The New York Mets have signed infielder Bo Bichette to a 3 year, $126M contract on Friday which is pending a physical.
New York had previously offered free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker a deal in the $50M per season range, only to lose out to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mets front office quickly pivoted from there and offered a shorter term, higher AAV deal for the former Blue Jays shortstop.
Bichette hit .311 with 18 home runs, 94 RBIs, and 78 runs scored for Toronto in 2025, and was the youngest of the veteran free agents on the market this offseason. The soon to be 28 year old was linked to several teams, including the Phillies, Mets, Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Dodgers, but ultimately chose the deal which would have him hit free agency once again at age 30 over a longer term contract.
It’s unclear where Bichette will slot in defensively with his new team, though 3rd base could be an option for the 2x All-Star. New York traded for veteran infielder Marcus Semien earlier this offseason, and already have 5x All-Star Francisco Lindor pencilled in at shortstop. With the new pieces added to the team, the Mets could deploy an infield that looks something like this:
1B – Jorge Polanco
2B – Marcus Semien
SS – Francisco Lindor
3B – Bo Bichette
DH – Brett Baty
Bichette has played 713 regular season games at shortstop, and has appeared at 2nd base before, but has yet to take any reps at 3rd base in a Major League game throughout his career. That being said, the righty’s defensive metrics almost universally took a step back in 2025, leading some to believe a positional change was inevitable at some point.
Coming off a sprained knee ligament, the former Blue Jay missed the first two rounds of last year’s playoffs before returning for the World Series. When he rejoined the lineup he didn’t miss a beat, posting a .923 OPS over the seven game series vs. the Dodgers, including a 3 run homer in Game 7 which appeared to be the game winner before LA mounted a furious comeback.
Because the Blue Jays offered Bichette his $22.025M qualifying offer, they will receive a compensatory draft pick after the 4th round as a result of him signing with another club.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.