The New York Mets opened their three game set against the reigning champs in Los Angeles with a 4-0 loss, their sixth in a row. Aside from a valiant comeback attempt against the A’s on Saturday, the Mets have been outscored 23-3 in the other five games of this early season skid.
After the game, Carlos Mendoza highlighted the team-wide inability to get the ball in the air, citing their 22 outs on the ground in just the last two games. The Mets’ hitting, which, coming into the year, was supposed to be a strength, has been anything but.
Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Of the nine players with over 40 plate appearances thus far, only three players have an OPS+ above 63 (league average is 100). Red hot hitters Luis Robert Jr. and Francisco Alvarez are at 147 and 180 respectively, while Mark Vientos is cooling down with an 82 OPS+.
Bo Bichette, in particular, is off to a concerning start given his pedigree as a hitter and the large contract he earned in the offseason. He continued his early season woes by going hitless in his three at-bats. His Savant hitting profile looks alien thus far in comparison to years past. Of course, in a small sample size, he’s ranking in the 50th percentile or greater in only two key hitting metrics: xBA (65th) and LA Sweet-Spot % (82nd). He’s striking out way more frequently and lifting the ball way less—the latter which is a team-wide trend. Surprisingly, given his change of position, his glove is outpacing his bat at the moment with an early +1 OAA in the hot corner.
So how worried should Mets fans actually be? Well first, contrary to his reputation as one of the most consistent hitters in the game, Bichette can actually be quite a streaky hitter. His end-of-season numbers are usually consistent, but the path there often includes a few detours. Let’s dig in.
Since Bichette became an everyday player in 2021, he’s amassed an OPS between .800 and .840 in all four of his healthy seasons. But how has his early production looked in those years?
- April 2021: .260//308/.531/.839
- April 2022: .213/.237/.298/.535
- April 2023: .317/.354/.508/.863
- April 2024: .213/.271/.306/.577
- April 2025: .295/.328/.364/.693
Okay, so his early seasons have been a mixed bag. But that’s not all. Not including 2024 (he played only 10 games after June), Bichette has amassed several months where his production started to tail further away from his career norms. Here is every month where Bichette’s OPS was south of .740:
- 2021: August (.636)
- 2022: April (.535), June (.723), July (.719)
- 2023: June (.735), August (.629), September (.718)
- 2024: Each month Bichette was under .740—he was injured for much of the second half
- 2025: April (.693), June (.687)
All in all, Bichette’s production, while poor thus far, is not something unique to his career. However, given the trauma Mets fans have endured with several big money contracts in the past, it will always be concerning when a new highly paid Met struggles out of the gate. Mets fans can only hope Bichette ends up closer to Francisco Lindor or Juan Soto than another Jason Bay.
