Bo Bichette Is, At Long Last, In Peak Form With the Mets

Over the winter heading into the 2026 season, the New York Mets signed third baseman Bo Bichette to a three-year contract with player options for the 2027 and 2028 seasons -- the total deal would be worth $126 million. The only problem is that the Mets have not seen the numbers from Bichette that he’d put up during his seven-year tenure with the Toronto Blue Jays.

In Toronto, he owned a .290 batting average and .806 OPS to go along with 111 home runs and 437 runs driven in. Yet his offensive abilities have fallen off a cliff during his first year with the Mets as he currently sports a .266 batting average and .706 OPS with 13 homers and 65 runs batted in. That's not awful production, but certainly not what you'd expect from two-time All-Star Bichette.

With the 2026 season nearly over, Bichette has only managed to put together two months of quality offensive production. He really struggled to start the season from April to May, where his OPS sat below .600 and it was looking like his contract might be a bust.  He then provided a quick glimpse of hope in June, when he managed a .321 average and .883 OPS along with 13 extra-base hits and 18 runs driven in. At the time, it looked like he was starting to figure things out at the dish and might actually return to form for the rest of the season.

Well, his performance fell back in July, hence his .275/.320/.308 slash line for the month. It would have been easy for him to roll over, accept his and the Mets' fate, and just opt-in to his $42 million salary for 2027.

But that's not what happened. Bichette has played 18 games so far in August and it has proven to be the most effective stretch of time we’ve seen from him in a Mets uniform. Across a small sample size of 77 plate appearances, the third baseman has posted an excellent .329/.390/.557 slash line along with a 163 wRC+. His 0.9 fWAR during the month of August accounts for half of total fWAR for the season, which is both an indictment of his early play and a reminder of how good he can be when everything is clicking. He’s definitely on pace to make this month his best offensive stretch for the entire season.

What Has Led to Bo Bichette’s Uptick In Performance?

What’s actually been the biggest factor to Bichette’s inconsistency month-to-month has been his batted-ball tendencies. When he does a good job consistently hitting line drives is when we’ve seen him perform best, but when he starts to get rolled over and hit the ball on the ground is when he struggles. He's a free-swinger, which is contributing to this specific inconsistency.

During Bichette’s best two months at the plate (June and August), his line-drive rate has been above 26%. For the whole season, Bichette owns a 21% line-drive rate. Now in August where he’s putting up his best monthly batting average for the season, his line-drive rate is at a season-best 28.8% mark. Over Bichette’s career, his two highest line-drive rates for an individual season resulted in a season batting average over a .300 mark (26% in 2020 and 27.4% in 2023). It’s not the only time when he's hit for at least a .300 average, but that gives us a pretty good idea of when he's his performing at optimal efficiency.

Similarly, the reason why Bichette’s August performance has been even better than June is because he’s lifting the ball more in general and not hitting the ball on the ground as much. Thus far in August, he’s managed a 38.5% groundball rate, which is even better than his 44% clip back in June. Naturally, because he's lifting the ball more, Bichette has shown pretty good power in August, hitting two home runs, five doubles, and one triple.

The question that most fans will have about this hot streak is whether or not it will affect his eventual option decision at the end of the year. It's going to be tough for him to turn down $42 million after his earlier struggles (especially with the lockout looming), but if he keeps hitting like this through the end of September, the Mets may need to reevaluate their third base plans in 2027 and beyond.