00:00Joel Sherman with three things. My last full day at Met Camp for a few weeks. I'm heading across the
00:06state to the Yankees for a little bit.
00:09But yesterday, I spent a lot of time watching Bo Bichette play his new position.
00:17I spent a lot of time talking to Bo Bichette, and I spent a lot of time, actually, the night
00:21before, talking to Alex Rodriguez,
00:23who's the most famous player who has made the transition, especially in their prime, not the only one, but the
00:29most famous one,
00:31did it at the exact same age, entering his age 28 season from shortstop to third base.
00:36So why don't we â Bichette was the biggest addition of the offseason, at least to the positional group.
00:43If you think Freddy Peralta was bigger because the Mets needed a top-of-the-rotation type starter, I'm with
00:48you.
00:49But to the position group, Bichette was the big deal, a guy they gave a three-year, $126 million contract
00:56to,
00:58a guy they gave opt-outs to after each year, and I would suspect if he has a healthy, good
01:02year,
01:04and maybe even just a good year, he's going to opt out and try to get more in the marketplace.
01:09So three things today. Why don't we talk a little bit about this transition and what Alex Rodriguez thought
01:15and what Bo Bichette thought of all of this.
01:18So number one, I did find it interesting yesterday on the field.
01:23You should know, if you've never done spring training, especially at this time of year,
01:26there's a little bit of a three-ring circus element to this all.
01:30There's pitchers out on the back mounds working on pitching.
01:35Then on a different field, there's a different group of pitchers working on fielding practice.
01:42There's hitters in the hitting cages.
01:44There's outfield drills.
01:46And then there's stuff often done on the main field where you want to use the bigger field for some
01:50stuff.
01:51Yesterday, Tuesday, it was bunt drills.
01:57And Bo Bichette told me something interesting.
01:59He said from the moment he signed his contract to be a third baseman,
02:03this was the day he was thinking about.
02:06Because he said when you're a shortstop, bunt drills are often you're just standing around.
02:10You know, you cover second base.
02:12Sometimes there's a wheel play.
02:13But you're not very much involved in it.
02:16Third basemen are involved in bunt plays, obviously.
02:19And while the bunt isn't what it was in a different era, you still have to deal with it.
02:25There are teams who use it in sacrifice situations.
02:28There's teams, there's players who will sneak a bunt every now and then.
02:31By the way, Juan Soto does it every now and then.
02:33I was watching him bunt yesterday, in fact.
02:36He'll sneak a bunt in every once in a while when he sees a shift and he thinks the team
02:40has fallen asleep
02:40and he thinks he could get a free 90 feet.
02:43And if you think about that third base play, it's about the no man's land where you're crawling in
02:50and they were working on runner-on first and second, runner-on second situations where what do you do?
02:57Do you go back to the bag?
02:58Is the ball bunted firmly enough that the pitcher is going to get to it towards the mound?
03:04Is it a squibbler where the catcher could get to it?
03:08Third baseman's got to make this very instantaneous decision.
03:10Do I run back to the bag?
03:13Do I continue to charge?
03:14If you continue to charge, do you have the good navigational skills to avoid the catcher and the pitcher
03:21and be able to have signals, voice, whatever, to call, hey, mine?
03:26At that point, you have the ball.
03:28What do you have time to do?
03:30Should you just try to get the easy out at first base,
03:32which is a different throw for a third baseman than a shortstop,
03:35throw the ball across your body as you're running towards home plate,
03:39or do you pirouette and go back to third base?
03:42So I'm watching Bo Bichette do this for the first time in a Met uniform, in a drill.
03:49And he said he didn't dread it, but he was, because it was new to him, he was anticipating it.
03:55And he went through this.
03:56And this is part of the next six weeks.
04:00It's a very sped-up, advanced course on learning a new position.
04:04I will say this for Alex Rodriguez.
04:07I literally watched him do this in 2004.
04:10He was a guy who would come a couple of hours before the regular practice.
04:14I remember him.
04:15I could see it in my mind's eye.
04:17Rob Thompson, Larry Boa, Greg Nettles, him standing on a backfield at what is now Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
04:27Alex never wanted to be embarrassed on the field doing something, and he learned to do it.
04:33And, you know, my suspicion is Bo Bichette will put in the work.
04:38The thing to remember is Alex Rodriguez went from a great fielding shortstop to arguably better than Jeter,
04:45and I'm not sure there's much of an argument there, to third base.
04:50So, you know, he was coming with real defensive chops.
04:54Bichette is not known as a strong defender at shortstop, and he's moving over to third base, which brings us
05:01to number two.
05:02A-Rod said this, and Bichette agreed with him, that moving because the guy who's there is a great player
05:10makes this easier.
05:11In his case, Jeter played shortstop.
05:14It was understood.
05:14He was a four-time champion.
05:16He was the captain of the team.
05:17He wasn't going to move for Alex Rodriguez if Alex Rodriguez was arguably at that moment on trajectory to be
05:23the greatest shortstop of all time or not.
05:25You know, the Yankees weren't going to disrespect Derek Jeter, so it was understood.
05:28And A-Rod said, you know, you don't want to move for a utility player.
05:32You want to make sure you're moving for a good reason, and he's moving for a good reason.
05:36Same is true here with Francisco Lindor, who's kind of on a Hall of Fame arc as well.
05:42Maybe not quite as obvious as Jeter's was,
05:45but I think if this is where he continues, he ends up in Cooperstown.
05:48So, and Bichette said, yeah, it's easier to do it.
05:52You know you're doing it for a star.
05:53But I thought Bichette also said something interesting about the move that I think says something maybe about him.
05:59He said, you know, all the ego about playing shortstop went out the window when I played second base in
06:05the World Series.
06:05And I think it's a big deal that he played second base in the World Series, and here's why.
06:10He hurt his knee last year.
06:12He sprained his knee and missed from the beginning of September to the World Series.
06:18He didn't play the field.
06:19So it was about seven, seven and a half weeks he didn't play.
06:22And then he was sent out to play second base because he didn't have, wasn't going to have the range
06:28to play short.
06:29And Andres Jimenez was playing the hell out of shortstop last postseason, if you remember, the former Met.
06:34So they put him at second.
06:36And like third base, he had never played an inning there in the minors or the majors.
06:41And he really acquitted himself well at the new position on a bad leg under the biggest pressure.
06:48So his adaptability to do that at that time should be encouraging about making this move.
06:54Again, it's tough, tough move with all the things you have to go through to play third base.
07:02But I think the fact he did it and the fact he talked about, I left my ego at the
07:07door when I did that, so this is easier.
07:09And of course, let's not ignore the money.
07:11The money was there from teams like the Phillies who had Trey Turner, so he was going to play third
07:15base or second base for them, or the Mets.
07:18So he needed to get off of the position probably to get the money.
07:21But I think that he's come to peace with it is probably helpful, which brings us to number three.
07:28A-Rod talked about literally a mantra he had, which was over and over and over again to say, I'm
07:35a third baseman, I'm a third baseman.
07:36From the earliest memories of his life as a little leaguer, etc., he had always played shortstop.
07:43He had never played anyplace else on the diamond.
07:46He was always the best player.
07:48He was always the shortstop.
07:49And he said, it took some mental gymnastics to keep convincing myself I'm a third baseman.
07:56Bichette said he thinks he's there already, but the plays are different.
08:01I mean, I'll give you some.
08:02A-Rod talked about, like, when you're the shortstop, he said, you're the alpha, you're the quarterback, you're in the
08:06middle of the diamond.
08:07And he said, you know, you see the catcher's signs, you have time to react, you see the ball out
08:13of the pitcher's hand.
08:14If you're good at it, you could read the beginning of a bat swing.
08:16At third base, you kind of see it come out of the pitcher's hand, peripheral vision, but you have to
08:22be locked in on the hitter.
08:23There's no time to really read a swing.
08:25The ball is on you.
08:26I thought one of the things A-Rod said that was interesting, and Bichette kind of, like, shook his head
08:31and said, that's interesting.
08:31When I brought it to him, A-Rod said, you know, there's probably, like, five errors or so cooked into
08:38playing shortstop on certain kind of plays.
08:41He said that number doubles to about 8 to 10 at third base, especially on that do-or-die play.
08:46He said you're constantly, over the course of the season, facing that, do I back up on a ball or
08:52charge it?
08:53You got to know the speed of the runner, if you could back up on the grass, the strength of
08:57your arm, if you could get it there.
08:58And he said on most of those, you have to come, and it's a one-hopper, and you got to,
09:02like, make a scoop and do a do-or-die play.
09:05And he said, you know, there's going to be 8 to 10 errors cooked in because either the ball sticks
09:09or the ball doesn't.
09:11And he said that's part of it.
09:13And relays are different.
09:15And just the entire view.
09:17Alex was not a guy who loved pop-ups, but remember, at shortstop, you're protected on pop-ups a little.
09:22You got a second baseman, you got a third baseman, you got a left fielder coming in, you got a
09:26center fielder coming in.
09:27He said third base, it's a pop-up.
09:30There's no one really there, especially if you've got to go in foul territory.
09:32And he said as opposed to a middle-of-the-diamond one, the ball kind of fades towards the crowd
09:37when you do it.
09:38So there's a lot of changes there.
09:41Ultimately, the Yankees wanted Alex Rodriguez for a ton of reasons, but notably because he had one of the best
09:46bats in the world.
09:47So they were like, we'll figure out, get you to play third base.
09:50And A-Rod put in the work and became a really superb third baseman.
09:55Bo Bichette is here to hit third.
09:56He's here to hit behind Lindor and Soto.
09:59He's here to hit 300.
10:01He's here to hit 40 doubles, maybe 20 homers.
10:04Be a tough out, a guy who doesn't strike out.
10:07But to do that, he has to at least play third base competently at a time where David Stearns has
10:13talked a lot about run prevention.
10:14And the reality that Brett Beatty played well at the position, especially in the second half last year.
10:20So the education of Brett Beatty continues.
10:23The classroom is fully open.
10:25And it will be a fascinating story to follow all of spring training.
10:29I think he'll be there.
10:30I think he'll be there.
10:30I think...
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