Brett Baty spent October with the big league team enjoying the postseason experience as a member of the taxi squad. The Mets third baseman donned goggles for champagne celebrations, took ground balls on the field and batting practice as well, knowing that his name probably wouldn’t be called but staying prepared in the event the Mets needed him.
According to second baseman Jeff McNeil, Baty also gave good hugs to teammates throughout the Mets’ postseason run to the NLCS. Somehow, that one didn’t make it onto the scouting report.
“I think the biggest thing was just the atmosphere and the crowds and stuff and slowing the game down,” Baty recently told the Daily News. “Just witnessing just playoff atmospheres and stuff like that was pretty cool.”
Over the last two seasons, it was Baty who could have used the hugs. He went back and forth from the majors to the minors, unable to stick in the big leagues. Sometimes it was his bat, sometimes it was his defense, sometimes it was both that led the Mets to send him to Triple-A Syracuse. Baty has shown flashes of the player the Mets thought he would be when they drafted him in the first round of the 2019 draft, but now they have to figure out what to do with him.
The picture is somewhat unclear given that Baty might be blocked at third base by Mark Vientos, one of his best friends. Vientos had a breakout season, hitting 27 home runs, posting an OPS of 837 and an OPS+ of 135 (100 is league average). In the playoffs, his OPS was .998, so it’s safe to say Vientos has solidified himself as a cornerstone of the lineup.
If the Mets don’t re-sign first baseman Pete Alonso, they could easily shift Vientos across the diamond. That could open up third base, but then that makes Ronny Mauricio the odd man out.
The Mets sent Baty to Triple-A to get reps at second base this season. Baty, who will be 25 on Wednesday, played 27 games at second with Syracuse this season, working on footwork, fundamentals and the catching and receiving aspects of turning double plays.
“I don’t really care where I play on the field, I just want to be out there in a major league stadium,” Baty said. “So I mean, if they want me to. I’m definitely going to have some conversations in the offseason just to see what they want me to do, what they want me to work on and stuff like that. But, yeah, I’m just gonna work hard and come back next year.”
The problem with second base is that the Mets have McNeil locked up for two more seasons and Luisangel Acuña waiting to see where he’ll play as well. The shortstop/second base prospect only got into 14 games with the big league team this season, getting a call-up when Francisco Lindor injured his back. However, Acuña looked good in those 14 games, going 12-for-39 (.308). This came after a lackluster Triple-A season, but the Mets admitted the 22-year-old brother of Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. might have been bored in the minor leagues. Acuña himself said he had trouble adjusting to playing in cold weather for the first time in his career.
That could push Baty to the outfield. The club has had conversations in the past about moving him to the outfield, but it has yet to happen. President of baseball operations David Stearns was asked about the possibility at the general manager meetings last week.
“I don’t think I would close the door,” Stearns said last week in San Antonio. “We learned a lot about Brett this year. One, we learned that he’s able to take a punch and go down and keep working. And I think we also learned that he’s able to play multiple positions. He picked up second base pretty quickly, to the point where we were considering adding him to a postseason roster with the possibility of him playing second base. That’s pretty significant…
“So his ability to do that leads me to believe that if we ask him to, he’s going to be able to play additional positions.”
Baty hit .252 with 16 home runs, 45 RBI and an .854 OPS in 62 Triple-A games this season. At the major league level, he hit just .229 with a .633 OPS. He’ll need to get the ball in the air more than he has previously and he’ll need to find a way to translate the minor league power to the majors.
However, he also showed improved defense at third and tackled a new challenge at second base. The Mets have a difficult decision to make if all of their infielders are healthy this spring.
“It’s a great conundrum to have,” Stearns said. “Having multiple young players who have the talent they have, who can all play multiple positions, if that’s where we are come spring training, that’s a very enviable position.”
