Bo Bichette Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that the two-time All-Star is bypassing the first opportunity to opt out of his three-year contract. Bichette will lock in a $42 million salary for next year. He can opt out after 27 or trigger another $42 million player option for the final season of the contract.
That was the general expectation. There is no more important factor in a player’s decision to retire than how he performed during the previous season. Bichette’s first year at Queens was a disappointment. He had a league average of .260/.312/.390 with 18 home runs in 696 plate appearances. Bichette received mixed reviews defensively during his move to third base. FanGraphs rated his season at about two wins above replacement, while Baseball Reference had him at less than a WAR.
That’s obviously not what the Mets had in mind when they added Bichette for one of the biggest annual values in league history. His three-year, $126 million guarantee came with an AAV of $42 million that ranked tied for sixth-highest ever. The opt-outs made the situation even more favorable to the player, as did the fact that he would receive a $5 million buyout (albeit delayed for a decade) if he opted out at either point.
That meant Bichette was weighing a two-year, $84 million decision this offseason. That would have been hard to pass up, even if he didn’t have the option to opt out again next year. Bichette will ideally have a better 2027 season, which would make it harder for him to decide whether to retest the market at age 30.
To his credit, Bichette showed signs of a turnaround mid-season. He had a frosty start to the year, with a .219/.275/.308 line through June. Bichette hit .284/.333/.439 with 13 home runs the rest of the game. That’s still well below the .311/.357/.483 season that concluded his time in Toronto, but it’s definitely above-average production.
The Mets are tied for 20th in scoring and rank in the bottom third of MLB in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging. They would need to eat up a significant portion of Bichette’s contract to generate interest on the trade market. They’re unlikely to find an attractive deal given their overall need for offense. Bichette should be back alongside Francisco Lindor to figure out the left side of their Opening Day infield. It was the only possible move for the Mets, who have no major league free agents this year.
Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images.
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