Every winter, Seattle Mariners fans build a dream board of stars the front office will absolutely not sign. Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker, whoever the latest ace is. Go ahead and tack Bo Bichette right in the middle of that collage… and then circle his name about a dozen times.
Because for once, there’s a very specific, very Mariners reason to talk yourself into the pipe dream.
Mariners’ biggest lineup flaw is exactly where Bo Bichette thrives
Bo Bichette does not just handle velocity, he absolutely buries it. As Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic noted, against pitches 97 mph and above last season, Bichette hit north of .440 with a cartoonish on-base-plus-damage profile that made upper-90s heaters look like middle-middle sinkers in April. League-wide, hitters against that kind of velocity were closer to “barely surviving” than “thriving.”
Now zoom in on the Mariners. Against 97-plus, Seattle hit .197 with a .287 wOBA. That is bottom-tier production for a team that keeps running into bullpens stocked with guys throwing 98 with evil movement. Among the current regulars, only Julio Rodríguez really scares anyone when the radar gun starts with a nine and ends with a high number.
Drop Bichette into that mix and suddenly those late-inning at-bats look a whole lot different. Now you’ve got two dudes in the lineup who can turn that around instead of one and a lot of crossed fingers.
The fit is almost annoyingly perfect. The Mariners need a second baseman. Bichette is a shortstop who could easily slide over, hit near the top of the order, and instantly become the best “just go do damage” bat this lineup has had in years. He brings playoff experience, star-level name value, and the kind of aggressive contact profile this front office keeps saying it wants.
And then there is the money side. Bichette is a $200 million type of free agent, which usually sends the Mariners straight to the “thanks, but no thanks” aisle. But the Blue Jays just put out $240 million on Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce. At some point, even big spenders have to pick a lane. If Toronto hesitates, that is a crack in the door Seattle almost never sees with a player this tailored to its biggest weakness.
Will the Mariners actually blow the budget and go all in on Bo Bichette? Probably not.
Should they at least try when the universe hands them a guy who nukes high velocity and fills their most obvious lineup hole? Absolutely.