Miami Marlins can land a star from Toronto?

Toronto Blue Jays fans aren’t high on Bo Bichette these days. His defense has been atrocious in 2022: -0.8 dWAR, .958 FLD%. He also struggled offensively for a big part of the season. In the first half he batted .257/.279/.418. He did finish strong with a .290/.333/.469 batting line. The Miami Marlins are looking to trade for hitting, and to likely trade Pablo López to get it. Even the Toronto media is talking about trading Bichette for starting pitching. Can a trade be worked out?

The Miami Marlins may have a chance to acquire Bo Bichette.

Bo Bichette is a very good SS, who had a 3.6 WAR in 2022. Despite his bad defense, he typically hits for both contact and power, hitting 29 and 24 home runs the last two seasons. He also had a strong 1.0 dWAR last season, so I think that he can bounce back defensively in 2023. We need contact and hitting in general, so he would check a lot of boxes for us. It also helps that he’s from Florida and is an upgrade overall over current SS Miguel Rojas and his 2.5 WAR.

Will Toronto actually trade Bichette? I think that there’s certainly a good reason for them to do it. Even if we assume that he’ll bounce back defensively, there’s other reasons for then to do it. He’s a free agent in three years, at the same time as 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Both will be looking at multiple hundred million dollar deals. I don’t think that Toronto will pay $200-300 million for each of them, and they will prioritize Vlad.

So why would Toronto do this trade? They need starting pitching badly and if they miss out on the top arms in free agency, a trade with the Miami Marlins is the next best thing. Pablo López had a 3.0 WAR in 2022, which is only 0.6 WAR less than Bo’s. Pablo is controlled for one less season than Bo, but he should be cheaper to extend. We can also add Miguel Rojas and his Gold Glove defense, giving them a defensive improvement at SS as well. We can also send a prospect or just another arm their way.

If the Toronto Blue Jays are indeed open to trading Bo Bichette and are interested in our starting pitchers, the Miami Marlins need to be in on him. No excuses.