Matt Cozzi of the “Locked On Cubs” podcast reported Wednesday that the Toronto Blue Jays have had trade talks on star shortstop Bo Bichette with the Chicago Cubs. Even more interestingly, Cozzi adds that the plan for the Cubs if they were to plan Bichette would be for him to play third base.
Cozzi’s report was shared by baseball insider Jon Morosi of MLB Network, who had mentioned the Cubs’ interest in Bichette as early as last year.
Bichette, a two-time All-Star at 25 years old, certainly won’t come cheap. He is coming off a fantastic 2023 season where he hit .306 with 20 homers and 73 RBIs (despite only playing in 135 games due to a one-off knee injury). Bichette is also still very inexpensive relative to his production with two years of club control left (after agreeing to a three-year, $33.6M deal with Toronto before the 2023 season to cover his arbitration-eligible years).
Chicago’s supposed plan to play Bichette at third is a bit unexpected though, especially since he is not known for having a particularly strong throwing arm. But the Cubs already have expensive signing Dansby Swanson as their shortstop for six more years and would have to re-arrange the puzzle pieces to accommodate Bichette. Still, Chicago has a robust farm system to pluck from in a trade and potentially some other big plans this offseason to put themselves right back in contention under new manager Craig Counsell.
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