Superstar. New team. New position. There are going to be a lot of eyes focused on Bo Bichette, the Mets’ prized free-agent addition who will be at third base in 2026 -- a position he’s never played as a Major Leaguer.
His first impression at the hot corner earned positive reviews. Making an appearance Monday on the New York Post’s “The Show” podcast with MLB Network insiders Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was pleased with his initial look at his third baseman.
“We’re looking at a guy that has played shortstop his whole career -- watching him today moving around third, taking grounders, creating angles, and just the throws to first I was telling him, 'It looks like you’ve played here before,'” Mendoza said.
It’s been well documented that a major focus of Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns’ offseason strategy has to improve his club’s “run prevention.” For it to work, Bichette will have to acclimate to third and Jorge Polanco will need to make an effective transition to first base, a position he's played for precisely one pitch in the Majors. Putting both of them in new spots gives the Mets a chance to do something extremely rare.
“There’s no question we’re asking two guys to learn some new positions,” Stearns said last week. “We’re also asking two guys with very high baseball aptitudes who are good athletes who have spent the majority of their careers at the shortstop position to learn new positions on the dirt. There are going to be learning curves. We’re going to make mistakes. I also have a high degree of confidence that both those players are going to be able to figure it out and play their positions at a pretty high level.”