NEW YORK — He makes no excuses. There are no excuses. Not when you’re healthy and newly minted with a three-year, $126 million contract.
Yet, New York Mets shortstop Bo Bichette stands as the latest example of the difficulties that free agents sometimes face when changing teams.
“There are a lot of things I didn’t anticipate,” Bichette said. “Just dealing with everything. New teammates. New organization. Staff. New fan base. Just everything, I think.”
The Mets, pummeled by one injury after another, are playing better. Their come-from-behind, 7-6 victory Sunday over the New York Yankees in 10 innings left them with a surprising series triumph over their crosstown rivals, a 5-1 homestand and a 10-5 record in May.
Bichette, though, continues to stumble. His ninth-inning single Sunday enabled Tyrone Taylor’s two-out, three-run homer to tie the score. But prior to that, he went 0-for-4 and failed to catch a potential inning-ending popup in the sixth that extended the Yankees’ lead to 5-1.
He is batting .210 with a .531 OPS, the fifth-worst mark in the league. He has only seven extra-base hits and none in 61 at-bats since April 28. This, from a player who finished last season with 63 extra-base hits, starred offensively in the World Series and played a new position, second base, after missing nearly six weeks with a sprained left knee.
“I don’t know if it’s been the toughest stretch of my career,” Bichette said. “But it’s up there.”
Bichette, 28, isn’t the only nine-figure, free-agent hitter performing below expectations. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Kyle Tucker and Chicago Cubs’ Alex Bregman also have struggled. The Baltimore Orioles’ Pete Alonso, while better in May, remains below his career norms. The Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber and Yankees’ Cody Bellinger, on the other hand, are pretty much playing the way they usually do.
What do they have in common? They didn’t change teams.
One executive says teams that sign big-money free agents should anticipate paying a “tax” in the early months of the deal, not financially, but in the player’s statistics. For players coming to New York, the tax often is even higher. Bichette, rarely jeered during his seven years in Toronto, heard boos in his very first series at Citi Field.
Still, he’s better than this. Everyone knows he’s better than this. So what gives?
Some theories:
Bichette is pressing
Well, sure. Players who change teams naturally want to succeed as quickly as possible. Players who change teams on big contracts want to justify the money. And players who change teams on big contracts, then find themselves playing for a struggling club beset with numerous injuries, are even more desperate to make an impact.
Bichette fits all of those descriptions.
The Mets were without Juan Soto early. They’re currently without shortstop Francisco Lindor, first baseman Jorge Polanco, center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and catcher Francisco Alvarez, nearly half their projected lineup.
Two of their current regulars are rookie outfielders Carson Benge, who began last season at High A, and A.J. Ewing, who started it at Low A.
“Being on a new team, I just want to help the team, first off,” Bichette said. “But I think naturally I want to impress people and show people what I can do. Not being able to do that is tough.”
Bichette is unlucky
No one would dispute that point. Bichette, based on his expected stats, is among the most unlucky hitters in the league.
Entering Sunday, the 67-point drop from Bichette’s .277 expected batting average to his actual .210 mark was the fifth largest in the league among hitters with a minimum of 150 plate appearances. The 127 point drop from his expected .398 slugging percentage to his actual .271 mark was the second largest.
Sports Info Solutions offers another way to measure Bichette’s poor luck, citing the number of Good Fielding Plays against him. As SIS’ Mark Simon wrote, “Good Fielding Plays vary in nature but share the common thread of a play requiring extra effort that netted a positive consequence.”
Entering Sunday, Bichette led the majors with 10 such plays against him. He had only eight all of last season.
Players crave positive results. When those results are elusive, it can damage their confidence, compel them to try even harder, make matters worse.
Bichette might not know all of the numbers, but he’s aware of his general misfortune. Asked if it bothers him, he said, “I think recently more so.”
“Early on, I was able to keep it in pretty good perspective, that it’s just how the game goes,” he said. “At the end of the day, the luck is the luck. I definitely haven’t put my ‘A’ at-bats every single day, every single pitch. I can be better.”
Bichette is not hitting the ball as hard as he did last season, and one Statcast metric suggests he might be off mechanically. His attack angle — the vertical angle at which the sweet spot is traveling at the point of impact — is the flattest in the league.
Bichette also was below league average in previous seasons, though not to this extent. His 52.6 percent groundball rate is easily the highest of his career. His launch angle is the second lowest. He’s simply not getting the ball in the air.
Bichette is suffering from changing positions, and changing back again
Part of the bargain Bichette struck when he agreed to his $126 million contract with the Mets was that he would move to third base. So, on top of adjusting to a new team in a new market, he had to learn a new position, too.
His stint at third probably went better than most expected, but it was interrupted after 33 games. Bichette returned to short, his original position, after Lindor’s replacement, Ronny Mauricio, suffered a fractured left thumb on May 2.
The additional disruption probably did not help Bichette any. Mets second baseman Marcus Semien, Bichette’s teammate with the Blue Jays in 2021, said, “Short’s a lot more demanding. I’ve played shortstop. It’s harder to hit as a shortstop. He’s adjusting back to that.”
Bichette agreed with Semien, to a point.
“I do think it’s a more demanding position, for sure. It takes a little bit more mentally,” he said. “But I’ve done it my whole career. It (his subpar hitting) doesn’t have to do with that.
“Maybe switching back and forth, not anticipating I would be playing there, might have something to do with it. But no, I’ve hit as a shortstop my whole career.”
Bichette is crumbling under the weight of his contract
Money alone creates pressure. And Bichette’s deal contains an added twist, an opt-out provision that would enable him to re-enter the free-agent market next season at 29.
Fans rightly will have only so much sympathy for a player who can earn $47 million if he spends just one season with the Mets — $42 million in salary, plus a $5 million buyout if he opts out.
But is it possible that Bichette is unnerved by the prospect of blowing his chance for even greater riches next offseason in a weak free-agent market? Might he be second-guessing his decision to reject a seven-year, $200 million offer from the Phillies in favor of his higher average annual value with the Mets?
It would be only natural if such thoughts crossed Bichette’s mind. But go back to his introductory news conference with the Mets last January. That day, he said he embraced the challenge of playing in New York.
“I’m ready for it, and I’m excited for it,” Bichette said then. “These fans hold you accountable, and I think as a player wanting to be your best self, that’s only a positive.”
And now?
“I signed here for three years,” Bichette said. “The opt-outs, any player would love them, to have control of their future, whatever the case might be, where they want to be, if they want to search for something else, I don’t know. But when I signed here, I took it as a three-year deal.”
He is a proven hitter. He is prone to snap out of this at any time. But it’s not just one thing that might be messing with Bichette mentally. It’s everything.
“Just wanting to be the player that the Mets signed is something that I think about a lot,” Bichette said.
