The Blue Jays May Soon Face a Dilemma at Shortstop

As we march on through the month of September and inch closer to the end of the 2025 regular season, the first-place Toronto Blue Jays have a whole lot going right for them. They may be coming off of an embarrassing 20-1 loss at the hands of the Kansas City Royals, but let’s not let one loss tell the whole story of their season.

Entering Saturday’s action at 89-65, the Blue Jays have a three-game lead in the American League over the New York Yankees while sporting the AL’s fifth-best run differential at +64. Don’t forget that this very same team finished last year at the bottom of their division.

Top prospect Trey Yesavage just dominated the Tampa Bay Rays in his MLB debut, Kevin Gausman has been pitching like his old self as of late, and three position players should receive MVP votes once award season comes around. Life is good for this team and all who follow it.

As the Blue Jays march towards a spot in the playoffs, we’re going to look just a bit further into the future than the upcoming postseason.

Shortstop Bo Bichette, who’s one of those aforementioned trio that will receive some MVP votes by the time all is said and done, is set to hit unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career. This is a huge deal for the Blue Jays and for Bichette himself, as this has been the only organization he’s ever called home since it drafted him in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft.

With Bichette’s upcoming departure, there’s a lot of layers to sift through. Let’s dive into what this means for the Blue Jays and why their top offseason storyline is already all the rage before regular season games are even finished being played.

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Bo Bichette’s Impending Trip Through Free Agency

Heading into the current season, it was anybody’s guess as to what Bichette would be able to do to boost his value. Last year was an injury-shortened one and saw him put up the worst numbers of his career all across the board.

Now, it seems that Bichette’s regular season is done and the Blue Jays are hoping he’ll be able to help them in the playoffs. In 139 regular-season games, the two-time All-Star hit 18 home runs while driving in 94 and maintaining a lead across all of the league in hits (181) and doubles (44). He also hit .311 and posted an .840 OPS, both career-highs.

It’s true that Bichette passes the eye test but fails miserably in advanced defensive metrics, and it’s true that he’s lost more than a step or two in raw Sprint Speed, but the offensive talent is clearly still there.

Bichette, 27, did more than enough this year to raise his value right back up to where it needs to be before becoming a free agent. The fact that he was able to bounce back like this should tell interested teams that 2024 was simply an outlier. If he anything, he didn’t just come back and play like he had in years prior to 2024, he came back even better.

The Blue Jays’ Potential (Maybe Even Likely) Dilemma

What’s going to help Bichette (and perhaps harm the Blue Jays) the most this offseason is the fact that there is virtually zero legitimate competition for best-available shortstop on the open market.

For those who haven’t checked it out yet, Ryan Finkelstein put together an excellent early look at the upcoming free agent market. He broke down each position and listed off some of the top players who will be testing the free-agent waters.

Under the shortstop section, there was one player: Bichette. Anyone else listed wasn’t worth anything more than a simple honorable mention.

Of the 33 players to get at least 200 PA while playing shortstop this year, only Bichette and teammate Isiah Kiner-Falefa are set to hit free agency.

Trevor Story (opt-out), Ha-Seong Kim (opt-out), Kevin Newman (club option), Taylor Walls (club option), and Orlando Arcia (club option) could conceivably join the party, but nothing is guaranteed there.

That leaves us with some sort of combination of the following players as the top shortstop-capable players in the upcoming market:

You are forgiven if this list of names doesn’t exactly knock your socks off.

This is a long-winded way to get to my main point here: the Blue Jays need to re-sign Bichette, or they’re going to be severely limited when it comes to their other options. It sounds like the club’s decision makers plan on making retaining him a priority this winter, but that guarantees nothing.

If Kim ends up opting out, he could be a decent option, but the Blue Jays would be signing him knowing that they’re settling for a lesser player than Bichette.

It’s difficult to look at the rest of the list and even pretend that any of the other names would be plausible as the club’s 2026 shortstop.

Top Internal Option Fits a Common Organizational Type

Picture this: the Blue Jays miss out on re-signing Bichette, who gladly accepts a larger contract elsewhere instead of electing to ride things out with close friend Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in Toronto.

In our hypothetical scenario, Kim also chooses to remain with the Atlanta Braves, leaving exactly zero players available on the open market. This forces the Blue Jays to turn their attention inwards and patch the upcoming season together at shortstop.

Fortunately, they’ve got Andres Gimenez, who’s just wrapping up his first season on the Blue Jays, available to slide right in. The good news with Gimenez is that he’s one of the game’s best defensive shortstops and has a career OAA (Outs Above Average) of 9 and DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) of 7 at the position in over 700 innings. For reference, Bichette is at -13 OAA and -12 DRS this year alone, and -31 OAA/-19 DRS in his career.

Unfortunately, there are times where it seems like Gimenez couldn’t hit the ball if it was thrown underhand or put on a tee for him. In 94 games this season, he’s hit seven home runs with 30 RBI, a .205 average, 65 wRC+, and .581 OPS. His OPS has him above only Nick Allen, Trey Sweeney, Iglesias, Jordan Walker, and Santiago Espinal amongst hitters with 300 PA this year.

Gimenez has never been much of a hitter outside of a random offensive breakout in 2022 where he posted a 141 wRC+, but things have not been pretty for him offensively this year.

The 27-year-old is under team control through the end of the 2029 campaign. He was acquired via trade from the Cleveland Guardians this past offseason, and it’s likely that the Blue Jays traded for him in the first place thinking he could eventually replace Bichette at shortstop. Otherwise, the club could re-sign Bichette and have Gimenez be one of the best defensive second basemen we’ve ever laid eyes on.

Either way, Gimenez represents a glove-over-bat type of player the Blue Jays have been screwed over for rostering in the past. Too many at-bats have been given to players like Steward Berroa, Kevin Kiermaier (the 2024 version), Jonatan Clase, Espinal, Cam Eden, Mason McCoy, and a handful of others over the past few years.

Putting the emphasis on defense over offense resulted in a two-game sweep in the AL Wild Card Series in 2023 and a ghastly 74-88 performance in last year’s regular season. Daulton Varsho has turned himself into a legitimate two-way threat, but the Blue Jays need all the thump they can get, not only slick fielders at this point.

Other Internal Choices Don’t Instill Confidence

Five players have made at least one defensive appearance at shortstop for the Blue Jays this year: Bichette, Gimenez, Ernie Clement, Leo Jimenez, and Michael Stefanic (who is out of the organization).

Clement has become a well-liked figure in Toronto and has turned in a respectable season at the dish and on defense. However, he’s much more of a second or third baseman moving forward than he is a shortstop. He does fine when he periodically fills in (2 DRS, 1 OAA), but he’s not a player you have line up at shortstop on a daily basis.

Jimenez impressed in a 63-game showing in the majors last year, but he hasn’t really earned another shot at extended playing time this year. In 18 big league games, he hit .069 with a -20 wRC+ across 32 plate appearances. The 24-year-old only just returned to Triple-A action after spending over a month on the injured list, and has hit .296 with a 121 wRC+ in 26 minor league games this year.

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Jimenez is still young and also plays a solid defensive shortstop. It’s easy to look at how he performed in the big leagues this season and feel uninspired, but he’s a strong spring training showing away from earning another crack at playing time. He’s firmly in the “we’ll see” category for now.

Josh Kasevich and Josh Rivera are both in Triple-A for the Blue Jays as well, but neither occupy a spot on the club’s 40-man roster. The former looked like a budding can’t-miss prospect as recently as last season, but he took a significant step back this year. The latter earned the most playing time of his professional career this year but struck out nearly 32% of the time and hit just .221 in 118 games.

Closing Thoughts

With Bo Bichette representing the only halfway decent shortstop on the open market this winter, the Blue Jays need to go big or home. In the past, they’ve routinely missed out on some of the best-available talent, but this time they can’t afford to do the same.

Even though Bichette is something of a liability on defense, his bat remains top-tier, and he’s become a beloved figure in Toronto over the years. Since the Blue Jays are firmly in their latest contention window, it’d make no sense for them to miss out on him and have to deal with the offensive black hole that’ll be left in their nightly lineup card.

Instead, bringing Bichette back on a long-term deal with the intent to move him to second base down the line would work out for all involved. Bichette prefers to stay at shortstop, but it might be in the Blue Jays’ best interest to shift him over to second and let Gimenez get the consistent reps at shortstop.

Regardless of how the defensive alignment looks, Bichette needs to remain in Toronto. There’s simply no fallback if the Blue Jays lose out on him, and they’re going to need all the help they can get to continue to lead the AL East for years to come.