PORT ST. LUCIE — A week into his spring training, Brett Baty has been limited only to taking defensive reps at first base. The hamstring twinge he felt before reporting to camp here hasn’t popped up since he first felt it, but the Mets are still playing it safe as they convert their third baseman into a utility man.
Like Baty, Jorge Polanco is also on a slower spring progression and learning first base. As the Mets begin Grapefruit League play, the plan is to split time at first with Polanco and Baty, using Baty when Polanco is in the lineup as a DH, though both were out of the lineup for the Mets’ Grapefruit League opener against the Miami Marlins on Saturday afternoon.
Once the Mets are comfortable with Baty’s progression, they’ll have him take outfield reps on the backfields.
“I’m not going to put a timetable here,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Saturday at Clover Park. “We’ll probably see him play in the infield before we put him in the outfield, but we’re pretty confident that we’ll start seeing him in basic outfield drills before we put him in a game.”
Mark Vientos will get some time at first base as well once he returns from the World Baseball Classic, where he’s expected to play third base for Nicaragua. Jose Rojas, in camp on a minor league contract, played first Saturday against Miami for five innings.
The Mets are not concerned about whether or not there is enough time for Baty to properly get up to speed in the outfield since he’s taken reps in left in the past. Though Baty came up as a third baseman, he worked out in left field in 2023. In 2024, the Mets asked him to learn second base, and after playing games there in 2025, the team is comfortable enough with his abilities at third and second to keep him on a slower progression and focus on learning first.
The Mets lost 2-1, managing only one run late in the game. Left-hander Brandon Waddell pitched two scoreless innings, striking out three.
It was the first game for the new staff. Mendoza was able to get a sense of the sign system and the communication with pitching coach Justin Willard, hitting coaches Jeff Albert and Troy Snitker, bench coach Kai Correa and catching coach J.P. Arencibia. Bullpen coach Jose Rosado is the only holdover from the last two seasons.
“It’s always good to start that process,” Mendoza said. “Willard went out for a mound visit when we needed to get some time for the guy that was warming up since Carl [Edwards Jr.] was kind of running out of pitches there. [We saw] the sign system that we wanted to have with the base coaches, interaction with Kai as the bench coach, controlling the running game with J.P…
“There’s only so much you could do through Zoom calls and through meetings. Now that you get to play baseball, that’s when a lot happens, so there was a lot of good back and forth today.”
FRIENDLY FREDDY
New Mets ace Freddy Peralta received a shipment of new custom gloves over the weekend, some that he’ll use, and some that he might not. Peralta enjoys giving away his gloves throughout the season, mostly to kids, but often to members of the support staff or to others. He tries to give signed gear away to people that he knows it means something for.
Saturday afternoon, a fan in search of an autograph threw down their wallet from the bleachers. Peralta signed a business card he found inside of it, and gamely posed for a photo with the fan later.
UP NEXT
The Mets head to the Gulf Coast for two games Sunday and Monday, facing the Yankees in Tampa and the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin. Right-hander Justin Hagenman will start Sunday, while Clay Holmes starts Monday in preparation for the World Baseball Classic.
