TL;DR
Bo Bichette has a suboptimal swing, as indicated by MLB's Statcast metrics, which show he has one of the least-ideal swings in baseball. This issue was evident during his time with the Toronto Blue Jays and continues with the New York Mets.
Mets' Bo Bichette has an odd swing problem, and he had it with the Blue Jays, too originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Bo Bichette doesn't have the ideal swing.
At least according to all of MLB's Statcast metrics, he actually has one of the least-ideal swings in baseball. That was true with the Toronto Blue Jays, and it's still true with the New York Mets.
This sentiment comes from a stat shared by Baseball Savant called "Ideal Attack Angle" for a hitter's swing path.
The ideal angle is between 5 degrees and 20 degrees at the point of contact -- in other words, the bat path heading slightly upward through the baseball.
That should, in a perfect world, create the contact most likely to be line drives or fly balls, as opposed to grounders or popups.
Bichette, though, isn't good at that.
Last season, he ranked third-worst in baseball by reaching an Ideal Attack Angle in his swing at 32.8% of the same.
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This season, he's second-worst in MLB at the moment at just 23.9% of the time getting to the Ideal Attack Angle.
This certainly feels like a contrast to the fact that Bichette is a fantastic hitter who led the AL in hits multiple times. But it does suggest that at least certain Bichette at bats end in a less-than-optimal way.
It's not an inherently bad sign. The only guy worse than Bichette in this stat so far this season is Angels star Zach Neto.
Last season, the player one spot worse than Bichette was his teammate, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Many of the game's best sluggers find their way to the Ideal Attack Angle more than double as much as Bichette, though. It certainly means he's never likely to grow into a home run hitter. He'll have to just make the most of the swing he's got.
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