{"id":112962,"date":"2026-01-27T13:22:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=112962"},"modified":"2026-01-27T13:22:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:22:46","slug":"bichette-already-settling-into-the-mets-with-a-trusted-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/27\/bichette-already-settling-into-the-mets-with-a-trusted-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Bichette Already Settling Into the Mets With a Trusted Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a flurry of roster moves over the past week, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has reshaped the roster in short order. After missing out on Kyle Tucker, the Mets quickly pivoted to free agent Bo Bichette, signing the shortstop-turned-third baseman to a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/16\/mets-strike-back-sign-bo-bichette-to-126m-deal\/\" target=\"_self\">three-year, $126 million deal<\/a>. Just days later, New York addressed another major need by acquiring center fielder<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/21\/mets-trade-white-sox-luis-robert\/\" target=\"_self\"> Luis Robert Jr<\/a>. and further stabilized its pitching staff by adding ace <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/21\/mets-acquire-brewers-ace-freddy-peralta-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">Freddy Peralta.<\/a> The club also brought in right-hander <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/myersto01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tobias Myers<\/a> to bolster the bullpen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey are all excited to join our organization, and everybody\u2019s liking the way we\u2019re heading here,\u201d Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said on MLB Network Radio.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While those additions may be new to the Mets, Bichette\u2019s relationship with Mendoza is anything but. The two share a prior connection from earlier in their careers, dating back to when Mendoza managed Bichette\u2019s older brother, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=bichet000dan\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dante Bichette Jr.<\/a>, in the Yankees\u2019 minor league system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this week, that familiarity resurfaced as Bichette and Mendoza were reunited in Florida..<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWatching him take ground balls at third base was very encouraging,\u201d Mendoza said on \u201cThe Show\u201d podcast on Monday. \u201cHe\u2019s an athlete and we\u2019re looking at a guy that has played shortstop his whole career. Just watching him today, moving around, taking ground balls, creating angles and the throws to first base I was telling him it looks like you\u2019ve played here before. So he\u2019s super excited.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZmlrrLa7_Cc?si=RR61G28sf2FXeI7y\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>What About Jorge Polanco?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like Bichette, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/polanjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jorge Polanco<\/a> is also making a transition to a new position: first base.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think the game reps are going to be huge here. It\u2019s not so much about taking ground balls,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cA ball to your right, how far is that second baseman, getting used to instead of breaking for the baseball, getting back to the base. Getting familiar with the pitching staff, catching relays and taking throws.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the Mets continue to sort through their defensive alignments, Mendoza acknowledged that some creativity may be required early on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt takes time, we\u2019re going to have to get creative here. Try to put Polanco and [Brett] Baty and Mark Vientos and a lot of the guys in backfield action.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mendoza also shared a lineup concept he has been considering, highlighting the flexibility the roster now provides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI could see a [Francisco] Lindor, [Juan] Soto, Bo [Bichette] out of the gate. There\u2019s a lot of versatility, a lot of flexibility. I like the fact that there\u2019s some balance and I could put together a very balanced lineup. There\u2019s righties, lefties, the switch hitting from Lindor and Polanco, it allows me to protect certain guys.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><strong>(Top Image Credit: \u00a0John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a flurry of roster moves over the past week, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has reshaped the roster in short order. After missing out on Kyle Tucker, the Mets quickly pivoted to free agent Bo Bichette, signing the shortstop-turned-third baseman to a three-year, $126 million deal. Just days later, New York addressed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5706,"featured_media":112978,"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":[1608,164],"class_list":["post-112962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","category-mlb","tag-bo-bichette","tag-new-york-mets"],"modified_by":"Matthew Nethercott, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112962","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=112962"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112979,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112962\/revisions\/112979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}