Report: Mets, Bichette Agree to 3-year Contract, $126 Million Deal

And now for your sports news we're joined by NTD's Dave Martindale. We've got some football news but let's start in baseball actually as the New York Mets have reportedly agreed to a three-year deal with free agent infielder Beau Bichette. Where do you see him playing? You know that's a good question because you know Bichette has been a shortstop his whole career. Now the Mets already right now have Francisco Lindor who's an all-star there at shortstop so I don't see him playing there. I think some teams have also viewed Bichette as a possibility at second base. Of course the Mets have just acquired Marcus Simeon there another all-star who either plays second base or shortstop. So probably not either of those two positions. Maybe third base though though even though there the Mets have that young young star of Brett Beatty there at third. So I'm not sure if they're thinking him at third base possibly at first base. The important thing though is to get Bichette back in the lineup. I mean he led the American League in hits in both 2021 and 2022. He's got power and average. He's young. He won't turn 28 until March. Now given he's young of course you would think you'd get longer than a three-year contract. This is reported to be and he's actually able to opt out of this contract after both the first and second seasons and become a free agent again. Now the total on this deal is reported three years 126 million dollars. That is 42 million dollars per season. That's pretty good there too. And then if he goes back and gets re-signed you know go up. I know he could be looking at you know a 50 million dollar a year deal. We'll have to see but you know what the guy who I think we're gonna talk about in a second he did very well too. Well let's do that because Bichette was in the only big signing in baseball recently as the LA Dodgers reportedly agreed to a deal with free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker. What did you make of this? Yeah the rich get richer for sure. I mean he was the best free agent available. He's going to the Dodgers. The Dodgers were the two-time World Series defending champions. They already have the highest payroll in the game but between this deal and you know previously signing free agent closer Edwin Diaz they've really shored up their two biggest weaknesses in the offseason here. That was the bullpen and the outfield. Tucker here is the big get really in free agency. He's about to turn 29 years old. He's a great hitter. He's a great fielder. He's a great runner. Four-time All-Star. He's a gold glove winner in right field there. He won a pair of silver slugger awards. Now he did not come cheap. Reports have this deal four years two hundred and forty million dollars. That's an average of sixty million dollars per season. Only Shohei Ohtani's deal which the Dodgers signed two years ago at seventy million dollars per year is more than that. Of course more than ninety percent of Ohtani's deal is actually deferred. No word yet on how much of this would would be actually deferred although the Dodgers are very well known for having a lot of deferred amounts in these big contracts. The Dodgers are essentially turning to what the Yankees were under George Stein Brenner Tiff. Successful and expensive and somewhat disliked for being so good you know. Especially if you're a Royals fan like me and just hoping they can be better. Hoping they can sign. We would have taken Bichette or Tucker or Ohtani for sure. But he didn't go to them. All right well big moves in baseball. Very sad obviously. Shifting gears to the NFL though. Yesterday we discussed the Seattle Seahawks. Listing quarterback Sam Darnold as questionable to play Saturday with an oblique injury. What's his response been? Yeah this was a mystery yesterday when it came out because he had not been listed previously on the injury report either Tuesday or Wednesday. Darnold cleared that up last night saying he feels like he'll be ready to play Saturday tomorrow and he added that there was quote close to zero percent chance he won't suit up. Now Darnold make it made his second straight Pro Bowl appearance at quarterback of this season. I should say was voted in the second time. He finished in the top ten in a number of passing categories. If he can't go even though he says it sounds like a very good thing very good bet that he will. They do have second string quarterback Drew Locke. Locke has not got much playing time this year though because Darnold has been so healthy. They would also possibly be the underdogs if Darnold can go. As it is right now Seattle seven-point favorites over at the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday. It's gonna be a big game there too. There would you look at that but that Seattle versus San Francisco game is one of four playoff games this weekend. Yes this is the second round of the playoffs also known as the divisional round. Don't ask me why that is it's just known as a divisional round though folks. Hopefully these games are as exciting as last week's game. Now last week's game tied an NFL record 12 lead changes in the fourth quarter among those six games. Now here's the four matchups we have this weekend. First we start off with Buffalo at Denver. That'll be Saturday afternoon at 430 and then the aforementioned San Francisco at Seattle. That'll be at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Then on Sunday the first game Houston is at New England. That'll be 3 p.m. Eastern and at 630 the LA Rams are at the Chicago Bears. Now the weather looks like it definitely could be a factor too. The Los Angeles Rams are gonna fly into Chicago and it is gonna be in the teens. In fact this game starts at 630. The low is for 9 degrees that day. It's gonna be very tough for a team from Los Angeles I would think to deal with that. We'll have to actually see. Foxboro Massachusetts is not gonna be much better for that New England game. The Houston Texas will come there with a it's supposed to be a 60% chance of precipitation. Temperatures will be in the in the 30s and of course Buffalo going to Denver is supposed to be freezing there in Denver again. But of course Buffalo is from a cold weather area too so they should they should kind of be used with. Really only the San Francisco versus Seattle is gonna have decent weather here from what I can tell. I don't know about you Tiff but I like watching football games in the snow. It's kind of fun when the elements are kind of part of the game. When the fans have to dig their way into the stadium. Yeah that's a tough one too. Have you ever seen that where they're they come in there's no. They get free beers for that. I bet that helps a lot right. Maybe it numbs you to how cold you actually are then the next day when you wake up and you're frostbite then maybe that's not so good. But I'm sure it was a fun experience when they do right. Some team bonding but who knew that you know covering sports you also cover the weather. I know I feel like a weatherman tonight you know I think this could be a second career. We need to put you in front of a green screen for that. That could be a challenge for me that's for sure. It's hard enough doing it like this. Well on that note I know you have a lot of games to watch this weekend and a lot of updates for us Monday so David Salas thanks for joining us. Thank you Tiff.