An opt-out that has New York talking
Bo Bichette can walk away from his deal at the end of the season. The chatter around the New York Mets infielder has been building for days, with a thin winter market looming and very few proven bats expected to hit free agency.
Bichette is in year one of a three-year, $126 million agreement, worth $42 million a season. That puts him among the game’s biggest annual earners.
Jeff Passan of ESPN kicked the debate back into gear by saying the decision was basically a coin flip. Buster Olney isn’t buying that at all.
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Olney tears up the theory
Appearing on First Up on TSN1050 on Tuesday, the ESPN analyst questioned where the rumour started. “What’s coming out in a lot of media is that it’s 50-50. My first reaction is: where did that come from? Because we know it didn’t come from the Mets,” he said. “So it came from Bo’s side.”
He then went to the numbers. “His OPS+ is 97, while the league average is 100. He’s below average. He has an OPS of .702, an on-base percentage of .311. He’s had a poor year. And he’s not viewed as a good defender.”
The 2026 numbers back up the slide: a .261 batting average, 16 home runs and 73 RBIs. Aside from 2024, a season wrecked by leg injuries, Bichette had never finished below .290 at the plate or below .800 OPS.
The analyst then added a bit of bite to it. “I suspect that if Bichette opted out, Steve Cohen, the Mets owner, would cross town to hand him a Lamborghini.”
The 2027 lockout shadow
Another factor hangs over the decision. Talks over the collective bargaining agreement are moving slowly between the owners and the players’ union, and a 2027 lockout is still on the table.
“The labour uncertainty matters on both sides, because nobody knows what the economic system is going to look like when it lands,” Olney said. “Salary cap or no salary cap? He’s making $42 million a year. To start from there, seriously?”
Still, one case for opting out remains: this winter’s crop of available hitters is weak. Only one of them, Brandon Lowe, 32, has a 30-homer season on his resume. Olney admits that “against this free-agent class, that .702 OPS looks a little better.”
The analyst closed with a prediction. “I think at some point Bo’s camp will say: Bo decided to keep the money and he loves New York.”
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