Andy Green’s return as the Mets’ full-time manager may end up being more than just an organizational decision. It could also be a factor in Bo Bichette’s looming opt-out.
Bichette made that much clear this week when he spoke to NJ.com about Green, calling him “probably my favorite manager to play for.”
Asked whether Green’s presence in the dugout would matter when he decides whether to opt out this winter, Bichette didn’t dodge it.
“I think I’ve always desired to play for a manager like him,” Bichette said. “So, yeah. It definitely plays a role.”
Green, for his part, said the respect goes both ways. When told about Bichette’s comments, he lit up and spoke at length about the third baseman’s approach.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for who he is as a person, the way he competes, the way he leaves it on the field every day,” Green said. “He’s wired right. I think it all starts with respect and trust and I just try to be as honest as possible in all situations.
“My hope is that everybody here sees that I believe what’s best for them individually is best for us collectively. We’re always solving for how we all get better.”
Green said he hasn’t pushed Bichette for an answer and hasn’t tried to steer him one way or the other. The decision, he stressed, belongs to the player and his family.
“That decision is his alone,” Green said. “He has that right in his contract.
He knows how I and the entire organization feel about him. We all believe that next year is going to be really special for him.”
There’s a pretty obvious case for Bichette staying put. Even after what will go down as the worst full season of his big-league career, he is set to earn $42 million in 2027 if he opts in. And there’s another player option after that, also worth $42 million, which gives him short-term flexibility while keeping him attached to one of the biggest contracts in the sport by average annual value.
Bichette, 28, has also made it clear that winning matters to him. When he was introduced last January, he said signing with the Mets was the “obvious” choice because of the way New York prioritizes winning. This season has been a major disappointment, but the Mets’ second-half push suggests they may be closer to contending next year than their record says.
Bichette has seen plenty of reasons to believe that up close. He’s gotten tight with Carson Benge and A.J.
Ewing, watched the Mets’ young core - including rookie Nolan McLean and others - continue to develop, and experienced the way the club has played winning baseball down the stretch since Green took over. He’s also seen the team perform better when Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto have both been healthy and in the lineup.
The roster still has holes, and the Mets have work to do this winter. But Bichette can see the organization’s willingness to spend in the open market, and the trade deadline sell-off last month left the front office with more prospect capital to use in win-now deals. Some of those newly added prospects could help the big-league club as soon as next summer.
Comfort matters too. Bichette has now spent a year in New York, and he has settled in enough to look more like the star the Mets thought they were getting. Starting over somewhere else next spring would be a real consideration, especially for a player thinking about his family as much as his contract.
The numbers back up the idea that his year has turned around. Overall in 2026, Bichette is hitting .261/.312/.393 with 18 home runs in 158 games. But if you zoom in on his two-hit night with a homer against the Nationals on Friday, he has been much sharper since June 3, batting .291 with a .790 OPS and 13 home runs in 97 games.
Losing that kind of production would sting. It would leave a major hole in the middle of the Mets’ lineup and create another problem at third base, a spot that suddenly looks even more important with first and second already unsettled.
Still, the free-agent market could pull him toward the open road. If Bichette opts out, he may be the best hitter available, and that kind of summer surge can lead to a long-term payday with another contender. If he leaves, the Mets owe a $5 million buyout.
Bichette can sit on it through October while the Mets watch the postseason at home. His deadline comes five days after the World Series ends.
Green isn’t lobbying him hard, but he’s confident about what another year in New York could look like.
“He’s now acclimated to New York,” Green said. “I feel like he’s going to take off.”
In Other News...
Mets Fans Have A New Francisco Alvarez Disaster To Argue Over
The Mets opened their final series of the season with a 7-6 loss to the Nationals, and for a team already spending a lot of time reflecting on what went wrong, the middle innings supplied another frustrating snapshot. New York went with a bullpen game, and the third inning quickly became the kind of mess that tends to linger in memory, especially when it comes with Francisco Alvarez behind the plate and three wild pitches piling up around him.
There was some history mixed in on the other side of the ledger, too, as Bo Bichette launched a milestone home run and became the first Mets rookie to reach the 20/20 club. But the larger conversation for Mets fans is likely to stay centered on Alvarez and the latest ugly moment attached to his catching, because in a season full of uneven stretches, this one arrived at exactly the wrong time and only deepened the questions around him. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Season Finale Just Got More Complicated Than Fans Expected
The Mets season finale in Washington now comes with a little more uncertainty attached, as the Nationals have moved Sundays final regular-season game from 3:05 p.m. ET to 1:05 p.m. ET to get ahead of expected bad weather. For a club trying to close out the year on a clean note, even a simple time change can alter the feel of the day, from travel plans to pregame routines to the possibility of a quick, weather-shortened finish.
Washingtons season has already taken on a different tone, with the Nationals finishing at 76 wins, their best mark since 2019 and a sign of real progress after several lean years. Their front office, now led by President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni, is expected to spend the offseason looking for roster upgrades, which only adds to the sense that this final meeting with the Mets is less of a routine wrap-up than a checkpoint for where both teams are headed next. [Read more 🡒]
Mets Have A Strange Catcher Brag Few Fans Would Guess
A catcher is usually judged in New York by the usual things: whether he can handle the staff, control the running game and keep the game moving. The Mets, though, have quietly built a strange little piece of team history in that department. Over the years, several of their catchers have finished a season leading the league in caught stealing percentage, from Chris Cannizzaro in the early years of the franchise to Alex Trevino, Charlie OBrien, Vance Wilson and, most recently, Luis Torrens.
It is not the kind of banner anyone hangs from the outfield rafters, but it says something about how often the Mets have had catchers who could erase would-be base stealers. The numbers attached to those seasons have landed in a fairly tight band, and the list spans different eras of the franchise, which makes the whole thing even more unusual. For a club that has had plenty of memorable catcher debates, this is one stat line that has somehow turned into a recurring specialty. [Read more 🡒]