From hitting in the clutch to testing free agency, Bo Bichette has soaked up plenty of baseball advice from his big league dad over the years.<\/p>\n
Dante Bichette doesn\u2019t have much to offer about handling the hot corner, though.<\/p>\n
After signing a $126 million, three-year contract with the New York Mets, the younger Bichette was formally introduced by the team Wednesday and pulled on a No. 19 jersey at a packed Citi Field news conference.<\/p>\n
A two-time All-Star shortstop with the Toronto Blue Jays, Bichette will shift to third base with the Mets, who have Francisco Lindor entrenched at shortstop. Bichette said he hasn\u2019t played third since travel ball as a teenager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for the challenge. I mean, it\u2019s just like anything else: It\u2019s going to take work to be good at something, and I\u2019m willing to put in that work and we\u2019ll get after it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s different positioning, different plays you have to deal with at third base that I\u2019m going to have to get used to and learn, but I think that\u2019s all attainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dante Bichette, in attendance Wednesday along with other family members, was a four-time All-Star outfielder from 1988-2001. Known much more for his bat than glove, he played one inning at third base for Milwaukee in 1991.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know he did that. I had no idea,\u201d Bo Bichette said with a grin. \u201cThat would be interesting to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Household jabs aside, the new-look Mets are confident Bichette can make the switch successfully.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t grade well at shortstop last year, and Bichette entered free agency this offseason willing to move to second or third. He plans to call former Toronto teammate Matt Chapman, a five-time Gold Glove winner at the hot corner, to get some thoughts about manning third.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a player who is universally respected for his aptitude and his work ethic on the field,\u201d Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said about Bichette. \u201cAnd so when you combine those two things it generally gives you comfort that they can make adjustments, make changes, and Bo is very confident that he\u2019s going to be able to do this, and everything we\u2019ve seen backs that up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bichette spurned the NL East rival Philadelphia Phillies to sign with the Mets and gives them a proven hitter with a potent right-handed bat to help complement lefty slugger Juan Soto.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not unaware that New York is a challenge. I\u2019m not shying away from it. I\u2019m ready for it and I\u2019m excited for it,\u201d Bichette said. \u201cThese fans hold you accountable and I think as a player wanting to be your best self, that\u2019s only a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bichette batted .311 with 18 home runs, 94 RBIs and an .840 OPS in 139 games last year for the Blue Jays, who fell one win short of a World Series title.<\/p>\n
He hit a three-run homer off Shohei Ohtani in Game 7 of the Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and is a .330 career hitter with runners in scoring position \u2014 the third-best mark in the majors among qualified hitters since 2019.<\/p>\n
Bichette batted .381 with RISP last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if my eyes light up or anything like that, but definitely probably get a little bit more focus,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd my dad taught me a lot about it. That\u2019s all I heard about growing up was driving in runs, so I\u2019ve put a lot of work into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bichette, who turns 28 in March, gets a $40 million signing bonus payable March 15 and a $2 million salary this year. He has $42 million player options for 2027 and 2028. If he declines either option, he would receive a $5 million buyout, payable in $1 million installments each July 1 from 2036-40.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot of conversations about the different structure of the deal, and Bo had his choice of long-term deals, shorter-term deals, opt outs,\u201d agent Greg Genske said. \u201cHis priority was finding a place where he felt like he could get better as a player and have a chance to compete for championships.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From hitting in the clutch to testing free agency, Bo Bichette has soaked up plenty of baseball advice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,2032,9,24,320,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-108338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-mets","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}