Bo Bichette, who nearly earned a World Series ring with the Blue Jays last season, thinks this Mets team » has an opportunity to let me get there.”
Bo Bichette reached the 11th inning of Game 7 of the World Series last season with the Blue Jays, but fell short of a championship ring.
The sting is still real.
“This is probably helping,” Bichette said Wednesday at Citi Field, where he was introduced as the new Mets third baseman. “To be that close, you never know when you’re going to get that opportunity. But I think this team has an opportunity to let me get there.”
Bichette, 27, arrived on a three-year deal worth $126 million that includes opt-outs after the first two seasons.
He brings an authoritative right-handed bat to a lineup that subtracted Pete Alonso, who accepted a $155 million offer over five years from the Orioles.
Last year, Bichette posted a .311/.357/.483 slash line with 18 homers and 94 RBIs in 139 games before missing the final three weeks of the regular season (he returned for the World Series) with a left knee sprain.
The question isn’t so much what Bichette will bring offensively — he’s posted an OPS of at least .800 in six of his seven major league seasons — but whether he can adapt to his new position, third base.
Accompanied by his family, which included his father Dante — a former outfielder with the Brewers, Angels and Rockies, Reds and Red Sox — Bichette said he expects to succeed in the transition from shortstop (he also played second base in the World Series).
