Recently acquired New York Mets third baseman Bo Bichette has been known as a below-average defensive infielder throughout his career. Baseball Savant uses two statistics to measure defensive performance: outs above average and runs prevented. The website defines both statistics as follows:

1.”Outs Above Average (OAA) is the cumulative effect of all individual plays a fielder has been credited or debited with, making it a range-based metric of fielding skill that accounts for the number of plays made and the difficulty of them”. 

2. “Runs Prevented is the position-based translation from outs saved to runs saved”.

Bo Bichette ranked as the third-worst defensive shortstop since 2020 in both statistics, recording a -33 outs above average and -27 runs prevented over five years.

Why Bo Bichette Is Awful at Defense

Although Bo Bichette was statistically a poor shortstop, what caused his dismal defensive performance? The answer is twofold.

1. He has trouble transferring the baseball from his glove to his throwing hand .

2. The transfer delay forces him to add extra power to his throw, as his arm strength from shortstop is limited. Baseball Savant ranked him 61st among shortstops in arm strength, with an average velocity of 84.6 miles per hour.

A perfect example of his defensive struggles was on display during the 2022 season. On April 19 2022, the Toronto Blue Jays were on the road at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox. 

In the fourth inning, J.D. Martinez hit a ground ball to shortstop off Yusei Kikuchi. The ball went straight to Bo Bichette, but he hesitated transferring it to his throwing hand. He then launched a high throw over Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s head at first base.

The issues against the Boston Red Sox were not an isolated incident, as he had transfer problems against the Houston Astros in 2023. On June 8, 2023, Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve hit a ball right to him. He successfully got the ball into his throwing hand, but as he transferred it, he fumbled it, leading to an error.

These issues have been the catalyst for Bo Bichette being in the top five among shortstops in fielding errors since 2020. According to Fangraphs, he made a total of 35 fielding errors over the five-season stretch, tied for 5th most in the league.

Potential Solutions

The defensive issues can be alleviated in two ways: 1. If the Mets help him with transfer drills, his defense could improve because practicing cleaner transfers would give him more time to set his feet and make accurate throws, reducing errors. 

or
2. Move him to a position closer to first base, i.e., second base, where he has time to cleanly transfer the ball because he has enough arm strength to get the ball to first base, regardless of how fast the batter is running.