The Milwaukee Brewers are facing the departure of shortstop Willy Adames this off-season as he will hit the free agent market for the first time in his career. Early reports have him projected to sign a deal more than $200 million. Whether that happens or not it is still very likely that the Brew Crew will not be comfortable offering as much as other clubs.
Assuming Willy Adames signs elsewhere, that leaves Milwaukee in a tough spot at shortstop going forward. Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz are two internal replacement options. Both were elite level defenders at their respective positions in 2024 in which Turang is a gold glove finalist and Ortiz was snubbed. Offensively Turang surprisingly finished with an OPS+ 15 points below league average (100 is league average) but he delivered a contact oriented approach and stole more than 50 bases whereas Ortiz finished with a 101 OPS+.
Should GM Matt Arnold decide to look externally for a replacement shortstop he will find that after Willy Adames the free market is not great as Jose Iglesias and Paul Dejong may be the next best options. Outside of free agents it’s possible that the Brewers could add a shortstop via trade. Two time All-Star Bo Bichette is one player that makes perfect sense.
Bo Bichette makes perfect sense as a trade target for the Milwaukee Brewers
2025 will be Bo Bichette’s final season of team control with the Toronto Blue Jays as he previously signed a three year, $36.6 million deal that bought out his arbitration years. His base salary next season will be just over $17 million. The Brewers aren’t a team to spend a lot of money but this would be a one year commitment in which after next year he too would likely depart, test the free agent market, and could possibly net Milwaukee a compensatory draft pick (like Willy Adames will do this year).
Historically Bo Bichette has been an offensive juggernaut
Before an injury-filled 2024 season that limited him to just 81 games, Bo Bichette had three consecutive seasons of 20+ home runs and 30+ doubles. He finished just shy of collecting 200 hits in a season during the 2021 and 2022 campaigns, topped 100 RBI’s once, and when healthy hits for a .290+ batting average. Bo Bichette is perhaps the only available shortstop this off-season that could come close to matching Willy Adames’ offensive production.
MLB Insiders believe that Bo Bichette will be traded this off-season
Back in August Bob Nightengale of USA today wrote that, “The Blue Jays are expected to entertain trade offers’ for Bo Bichette, who ‘has no plans’ to stay as a free agent after the 2025 season.” If Milwaukee was to pursue Bo Bichette it would be in their best interest to try and include a few other higher salaried players as well in which Devin Williams ($10.5 million club option for 2025), Aaron Civale (projected $8.0 million in arbitration), and Colin Rea ($5.5 million club option) could all be possible pieces to use in a trade.
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