NY Mets Monday Morning GM: Best, worst, somewhere in between Bo Bichette outcomes

Bo Bichette has almost gotten away with being one of the biggest culprits for how badly the New York Mets have been. Other than getting booed on the third day of the season, he has managed to escape the bulk of the scrutiny.

In fairness, David Stearns is batting close to .000 with his offseason. Carlos Mendoza continues to frustrate and now seems like a lever-puller than someone who actually designs the machine. Countless other Mets have been unplayable while Bichette has surprised us with above-average defense. It’s his nearly absent offense which has him on the naughty list.

After a 5-4 road trip, we’d like to think positively about the Mets. It was maybe the worst above .500 way to spend the last week and a half as the Mets did little more than beat up on two of the league’s worst then remind us they’re not even in the same category as the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bichette was, yet again, one of the biggest absentees throughout the road trip. How is this going to end?

The best, the worst, and a somewhere in between outcome for Bo Bichette and the Mets

The best: Bo Bichette isn’t traded, opts into his deal, and has a much better year in 2027

Are you a real fan if you want the Mets to suck just for change? As ugly as it can get, it’s difficult to root against any individuals. This includes Bichette who hasn’t felt like anything more than a mercenary who’ll get to take home an additional $5 million just for telling the Mets to kick rocks. On what is essentially $47 million guaranteed, the absolute best outcome for the Mets is for him to remain with the club and put together a better year in 2027.

The difficulty here is that he’d only opt into the deal if this year remains a bad one. Upon the signing, it didn’t seem possible for Bichette to play poorly enough to not get a better deal. Unable to escape the lower half of the .200s in batting with only predicted stats aiding to make him look good, Baseball Savant tells a different tale than Baseball Reference. Expected results only get you so far.

The worst: The Mets hold onto Bo Bichette hoping for a better outcome in 2027 and he never does much

Then there’s the worst. Bichette’s one-year deal with an asterisk becomes a three-year contract where the Mets are shoveling money into his pocket to perform like a number 8 hitter. His defense declines. Everything in his Mets tenure blows up in their faces.

The notion of “it’s only money” doesn’t work when you pass over other opportunities in free agency. The Mets aren’t going to uncommit to Bichette in some way if he’s hanging around. And with Marcus Semien already on the roster, it’s not as if they can move him anywhere. This isn’t a tedious contract that’ll go on forever. Still, for another two years, it can be a burdensome excuse and repeated failure. No one should actually expect Bichette to be as bad as he has been thus far. Completely hitless in four straight games, he has gone from turning his season around back to a state of hopelessness.

Somewhere in between: The Mets trade Bo Bichette, eat a large part of his salary, and go back to the drawing board

It’s not the end of the world if this ends up as a failed experiment. No one figured the beaker would break because of the bat, though. We figured, if anything, Bichette would just be so bad fielding the ball the Mets might need to bail.

Bichette is a fascinating trade candidate because of his contract situation. The Mets can’t possibly dump the whole load anywhere else without throwing in cash or some sort of prospect compensation. It’s different if he was playing well, which would still happen by the time we get to the August 3rd MLB Trade Deadline. Bichette would have to be significantly better for this to feel good at all. Paying the complete contract and agreeing to take on half of his 2027 salary is the bare minimum they’d need to agree to in order to make this happen. As we learned with the 2023 trades of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, even those trades for legitimate prospects can sometimes turn into very little. Luisangel Acuna and Drew Gilbert have since fallen off and been traded. Ryan Clifford, as powerful as he is, will need to be the special one to make those trades memorable for more than creativity.

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