It’s come down to this. How bad will Mark Vientos’ defense have to be for the Mets to declare him unfit to play third base? Anyone who’s watched Brett Baty over the past month can tell he’s in more than a batting slump. While Baty’s hot corner defense has been a little better than expected, aside from a good first few weeks of the season, he’s looked overmatched at the plate since April 20th going 13-77 (.169 BA) and a 30.2 percent strikeout rate. Statcast/Baseball Savant released some new metrics last week that my son and I discussed on our podcast. It included Statcast’s new bat-tracking metric that places Baty last in MLB (220th out of 220) in squared-up contact rate. Last. Making up ground to be a productive MLB hitter seems far away for Brett Baty.
Then there’s the defense
The Mets defense is second to last in MLB in defensive runs saved (DRS). There have been some notable gaffes in the field both physically and mentally from players such as Starling Marte, Brandon Nimmo, and Jeff McNeil. Even with Baty’s improved defense he too has made some bad decisions in fielding the baseball. Vientos has not been better in the field during his limited time with the Mets this season, but his bat has been vastly better even with the short sample. For a team like the Mets that consistently struggles to score runs, Vientos’ bat is a must-have in the lineup.
Baty had a similar slump in 2023, went to AAA and tore it up before being recalled and finishing the season with the big club. Baty’s AAA success has not yet been translated at the MLB level. Spread over three seasons, Baty has played 162 MLB games through Tuesday. His slash line is an unimpressive .214/.278//323 with an OPS of .601 and an OPS+ of 70, (30% below average). He has 14 MLB home runs and 54 RBIs for his 162-game career. Because he’s a #1 ‘can’t miss’ prospect, Baty has been given more rope that most players, and a lot more than has been given to Mark Vientos.
Team defense is reportedly prized by POBO David Stearns. Through nearly a third of the season the Mets defense hasn’t been a strong suit. But then neither has the hitting. Only the pitchers (aside from Adrian Houser), have outperformed what was expected. As far as overall team defense is concerned, the Mets can’t be that much worse with Vientos at third. Brett Baty will always be a better defender at third base compared to Mark Vientos. Tomas Nido has all but replaced Omar Narvaez while Francisco Alvarez recovers from his injury. Nido has hit better than expected and is vastly superior on defense to Narvaez. He will likely stay around once Alvarez returns making Narvaez the odd man out.
Is Baty’s defense enough to keep him on the major league roster, or is it better for the team, and for Brett Baty to spend a couple of weeks at AAA to fix the problem with his swing and approach? The team continues to struggle having lost four straight series, and six out of the past eight series splitting a four-game series with the Cubs at home and ‘sweeping’ a rain-shortened two game series in St Louis. That all seems like a long time ago.
We’ve already seen that the Mets can go on positive run since they did have a 12-3 run in April. May has been unkind to the team, and the decision on what to do with Brett Baty has come sooner than anticipated. Ronny Mauricio won’t be back until 2025 and the decision might be to let Mark Vientos have the third base job and hope his defense is good enough. There are currently few other alternatives.
