WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Brett Baty has not been paying attention to his spring training stats. The third-baseman-turned-second-baseman has played more games than any other player in camp with the Mets this spring except for one, and has maintained a consistently high level of offensive production throughout.
The team’s leader in OPS is probably who you expect — Juan Soto, with a 1.217 OPS in 36 plate appearances. But Baty is right behind him, having posted a 1.010 OPS in 46 plate appearances. Hearing this, his eyes went wide with surprise.
However, the 25-year-old knows that the only numbers that count are the ones he posts during the regular season.
“Those stats don’t mean anything,” he said.
Still, he’s happy with the results he’s been seeing this spring, and so are the Mets.
“I feel really good at the plate,” Baty said. “I’m swinging at strikes, taking balls and hitting the ball hard.”
Baty has been hitting line drives, and like he said, hitting them hard. He’s hit two home runs, four doubles and a triple, stolen a base and cut down on his strikeouts this spring. Those line drives are important, especially since he’s hitting them hard enough to go over the fence.
It’s no secret that Baty has struggled at the plate in the big leagues, and it’s led to multiple minor league demotions over the last two seasons. Baty has always hit in big league spring training and in Triple-A, but it hasn’t always translated to the Major League level in the regular season. He’s been prone to hitting ground-ball outs instead of elevating the ball.
But now that a spot has opened up for him at second base, he appears to have made the necessary adjustments at the right time.
Baty credits a shift in his mindset this spring. His agent connected him with hitting coach Aaron Capista over the winter, who encouraged him to be aggressive earlier in counts instead of waiting for the right pitch.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll sit down and have a meeting with him.’ Had a meeting with him, like, one of the first days I got back [from the playoffs], and we talked for like three hours, and then the next day we were like, OK, ‘Let’s go hit,’” Baty said. “And then we started hitting. And we pretty much hit like five days a week throughout the offseason.”
Baty was able to build on the work he did at second last year with Triple-A Syracuse over the winter, and while he hasn’t exactly mastered the position, the Mets are comfortable with him in the middle infield. Sending him to Triple-A to learn second base was an unconventional decision when it was made last June, but with Jeff McNeil and Nick Madrigal both injured, it was a decision that could end up paying dividends this season.
“It’s a process, but I think it helped playing those games in Triple-A last year,” said Mets infield coach Mike Sarbaugh. “If he hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
Baty looks comfortable at the position and even made a diving stop in a Grapefruit League game on Wednesday. The pivot to turn double plays is still a work in progress, but he’s progressing nicely.
“That’s probably the hardest thing,” Sarbaugh said. “When you go from the left side to the right side, everything is kind of reversed, so it’s just getting him comfortable with that. He’s worked hard and he wants to get better, so that’s all we can ask.”
The Mets have not finalized their roster yet, but Baty has out-hit his competition and showed well at second base. The roster spot looks like it might be his to lose.
“He’s putting himself in a good position,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “Last night was a really good game offensively and defensively, and he continues to do what we’re asking him to do. That’s the only thing he can control. Let us make those decisions. But he’s having a nice camp.”