The Mets are officially in teardown mode. Sitting at 40-57 and 12 games back of the final NL wild-card spot, New York has started fielding calls on veterans, and Bo Bichette's name keeps coming up. There's just one issue: Bichette has a no-trade clause, and according to Jon Heyman, he's not saying whether he'd actually use it.
Heyman's report that Bichette wouldn't commit either way on invoking his no-trade protection.
Bichette noncommittal when asked if he would invoke his no-trade clause @NYPost_Mets
That noncommittal answer matters more than it might sound. Bichette landed in Queens after Toronto shipped him out in May, then signed a 3-year, $126 million deal with the Mets that carries an AAV around $42 million, opt-outs before both 2027 and 2028, and that no-trade clause now sitting at the center of everything. Reportedly, a trade is unlikely unless the Mets are willing to eat a big chunk of the roughly $84 million left on the deal, and even then, Bichette has to sign off.
He's already been asked point blank about it, and his answer wasn't exactly a door left open. "I came to New York to win. The no-trade clause is there for a reason. And I'm just leaving it at that," he reportedly said, which reads less like coyness and more like a guy reminding everyone who actually has the leverage here.
For the Mets, that's the whole complication. This isn't a rental they can just flip for a couple of prospects and move on. Bichette signed up believing New York was building a winner, and now he's watching that same front office pivot to sell mode midseason. If he digs in and refuses to waive the no-trade, the Mets are left holding a $42 million-a-year infielder on a roster with no immediate path back to contention -- which is exactly why every word out of his camp is getting parsed this closely.
Nothing forces Bichette's hand until the front office actually puts a deal in front of him, and his own player-option decision looms after the 2026 season regardless of where he's playing. Until then, expect the speculation to keep running well ahead of any real answer -- because right now, Bichette is the only person who actually knows what he'll do.