Are the Cubs really interested in Bo Bichette?
Sure they are.
The Cubs offseason has been, even by our own tepid expectations, pretty disappointing so far. They have "rebuilt" their bullpen by loading up on cast-off white boys that cost less than $22 million for next year. And, well, that's been it.
They were linked to real free agents like Dylan Cease, Pete Alonso, Ryan Helsley, Munetaka Murakami, Tatsuya Imai, Michael King, Kyle Schwarber, Kazuma Okamoto, etc., and on a few of them (Cease, Helsley and Imai) they even claim to have finished second just thisclose from getting their guy.
And they continue to be linked to free agents. The newest one is Bo Bichette.
@JonHeyman tweeted The Phillies are among a number of big-market teams to have interest in Bo Bichette, an ultra young (27) free agent. Yanks, Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox and incumbent Jays, too. Bichette is the only player to hit .300 vs. fastballs, breaking balls and also changeups/splits.
— Passanthallich (@passanthalbot.bsky.social) 2026-01-03T23:18:55.807594+00:00
There is a fit, of course. Bichette's shortstop days might be over, but he should be a more than capable defender at second base, and his real future probably resides at third base. The Cubs could sign him, add a very good bat, and then start the whole Matt Shaw hokey pokey where he either gets traded for a real pitcher, moves to second base so the Cubs can rid themselves of Nico Hoerner's pesky below market contract (which only has one year remaining on it) or becomes a utility player for one season before taking over second base full time whenever baseball resumes in 2027.
Bichette does a lot of things right at the plate as evidenced by all of the red on his 2025 Baseball Savant page. His injuries contributed to him being mostly unusable in the field last year and very Ian Happ-like on the bases, but a move to third would alleviate the defensive problem and a return to health will return him to an average runner.
The Cubs are seemingly eternally linked to Alex Bregman, too. Though that move makes far less sense given Bregman's age. Bichette is only 27, and Shaw is 24.
Yesterday, Scott Boras tried to goose Cody Bellinger's market by leaking that the Cubs are interested in bringing him back again, again.
But in reality, does any of it really matter?
