\n<\/p>\n
The smoke appeared a little later than expected. But the Mets still had something to celebrate Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Mets have agreed to a three-year, $126 million deal with outfielder Bo Bichette, a source told Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The team has not yet confirmed. MLB Network insider Jon Heyman reported that the deal includes two outs and is pending a physical.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Bichette’s reported deal was revealed about 18 hours after Mets owner Steve Cohen tweeted “Let me know if you see any smoke.” Cohen’s message was pending a decision by Kyle Tucker, who reportedly agreed to a four-year, $240 million deal with the Dodgers on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
According to Feinsand, the Mets had offered Tucker a four-year, $220 million contract.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Mets quickly turned the page on Bichette, who is expected to make the transition from shortstop to third base, according to reports. Just as Mets proved first baseman Jorge Polanco has never played first base, Bichette has never been a third baseman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The third baseman is Brett Baty, who has career highs (18) and RBIs (50) in 130 games. Baty missed the final week of the regular season with a right oblique injury.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The question surrounding Bichette – and the Blue Jays as a club – entering last season was whether 2025 would be a bounce-back year or more of the same following Toronto’s last-place finish in the American League East.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Both player and team responded emphatically. Following a 2024 campaign marred by injuries and poor performance, Bichette returned to form as a stellar hitter who led the AL in hits in three seasons from 2021-23. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays won the AL East and were one win away from a World Series title.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
After the season, Toronto offered Bichette a qualifying offer, which he declined. QO, which would have paid him $22.025 million in 2026, attached him to the draft compensation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Blue Jays will receive a 2026 Draft pick after the fourth round if he officially signs with another club. By signing a player who declined the QO, the Mets will lose their second and fifth round Draft picks this summer and will lose $1 million in their international bonus pool.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The son of 14-year MLB outfielder Dante Bichette, Bo is one of the game’s toughest outfielders. Last season, the shortstop posted a .311\/.357\/.483 slash line with 18 home runs and 94 RBIs. Despite missing most of the final month of the regular season due to injury, his 181 hits were just four shy of the MLB lead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
With a strong two-strike approach where he extends his stance, eliminates leg kicks and shortens his swing, Bichette often sees multiple pitches and often abuses the number of two strikes before finding a drive. He is a gap-to-gap hitter who can spray the ball all over the field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Last September, Bichette injured his left knee while sliding at home plate. He missed the remainder of the regular season and the first two rounds of postseason play. But he returned in the World Series against the Dodgers even though his knee was not 100%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
While Bichette’s hitting ability was compromised, it didn’t seem to affect his performance at the plate — he posted a .348\/.444\/.478 slash line and drove in six runs, including three on a 442-foot homer to center field in Game 7.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The smoke appeared a little later than expected. But the Mets still had something to celebrate Friday. The Mets have agreed to a three-year, $126 million deal with outfielder Bo Bichette, a source told Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The team has not yet confirmed. MLB Network insider Jon Heyman reported that the deal includes two …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2634,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions\/2634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}