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).
“It’s going to take work to be good at something and I’m willing to put in that work and we’ll get after it,” Bichette said. “I’m already getting after it. But we’ll get after it more when I get down to Port St. Lucie.”
The revamped Mets infield also includes Marcus Semien at second base with Jorge Polanco at first base. Both are also former shortstops.
“I think there’s probably going to be a lot of days this season where we are playing four shortstops on the infield, and that’s a pretty distinct advantage,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “I definitely think there’s going to be a learning curve. I’m not trying to dismiss that at all.
“We’re probably going to make a mistake or two, but we’re also going to have an elite range around the infield and that’s pretty exciting.”
Bichette was close to accepting an offer from the Phillies — the team’s president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski called it a “gut punch” to lose him. But Stearns downplayed the angle of the Mets stealing a player from a top division rival.
“I understand that fans find that satisfying,” Stearns said. “I think we need to make sure we are acquiring players, and especially at acquisitions of this magnitude, that we are acquiring players that fit what we want to do, not remove them from another team.”
The Mets filled another hole this week by acquiring center fielder Luis Robert Jr. in a trade with the White Sox for Luisangel Acuña and minor league pitcher Truman Pauley.
Stearns was asked if he could envision adding another piece to the lineup.
“I would say I feel good about where our position grouping is,” Stearns said. “But at this point in the offseason you can never predict what is going to happen. Different things emerge. We’re not going to close the door on anything.”
Bichette indicated he’s communicated multiple times in recent days with Semien, his former teammate with the Blue Jays. The 35-year-old Semien arrived in a November trade with Texas for Brandon Nimmo.
“[Semien] is a good one, he showed me the ropes, he’s a hard worker, he’s all business,” Bichette said. “He’s a competitor. He was a great mentor for me and I’m sure that in some ways I will still look up to him.”
Semien hasn’t visited Citi Field since his trade to the Mets and had a question for Bichette.
“He asked me what the clubhouse looks like and I had good reviews,” Bichette said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
