Acquiring Bo Bichette is one thing, and making him a dependable third baseman is another for the New York Mets.
Bichette has played the shortstop position for most of his career in the big leagues thus far, but now that he’s in Queens, he will have to learn to play the hot corner.
He’s shown glimpses of what he can do in that position on Monday in Port St. Lucie, Fla., with Mets manager Carlos Mendoza there to watch New York’s shiny new weapon do some work.
In an appearance on “The Show” podcast, Mendoza sounded positive about Bichette’s workout.
“We’re looking at a guy that has played shortstop his whole career — watching him today moving around third, taking grounders, creating angles, and just the throws to first I was telling him, ‘It looks like you’ve played here before,’” Mendoza said during a recent appearance on the New York Post’s “The Show” podcast (as transcribed by Jeff Gold of MLB.com).
The 27-year-old Bichette will be faced with the challenge of helping New York improve on its defense at third base, where the Mets finished the 2025 season with only a minus-2 DRS (defensive runs saved) above average.
New York should be less worried about his bat. Bichette is coming off arguably his best season yet in MLB, as he hit .311/.357/.483 with 18 home runs and 94 RBIs to go with a 129 OPS+ through 139 games in his final year with the Toronto Blue Jays.
