{"id":112348,"date":"2026-01-16T14:41:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=112348"},"modified":"2026-01-16T15:16:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T20:16:24","slug":"whats-next-for-mets-after-landing-bichette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/16\/whats-next-for-mets-after-landing-bichette\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s Next for Mets After Landing Bichette"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a quick turn of events after missing out on<\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tuckeky01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Kyle Tucker<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the New York Mets ink star free agent<\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bichebo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Bo Bichette<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to a<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/16\/mets-strike-back-sign-bo-bichette-to-126m-deal\/\" target=\"_self\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">three-year, $126 million deal. <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will Sammon of The Athletic was first to report on Friday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The deal includes opt-outs after the first two years, no deferrals and a full no-trade clause, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The signing is not official due to a pending physical.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to multiple reports, the Mets will deploy Bichette at third base. This is a position he has never played in his seven-year career. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bichette clearly became President of Baseball Operations David Stearns\u2019 Plan B after Tucker &#8212; so what\u2019s the plan now?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What&#8217;s Next for the Mets<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Bichette set to be the everyday third baseman, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/batybr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brett Baty<\/a> is left without a clear role. Though according to Dan Martin of the New York Post, the Mets plan to play Baty at multiple positions. Baty spent time last season at second base, appearing in 57 games. In previous years, the Mets had the former 2019 first-round pick play outfield \u2013 specifically left field. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though whether the team wants to make that change or move him to second remains to be seen. This also opens up the doors to a potential trade for Baty, who would likely be shipped for an outfielder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Top League Content<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the addition of Bichette, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vientma01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Vientos,<\/a> <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/acunajo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span>Luisangel Acu\u00f1a <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mauriro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ronny Mauricio&#8217;s<\/a> chances of being dealt shoot up tremendously. The Mets have <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/12\/16\/mets-open-trading-infielders\/\" target=\"_self\">remained open on trading all three<\/a> and likely will if the return would satisfy their needs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team is still seeking an outfielder and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bellico01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cody Bellinger<\/a> remains available as of Friday afternoon. Though the Yankees have been in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/16\/the-yankees-must-get-bellinger-signed-asap\/\" target=\"_self\">deep talks<\/a> with him and his agent Scott Boras, the Mets could swoop in late like they did with Bichette.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Mets also need to add a starting pitcher to their rotation that doomed them in 2025. The club has shown recent interest in free agent <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cannigr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Griffin Canning<\/a>, who after suffering a season-ending ruptured left achilles tendon in 2025, pitched off a mound Thursday for the first time since the freak accident. Canning, 29, produced a 3.77 ERA in 76.1 innings for the Mets last season and is represented by Wasserman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trade options include <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/03\/two-trades-mets-offseason\/\" target=\"_self\">Freddy Peralta<\/a> and McKenzie Gore, who the Mets recently <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/04\/why-mets-should-go-after-ranger-suarez-free-agency\/\" target=\"_self\">spoke with<\/a> the Nationals about, with <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valdefr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Framber Valdez<\/a> remaining as the top arm still left in free agency. The Mets, among other teams have reportedly met with Valdez. The former Astro is likely to take a shorter-term deal as more and more time passes by \u2014 something the Mets are looking for.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Top Image Credit: <span>Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a quick turn of events after missing out on Kyle Tucker, the New York Mets ink star free agent Bo Bichette to a three-year, $126 million deal. Will Sammon of The Athletic was first to report on Friday.\u00a0 The deal includes opt-outs after the first two years, no deferrals and a full no-trade clause, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5706,"featured_media":112358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1071],"tags":[1608,2690,899,2359,2514,1303,2319,3335,1378,29235,164,3866],"class_list":["post-112348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","category-mlb","tag-bo-bichette","tag-brett-baty","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-framber-valdez","tag-freddy-peralta","tag-griffin-canning","tag-kyle-tucker","tag-luisangel-acuna","tag-mark-vientos","tag-mckenzie-gore","tag-new-york-mets","tag-ronny-mauricio"],"modified_by":"Matthew Nethercott, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112348"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112369,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112348\/revisions\/112369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}