Bo Bichette’s move from Toronto to New York has not gone according to plan through the first two months of the new season, but the former Blue Jay is still pressing to be the player the Mets thought he could be.
The 28-year-old signed with the New York Mets in the off-season on a three-year deal worth $126 million after a successful seven-year tenure with Toronto.
Bichette did a little bit of everything in Toronto - he was a capable shortstop, a two-time All-Star, led the American League in hits twice and even sprinkled in some power, launching 111 home runs in 748 games. Perhaps the biggest hit of his life came in Game 7 of last year’s World Series, when he unloaded on a Shohei Ohtani fastball for a home run to deep centre to give the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead they would not be able to hold on to.
But the early returns have not resembled the star that fans in Toronto got to watch grow alongside Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Bichette is currently hitting .210 with an on-base plus slugging percentage of .531 (fifth-worst in MLB among qualified hitters). He has two home runs on the year and has not collected an extra-base hit since April 28.
“There are a lot of things I didn’t anticipate,” Bichette said of the move to a new city in an interview with The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. “Just dealing with everything. New teammates. New organization. Staff. New fan base. Just everything, I think.”
Bichette’s struggles have been compounded by the fact that the Mets, despite entering the season as one of the favourites to compete for a World Series title, have struggled to a 20-26 record - worst in the National League East division.
“I don’t know if it’s been the toughest stretch of my career,” Bichette said. “But it’s up there.”
Advanced statistics say that Bichette hasn’t played nearly as poorly as the numbers suggest - his expected batting average (based on a variety of factors per at-bat, including exit velocity, launch angle and direction of a batted ball) is .278, per Statcast, and he is squaring up the baseball at an elite rate.
Per Rosenthal, the difference between Bichette’s batting average and his expected batting average of .067 is the fifth-largest in the league, while his expected slugging percentage is a whole .127 points higher than his true slugging percentage - the second-largest discrepancy in the league.
“I think [the bad luck has bothered me] recently more so,” Bichette said. “Early on, I was able to keep it in pretty good perspective, that it’s just how the game goes. 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 was also signed to play third base by the Mets, a position he has never played as a professional. He spent 31 games at third before moving back over to his natural shortstop after Francisco Lindor went to the injured list. His Mets teammate Marcus Semien thought the changing of positions may be part of Bichette’s struggle at the plate, but Bichette doesn’t think so.
“I do think [shortstop is] a more demanding position, for sure. It takes a little bit more mentally,” Bichette 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 said during the off-season that he was excited to play in front of a crowd that expected more of their players. He got to experience it firsthand in the opening week of the season, when he struck out in a key spot and heard a chorus of boos as he walked to the dugout.
But now after 46 games with the team, the thought of impressing those fans has started to weigh on him.
“Just wanting to be the player that the Mets signed is something that I think about a lot,” Bichette said.
Bichette has never finished a season in which he played at least 100 games with a batting average below .290 or an OPS below .800. He still has four months to try to get back to those marks in his first season in New York.
