha. This really is a nothing-burger.

 

Rumor was that Bo was going to Philly before signing with the Mets.