Bo Bichette will remain with the Mets for the 2027 season. Will Sammon of The Athletic reports that the two-time All-Star is bypassing the first opportunity to opt out of his three-year deal. Bichette will lock in a $42MM salary for next year. He can opt out after ’27 or trigger another $42MM player option for the final season of the contract.

This was the general expectation. There’s no bigger factor in a player’s opt-out decision than the way they performed in the preceding season. Bichette’s first year in Queens was a disappointment. He turned in a league average .260/.312/.390 batting line with 18 home runs over 696 plate appearances. Bichette received mixed reviews defensively in his move to third base. FanGraphs valued his season around two wins above replacement, while Baseball Reference had him shy of one WAR.

It’s obviously not what the Mets had in mind when they added Bichette on one of the largest annual values in league history. His three-year, $126MM guarantee came with a $42MM AAV that tied for the sixth-largest ever. The opt-outs made it even more favorable to the player, as did the fact that he’d receive a $5MM buyout (albeit deferred for a decade) if he opts out at either point.

That meant Bichette was weighing a two-year, $84MM decision this offseason. That would have been difficult to pass up even if he didn’t have the flexibility to opt out again next year. Bichette will ideally have a better 2027 season that’d make it a tougher call for him to decide whether to retest the market at age 30.

To his credit, Bichette showed some signs of turning things around midseason. He had an ice cold start to the year, carrying a .219/.275/.308 line into June. Bichette hit .284/.333/.439 with 13 homers the rest of the way. That’s still well below the .311/.357/.483 season that concluded his time in Toronto, yet it’s solidly above-average production.

The Mets tied for 20th in scoring and ranked in the bottom third of MLB in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging. They’d need to eat a significant portion of Bichette’s contract to generate interest on the trade market. It’s unlikely they’d find an offer worthwhile given their overall need for offense. Bichette should be back alongside Francisco Lindor to comprise the left side of their Opening Day infield. This was the only option decision for the Mets, who don’t have any major league free agents this year.

Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images.