One of the hottest rumors out on the free agent market is about the Yankees checking in on Bo Bichette, who is willing to play second base now that teams are aware of his troubling defense at second base.
Jon Heyman began the firestorm on social media with his column on the New York Post, but does an acquisition of Bichette make sense?
While you could argue that the Yankees should be all after the right-handed hitting infielder, the conversation about the potential opportunity cost if they were to pay him a nine-figure contract matters too.
Comparing him to Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm, we’ll break down how this could help or hurt the Yankees and if this truly makes sense for the team instead of just being a big name and a shiny new toy.
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How Much Sense Does Bo Bichette Make For the Yankees’ Roster?
Bo Bichette slashed .311/.357/.483 with an .840 OPS in 2025, as he finished inside the top 20 in wRC+ (134) for qualified hitters during the season.
His ability to mash lefties while being a firmly above-average bat against righties makes him an excellent fit for the roster on the surface, especially since he blends power and contact well.
I don’t think there are concerns about how his swing would play at Yankee Stadium either since he has an excellent combination of contact quality, contact quantity, and launch angle distribution.
A down year in 2024 might raise some concerns, but this is a player who is clearly one of the best hitting infielders in the game, and there’s nothing that can be argued against that point.
With that said, there’s more to a player than just their bat, and that’s why the market has some questions about committing a nine-figure deal over six or seven years to the 27-year-old infielder.
Going from an average runner in 2023 and 2024 to a firmly below-average one had a direct impact on Bo Bichette’s baserunning impact as well, having the worst BsR among shortstops (-3.2).
Only Gleyber Torres and Ketel Marte would have been worse than Bichette in this statistic if you considered him a second baseman, and he’s the youngest player in that group.
Teams would likely bet on that Sprint Speed either remainining as bad as it was or maybe even getting worse as he turns another year older, especially after missing over a month with a knee sprain to end the regular season.
It’s had nasty effects on his already-bad defense at shortstop, saying he’s open to playing 2B might be phrasing it lightly, what I think has happened is that no one wants him as a shortstop at this point.
Comparing him to Jazz Chisholm, I’m not sure you could project a full win improvement if the Yankees just swapped him out for Bo Bichette since you’d be getting significantly worse on the bases and likely worse defensively as well.
I think a lot of fans are caught up in changing things up versus taking a step back and looking at these two players as a whole, while I think Bichette is a better hitter and offensive fit, he is not a clearly better 2B than Chisholm is.
During each of the last two seasons, Jazz Chisholm has produced more WAR than Bo Bichette has, and while 2024 was an outlier year for the Blue Jays’ star shortstop, in 2025 he smashed his career-high in OPS+.
The reason stems back to the importance of defense and baserunning, things that fans lamented about the 2024 team saying that this lack of fundamental baseball cost them a championship.
Going from Jazz Chisholm (+5 FRV at 2B) and Cody Bellinger (+4 FRV at LF) to Bo Bichette and Jasson Dominguez would make you better with the bat, but there’s a massive defensive gap that could make the overall team worse.