SIMMONS SAYS: How much will it hurt Bo Bichette to be signed as a second baseman?

The baseball world is wondering: Is Bo Bichette’s big league future as a second baseman?

And because of that, how much will that end up costing him in free agency?

Here is the belief heading to this week’s winter meetings: Bichette’s defensive statistics as a shortstop are not impressive. Some teams, who swear by these numbers, will not consider Bichette as a shortstop.

But other teams do their own defensive work — and rely on their own scouting —  and Bichette probably is not as  terrible a shortstop as the numbers deem him to be.

What he hasn’t yet declared, though, is which position he prefers for the future.

Here’s the financial reality of his free agency: Shortstops make more money than second basemen. Currently, there are eight shortstops who are paid more than baseball’s highest-paid second baseman.

A shortstop who hits like Bichette should take home $30 million a season or more. An upper-echelon second baseman would be paid somewhere in the lows 20s.

Not that there is anything wrong with that kind of money.

Bichette, some voices are saying, may fit the Blue Jays better than almost any other competitive big league team. The Yankees have decided to hold the fort on spending, which is almost anti-Yankees. The Texas Rangers are going the same way and the L.A. Dodgers aren’t likely to look in Bichette’s direction, either. There doesn’t seem to be a long lineup of teams for Bichette.

Which leaves what? Maybe the Boston Red Sox? That’s one rumour heading into the Orlando meetings.

But the Jays probably make the most sense for him — especially with money seemingly no object these days with Edward Rogers’ team. With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first base, Bichette at second and Andres Gimenez at shortstop, the Jays would have the highest-paid infield in all of baseball — at about $80 million a year, which includes Ernie Clement’s new contract being part of it.

THIS AND THAT

Probably the largest mistake Brendan Shanahan made in his time running the Maple Leafs was pushing Lou Lamoriello out the door. When Lamoriello was replaced by Kyle Dubas as general manager, the Maple Leafs roster had Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Nazem Kadri, Zach Hyman, Frederik Andersen, James van Riemsdyk and Morgan Rielly. Over time, they lost Hyman, Andersen and van Riemsdyk for nothing in free agency. They traded Marner and Kadri away for next to nothing. That’s pretty terrible asset management in the big picture for a team that has never had anything resembling playoff success. Lamoriello, in the meantime, inherited a rather weak New York Islanders team and won six playoff rounds in the years the Leafs won two. Lamoriello’s strength has always been in team-building. I’ll always wonder how differently Matthews, Marner and Nylander might have developed under Lamoriello’s tutelage, where everything was about team first … Wyatt Johnston has 12 power-play goals for the Dallas Stars. Matthews, heading into Saturday night, had one for the Leafs, which tied him for 125th in power-play scoring. Which is embarrassing for both the player and the team. In his career, Matthews has scored just 24% of his goals with the man advantage. That’s a relatively low number for an elite shooter. How does that compare to other great goal-scorers? Alex Ovechkin has scored 36% of his record number of goals on the power play. Brett Hull was at 35% for his career. Phil Esposito at 34%. Mike Bossy at 31%. Joe Sakic at 32%. The Leafs’ failure, through three coaching staffs, has been in not finding a way to get their premier goal-scorer to be more productive with the man advantage than he has in his career. Playing him now at the top of the umbrella, in a point-like situation on the power play, is not the answer … Matthew Knies, who may be playing his way on to the U.S. Olympic team, has gotten better in each of his three seasons with the Leafs. He has risen from .437 points per game his first year to .725 his second year and 1.16 now in his third campaign. This is reminiscent of Lanny McDonald’s beginnings in Toronto, at least statistically: McDonald was .42 as a rookie per game, .68 in his second year and 1.24 in his third. Their games could not be more different but their early stats are surprisingly similar … In Troy Stecher’s past three games with the Leafs, he’s averaged 24 minutes of play. He’d never done that before. In his final three games with the Edmonton Oilers, before being placed on waivers, Stecher averaged just more than 10 minutes a game.

THIS AND THAT

This never stops being complicated. There should be a new member of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Sunday night. Maybe more than one. The best player on the Contemporary Era ballot is Barry Bonds. The best pitcher on the ballot is Roger Clemens. For obvious seasons, they have not made the Hall of Fame to date. They may never get there. The likely choice tonight, if there is only one, is Don Mattingly, the former Blue Jays coach. Is he the best choice? No. But popular and best don’t always belong together. Ex-Jay Carlos Delgado had a significantly better hitting career than Mattingly, who had five brilliant seasons as a Yankee. Delgado had 12 very strong offensive seasons. Among the 16-voters: Our great Hall of Fame pitcher, Ferguson Jenkins, and other Hall of Famers Jim Kaat, Juan Marichal, Ozzie Smith, Robin Yount, Alan Trammell and Tony Perez … Of the other players up for election on Sunday — Jeff Kent, Fernando Valenzuela, Dale Murphy and Gary Sheffield — Murphy is the best choice among those four.

HEAR AND THERE

The NHL Broadcasters Association has made a significant change to its Hall of Fame award named for Foster Hewitt. In the past, only play-by-play announcers and colour commentators were eligible. That has now been extended to hockey hosts as well, which should finally open the Hockey Hall of Fame door to, first, Dave Hodge, and following him James Duthie and Ron MacLean … Still no place to put Don Cherry, unless he’s eligible in the builders category, which I don’t believe would ever happen … One year, someone other than Duthie will have to host the Hall of Fame event. So he can be properly inducted … Congrats to friends and colleagues, Hazel Mae, Kevin Iole, Cassie Campbell Pascall and the coach, Russ Anber, who have been recognized by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, the International Boxing Hall of Fame, or the International Hockey Hall of Fame in recent days. All well-deserved … And don’t you wish Darren Dutchyshen were alive and, loud as ever, making the introduction speech for Anber. I can hear him now in my mind … If anyone other than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is named Canada’s athlete of the year on Tuesday, consider me dumbstruck. SGA’s defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder have started the season at 22-1 … The newest Argos hiring, John Hufnagel, is one of football’s most significant builders of the past two decades. Not sure what he brings now to the job at the age of 74, but his view of the CFL, the NFL and football in general has always been elite … Wasn’t that nice of Donald Trump to pardon former MLSE boss Tim Leiweke, who had been indicted on a U.S. federal conspiracy charge? Leiweke was the one who brought Masai Ujiri to the Raptors … An NHL pro scout: “No one has done a better job coaching this season than Marco Sturm (in Boston). I don’t think people knew how good a coach Marco was before he took this job.” … Looking like another Leafs mistake: Letting Alex Steeves get away in free agency. He scored 63 goals the previous two seasons for the Marlies. He went to Boston in free agency and has six goals in 13 games with the Bruins. In 14 callup games in Toronto over four seasons, he scored once.

SCENE AND HEARD

Whatever video replay was intended to be when it began in every professional sport, it has certainly lost its way. Originally, it was meant to correct officiating mistakes. It was not meant to find obscure ways to alter rulings. The Tampa Bay Lightning had a goal disallowed the other night against Pittsburgh that was topic enough for a college debate. Calls like that don’t make the sport better. They make the sport worse … You can’t know what a touchdown is or what a catch is anymore until you see the football replays. And I have no clue about how instant replay works — or doesn’t work — in baseball and basketball. Always confusing … One thing I’d like to see: When a call is obviously wrong and the officials miss it, the war rooms should be able to alert the officials to their mistake and have that decision changed in real time …  This is how much the Florida Panthers think of their Team Canada forward Sam Reinhart. He’s like having a coach on the ice, they say. “He’s Sidney Crosby smart,” said a Panthers voice. If he wants to, Reinhart is a perfect GM candidate once his career is over. “How many people score 57 goals one season and are a Selke candidate the next,” said Florida coach Paul Maurice … If this it for Chris Paul, the wondrous point guard, after parts of 21 NBA seasons, what an unfortunate way for a superb and telling career to come to an end … Just when you thought the Raptors were this stunning contender, along came four losses in their past five games, including two to the now 7-16 Charlotte Hornets … You have eight forward spots to fill on Team Canada for the Milan Olympics and 16 players to choose from. Who are you taking? You can play the GM game here yourself. Who are you adding to your team? Nick Suzuki? Brad Marchand? Mark Stone? Macklin Celebrini? Connor Bedard? Tom Wilson? Brandon Hagel? Mark Scheifele? Johnston? Sam Bennett? Anthony Cirelli? Bo Horvat? Hyman? John Tavares? Seth Jarvis? Travis Konecny? My picks: I hate leaving off Stone because he can play up and down your lineup and be so strong defensively, but I’m doing so because of health reasons and speed reasons. My eight additions (or holdovers from 4Nations team would be Suzuki, Bennett, Marchand, Wilson, Celebrini, Hagel, Johnston and Bedard to play all alongside Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Brayden Point, Crosby, Marner and Reinhart … And some great and important players will be left behind because there is just too much talent up front… And as great as he may be, it’s too soon for the rookie Matthew Schaefer at this level and too hard to play defence at the Olympics. He’ll be perfect four years from now in the French Alps.

AND ANOTHER THING

A year ago, the Leafs were getting occasional offers on minor-league goalie Dennis Hildeby. But they held on, even with veteran Matt Murray as their No. 3 netminder. Now they’re about to find out: Can Hildeby play and succeed semi-regularly in the NHL? … All kinds of questions are being asked about the NHL’s condensed schedule in an Olympic year, combined with a lack of practice time and a shortened training camp. Have there been more injuries because of the tight schedule? Has play been at a lower level because of lack of practice time? There are genuine concerns about the quality of the games, which has been an NHL strength in recent years … The same questions were being asked — and are being asked — about this NFL season. Has the lack of live practices when combined with fewer pre-season games being played by starters, impacted the league? The past seven MVP winners — Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes (twice), Lamar Jackson (twice) and Aaron Rodgers (twice) are all having subpar seasons … Happy birthday to Giannis Antetokounmpo (31), Larry Bird (69) Johnny Manziel (33), Johnny Bench (78), Georges Laraque (49), Gerry Cheevers (85), Terrell Owens (52), Alex Singleton (32), Garry Unger (78), Peter Laviolette (61) and Pete Alonso (31) … And hey, whatever became of Michel Petit?