Brett Baty's time is coming, but when?
Mets infielder Brett Baty before a spring training game against the Marlins on March 1 at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
NORTH PORT, Fla.
The Mets are comfortable saying, with a very high degree of certainty, that Brett Baty will be their Opening Day third baseman in 2024.
As for next Thursday against the Marlins at loanDepot Park, that’s looking more and more like Eduardo Escobar — barring any health-related issues surfacing between now and then — with Baty ticketed for Triple-A Syracuse.
Nothing against Escobar, whose monster September (eight homers, 1.042 OPS) made him a final-stretch MVP last season. But the future is Baty, and his Grapefruit League performance would suggest that future is getting awfully close, if it hasn’t already arrived.
With the Mets’ entire infield away at the World Baseball Classic, Baty made the most of his bonus reps, hitting .333 (13-for-39) with a .905 OPS in 22 games. By all accounts, Baty’s exhaustive defensive work at third base — a process that began with his super-early arrival to camp in late January — has resulted in huge strides. Six-time Gold Glove winner (and bench coach) Eric Chavez told Newsday’s Tim Healey last weekend that Baty is “absolutely” ready to be a major-league third baseman right now.
“I feel like I’ve shown all I could,” Baty said before Thursday’s 2-2 tie with Atlanta at CoolToday Park. “Just trying to be as consistent as possible out there and put together good at-bats and play solid defense. That’s all I can ask for.”
Baty has done his part. So what’s the holdup?
As of now, he appears to be a victim of the standard stuff-beyond-his-control. The most logical path to get Baty on the Opening Day roster would require the removal of Darin Ruf, which would facilitate moving the switch-hitting Escobar into the righthanded DH role and have Baty as the starter at third.
I know what you’re thinking. Bounce Ruf? That’s all? Is this a trick question?
Well, from a roster standpoint, it’s pretty straightforward. Although Ruf was a deadline dud last season, showed up for spring training with an arthritic wrist and has hit .167 (4-for-24) in nine games, the Mets don’t sound prepared to sacrifice an experienced asset quite this early. Not even for Baty, apparently.
We sort of took this scenario for a test drive with manager Buck Showalter before Thursday’s game, but in more of a general sense, not Ruf vs. Baty specifically. What we got back was a lot of emphasis on “track record” and the foolishness of putting too much stock in spring training statistics (“It’s a big no-no,” he said).
These concepts are not absolutes, mind you. But they do illustrate Showalter’s efforts to pump the brakes on any snap judgments regarding 36-year-old platoon DHs and the team’s No. 2 prospect.
A day earlier, the Mets demoted their No. 1 — Francisco Alvarez — but there wasn’t much of a debate. Alvarez, a bat-heavy catching prospect, was never really in the DH conversation for Opening Day. Then it became a moot point when he hit .107 (3-for-28) with three singles and 10 strikeouts.
Sometimes, as with Alvarez, these decisions make themselves. In Baty’s case, however, the Mets seem to prefer a conservative approach while seeing how their major-league assets, i.e. Ruf and lefty DH Daniel Vogelbach, start the regular season.
“Everybody talks about the best 26 and the right 26,” Showalter said. “And you’re trying to blend those two things as much as you can this time of year.”
During Thursday’s pregame media chat, Showalter brought up Ruf unsolicited to praise his (mostly) unseen at-bats on the complex’s back fields, where the manager said he was hitting .600 with three homers (Ruf had a double and walk Thursday vs. Atlanta).
Showalter was spitballing on those B-game numbers, but you get the idea. It was a pushback on the anti-Ruf narrative. He also tried to curb the enthusiasm about Baty and Mark Vientos, the latter being a DH candidate with respectable statistics (.283 average, .807 OPS).
“The waters don’t always part and you just give somebody something that doesn’t have a track record of doing it up here,” Showalter said. “It’s still the biggest jump in sports — from that level to this level.”
That level being Triple-A Syracuse, where Baty spent only six games (22 at-bats) last season before being called up. The Baty hype train went off the rails when he homered in his very first plate appearance, but the 11-game joyride (7-for-38, two homers) ended with a torn ligament in his thumb that required season-ending surgery.
Now Baty is creating a buzz again in the countdown to Opening Day, but the Mets don’t seem compelled (yet) to force him onto the roster however deserving he might be.
“It’s hard not to think about it,” Baty said. “But at the end of the day, I can’t control anything, so I’m just going to go wherever they want me to. If it’s here, then I’m going to play really hard. And if it’s somewhere else, then I’m going to go there and show them I belong here.”
Knowing Baty, that should happen sooner rather than later.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
