00:00but I want to start with what's going on in New York because it's really fun to speculate all
00:05winter long and then have answers pretty much right away and we don't have answers as it
00:11pertains to Bo Bichette but Bo Bichette got his first taste of third base in professional baseball
00:16on Saturday in the Grapefruit League opener and it went okay I really don't think that you can
00:22take anything in particular away from it I know that there was a hyper clipped video of him
00:28making a throwing error that actually wasn't scored on him it was a missed catch error
00:32on the first baseman but I just want to pose this to you Bo Bichette the third baseman can you
00:37read
00:38into any in-game ground balls that he takes before February 26th no I think I don't think the Mets
00:48signed him to be very good there anyways but I think the Mets have enough confidence that over
00:55a decent period of time again it doesn't need to be great on February or March or it really doesn't
01:02need to be great in in May he has a lot of time to get comfortable there and he has
01:06Francisco Lindor to
01:07his left and Marcus Semien I guess also technically to his left uh to to help him I think hone
01:13in on
01:14some of the finer things there but I I feel like the hyper analyzing of every ground ball like that
01:20we saw some backfields footage yeah and I did perfect timing Peyton um where he's not fielding
01:26those balls with a ton of intent he's just getting used to the feel and the look there and I
01:31think
01:31people are very much overreacting to how he is picking the ball over there he's a guy that look
01:36is he a good shortstop not really but he's gotten by at shortstop for a while now I think he
01:41can get
01:41by at third base as well once he gets comfortable it seems like it and honestly it seems like the
01:46bigger
01:46question for the Mets is Jorge Polanco at first base because that's entirely foreign to him but
01:50we'll talk about another guy getting acclimated at first base a little bit later on in the program
01:54but the Met infield is interesting because they obviously prioritize run prevention and that's how
02:00they spend the entire winter we talked over the holidays chances are uh you were at the dinner table
02:05on Christmas night or on New Year's Eve and you were talking about the Met defense and how they got
02:09a
02:09heck of a lot better and oh maybe Luis Roberts in the fold in center field up the middle surely
02:14with
02:14Semien and Lindor but the corners are going to be a question I just don't think it's fair until you
02:20have a large enough sample and I like that you brought up May you might not have the large enough
02:26sample by May I it just depends how many opportunities Bichette gets and why can't he be better there in
02:32July they need him to be better there in October because he's going to hit all season long you got
02:38to
02:38get there and as long as you don't make you know as long as you don't not make the play
02:42in October
02:42I think it's totally fine however Bichette and Polanco may do well and I think in an effort to
02:49also just keep the the DH spot rotating a little bit more and a guy that was banged up at
02:54the end
02:54of last year right so maybe in an effort to keep him healthy as well and Brett Beatty's turned himself
02:58into I think an above average third baseman at the very least you know solidly average uh so you
03:04could have Beatty playing some third and Bichette DH-ing some days and I think you can make a really
03:08strong case that across the rest of the the field they have improved defensively uh and and even
03:15with Polanco at first base a lot of confidence that Polanco is going to figure it out and get
03:19pretty comfortable there and and most likely grayed out better than Pete Alonso did but beyond that
03:23like you put Carson Benj who I think is a viable center fielder in right field with his arm you
03:28put
03:28Soto over and left and then Luis Robert and we've talked about with the buying it's going to be
03:32fantastic in center field Semien and Lindor is as good as it gets in Major League Baseball up the
03:37middle and then I think a big part of the defensive hit from Alvarez last year was actually just the
03:40thumb issue that he was dealing with he was a phenomenal receiver before that I think this
03:44defense is going to be better whether Bichette is bad or close to average and you do have the
03:51fallback of well Bichette can DH once or twice a week and you can you know say that in the
03:56name of
03:57preserving his health but also less than the blow maybe of the defensive side of things with him but
04:01again he has so much time
Comments