Bichette's making the same move as A-Rod -- and the stakes are just as high

It was 22 years ago, on Presidents Day Weekend of 2004, that the Yankees swung a deal for a star shortstop whom they were about to move to third base. That was Alex Rodriguez, of course. As big a star as he had been to that point in his career, the Yankees had a bigger star at shortstop. Guy named Jeter.

Aaron Boone – whatever happened to him? – had been the Yankees’ third baseman the year before. Not only that, he had also hit one of the most famous October home runs in Yankee history, Game 7 against the Red Sox, the old Yankee Stadium, bottom of the 11th.

But then, in a quirk of fate, Boone tore up a knee in an offseason pickup basketball game. So the Yankees suddenly needed a third baseman, at the same time the Rangers were looking to get out from under A-Rod’s massive contract. Just like that, A-Rod was a Yankee. And they weren’t just bringing him to New York to get them back to the World Series; they were bringing him there to win one, even though that wouldn’t happen for him – and for his team – for five more years.

No one would suggest that Bo Bichette, a star young shortstop himself for the Blue Jays, has had the career that A-Rod had before he got to New York. But he is about to make the same move that A-Rod made, in his career and to his right across the infield, because the Mets also have their own star at shortstop in Francisco Lindor.

• Why move to Mets could unlock the best of Bichette

And it is not just this kind of move that is the same for Bichette, even playing in Queens and not the Bronx. It is the stakes. Whatever Steve Cohen and David Stearns are saying, they expect Bichette to be one of the players who puts them back in the World Series for the first time in 11 years, and only the third time since the 86’ers.

By the way? Alex Rodriguez was 28 when he was traded to the Yankees. Bo Bichette will turn 28 in March.

Despite the way the Mets broke into a million little pieces across the second half of last season, Bichette is just one of the moves Stearns has made with the expectation that this Mets team is going to make the kind of deep run into October that it did in 2024, when it made it all the way to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, getting one more game off the Dodgers than the Yankees did in the World Series.

Upon joining the Mets, Bichette said this: “It’s very obvious that I wanted to be a Met."

Something else he said was that a personal preference about his natural position of shortstop wasn’t nearly as important as wanting to win the World Series for the Mets that he had come so close to winning with the Blue Jays, all the way to extra innings of Game 7 against the Dodgers.

Bichette put it this way:

“My first priority is winning. And obviously, this organization is doing everything they can to do that. [The Mets] have an opportunity to win a World Series every single year, and you know, a roster that backs that up. ... I think winning in New York is probably the biggest accomplishment you can have in sports. So I look at it as a challenge. I know there's ... a ton of talent. A lot of proven guys. Guys are proven in the playoffs, and I just look forward to chasing that goal with them.”

So a few months later, he is a Met now. He comes to the Mets at a time of tremendous change for them, Pete Alonso having left as a free agent and Edwin Díaz having done the same and both Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil being traded away. Freddy Peralta is now the ace of the Mets' pitching staff, and Marcus Semien is to Lindor’s left at second base, and Jorge Polanco is over there at first, replacing Alonso, the greatest home run hitter the Mets have ever had.

There is no way to ever know for sure how a big-ticket free agent is going to respond to the kind of baseball stage that New York provides, and the pressure that comes along with it. Juan Soto, Bichette’s new teammate, not only dealt with it splendidly when he was traded to the Yankees, he essentially did it all over again when he was the one who signed a free-agent contract with the Mets, for a whole lot more than Bichette will be making, simply because it was more ($765 million) than any baseball free agent had ever made. Soto showed up all over again, having almost the same season with the Mets that he did with the Yankees, as if introducing himself to New York all over again.

Now Bichette is new to the city, and new to third base the way A-Rod once was. He is the one asked to deal with the bright lights of the big city. But again: The stakes are the same for him as they were for Rodriguez. He said it himself. He wants to see if he can make it there. You probably know the rest of the song.