Batting Around: Where will Bo Bichette sign? Which team needs him the most?

Throughout the offseason the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable, breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we debated Freddy Peralta's future. This week we're going to do the same with Bo Bichette.

Where will Bo Bichette sign? Which team needs him the most?

R.J. Anderson: I think the Red Sox need Bichette the most. They just lost incumbent third baseman Alex Bregman to free agency and there are wide enough error bars on some of their internal options, at both second and third, that there's a clear need for a more certain quantity. That established, I think the Phillies are more likely to win a bidding war between the two sides. 

Matt Snyder: I agree that the Red Sox need him the most. Going back to last offseason, that front office really botched things. Once they signed Alex Bregman, they seemed to poorly handle the situation with Rafael Devers (even if I have issues with how Devers handled it, the front office isn't blameless here) and now they have neither player. Grabbing Willson Contreras for first base and having extra outfielders doesn't make up for the messy infield situation. Fortunately for the Red Sox, youngster Marcelo Mayer looks like he can handle multiple infield positions. There's room to add Bichette here to go along with Mayer and Trevor Story to fill in the non-1B infield spots. 

I'll say they get him.

Dayn Perry: I'll say the back-to-back champs, the Dodgers. Presumably Mookie Betts is still the shortstop after his stellar defensive work last season. Still, the Dodgers have infield needs. Hyeseong Kim is really a bench player and not a starting second baseman, while Max Muncy at third is going into his age-35 season and has played a total of 173 regular-season games over the last two years. More broadly, the Dodgers could use a younger impact bat to go with their aging core. Bichette checks all those boxes. 

Mike Axisa: I'm going to go with the Yankees needing Bichette the most. They can put him at shortstop for a year, then slide him over to second base after Jazz Chisholm Jr. becomes a free agent. Anthony Volpe will miss the start of the season with shoulder surgery and hasn't given the Yankees a reason to keep him in the lineup no questions asked. The upgrade on offense will more than make up for the downgrade on defense. Also, the Yankees badly need to balance their lineup with a righty who gets the bat on the ball like Bichette. Their three best righty hitters are Aaron Judge (amazing), Giancarlo Stanton (hurt often), and Amed Rosario (bench guy). You've got to do better than that if you want to win the World Series.

As for where Bichette will sign, I'm thinking he'll ultimately make his way to the Red Sox, which is a boring answer but I think the correct answer. They need an infielder (they needed an infielder even before losing Alex Bregman) and a righty bat, and the Ranger Suárez signing put them over the competitive balance tax threshold. Once you're over, you might as well keep spending. Go for broke or don't go at all, you know?