Oh Where, Oh Where Can Brett Baty Be?
Full disclosure, right up top: I’m rooting for Brett Baty to win the Mets’ starting third base job out of spring training. There are many reasons: First, all things being equal I’d prefer to see a young player get playing time rather than a veteran. Playing the kids shows an open-mindedness on the team’s part, as well as a level of faith in young players that allows them to go out on the field with a sense of freedom rather than a fear of failure. It’s forward-looking, which is an important consideration even for a club as well-resourced as the Mets.
But second, I’m a baseball writer who communicates mostly in puns, and to people like me, Baty is a divine blessing. As a general rule, baseball doesn’t do unit-based nicknames as much as hockey or even football, which is a pity. While other sports are rolling out the Legion of Doom or That 70s Line or Gang Green, baseball — a sport with an unparalleled literary and folkloric tradition, I might add — is resting on the laurels of the $100,000 Infield. It’s been more than 30 years since the Nasty Boys, for God’s sake.
So if the Mets end up having an infield of three multi-time All-Stars between the ages of 28 and 30, plus a rookie third baseman, we’re calling it the Three Men and a Baty infield. Agreed?
Ordinarily, a consensus top-25 prospect (Baty is no. 23 on the FanGraphs Top 100) would be given quite a bit of runway to earn a starting spot in the majors on any team. But the Mets, even after failing to bring Carlos Correa into the fold over the winter, have a strong incumbent third baseman in Eduardo Escobar. Escobar is coming off back-to-back 2-WAR seasons; in fact, he’s eclipsed the 2-WAR threshold in every 162-game season dating back to 2018. He also has a $10 million hit against the competitive balance tax and a $9 million club option for 2024.
This isn’t some anonymous journeyman fifth infielder Baty has to dislodge; Escobar is a real player. So what does Baty have to do in order to make that happen?
Well, so far, he’s hitting quite well. Baty is 8-for-17 with a double and a home run in Grapefruit League play; he’s put 13 balls in play, of which Baseball Savant has exit velo data for 11. Six of those were hit at 90 mph or more, including three at 99.8, 107.4, and 109.9. (It’s worth noting that Baty’s home run was not among the batted balls with a listed exit velo.)
But everyone knows aggregate spring training stats are basically junk. Not only is spring training inherently a small sample, opposing pitchers might not be going about their outing the same way they would a regular season appearance, and the quality of competition varies wildly. For instance, of the 18 pitchers Baty has faced so far this spring, only one or two could be considered an established big leaguer, depending on how you feel about Austin Davis and Anthony Misiewicz. To Baty’s credit, he’s crushed the opposition that’s been put in front of him, but we already know what he can do to Quad-A-type pitchers.
The truth is, if Baty hadn’t injured his thumb two weeks into his big league career last August, he might have claimed the job already. Baty made his major league debut last August 17, when he was called up concurrently with Escobar going on the IL for an oblique strain. Baty started the ensuing 10 games in an infield that included Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor; Pete Alonso started at first eight times and DH’d in Darin Ruf’s two starts at first.
We didn’t get to see how Buck Showalter and the Mets planned to juggle Baty and Escobar because they only spent two games on the roster together. The switch-hitting Escobar started the first against Rockies lefthander Kyle Freeland; Baty started the second against Germán Márquez, tore a ligament in his throwing hand while stopping a ball down the line in the eighth inning, and was never heard from again.
Baty’s ability to field his position could be the decisive factor. In fact, a more accurate title for this piece might be “Crush Now, My Baty; Be Still, Glove, Don’t Cry,” but I worried that the bridge of “Deliver Us” from The Prince of Egypt might have been one step too far into obscurity for a headline. What a shame, as The Prince of Egypt is an inner-circle Hall of Fame movie soundtrack. Anyway.
Coming off a 2022 big league cameo in which he made two errors on 30 chances in 11 games, Baty has made three errors in nine spring training games. Two of those were the kind of error that doesn’t inspire much confidence — just biffing fairly routine grounders.
Defense is the kind of thing veteran managers love to ding young players for, and that’s true across all sports at all levels, whether the rookie in question is actually a defensive liability or not. Outs at the plate don’t stick in the memory the same way errors in the field do. And remember, third base defense was the putative reason the Cubs conjured for keeping Kris Bryant in the minors in April 2015.
If the Mets don’t feel good about using Baty at third full-time, there isn’t really another spot to put him. First base is an obvious destination for any defensively deficient third baseman. But not only is Alonso about as well-entrenched as any first baseman in the league, if Baty struggles to catch the ball at third, that problem only becomes more serious if he moves to a position where catching the ball cleanly is basically the entire job. The Mets already have Starling Marte, Mark Canha, and Tommy Pham lined up for the corner outfield spots, and it wouldn’t be fair to ask Baty to learn the outfield in three and a half weeks after playing just 249 innings there in the minors anyway. I’d just as soon take my chances with him at third. And a part-time role at DH is problematic because while the Mets have a need at that position, (depending on how Pham gets used) it’s not on Baty’s side of the plate. The left-handed hitting Daniel Vogelbach hit righties to the tune of .261/.382/.497 last season; as high as I am on Baty’s bat, I’d take the under on his replicating that line as a rookie.
But sending Baty down to work on his defense is a similarly unappetizing proposition. This is a player the Mets picked 12th overall in 2019, then developed into one of the best offensive prospects in the sport. He’s 23 years old and has little if anything to learn in the minors. In 95 games and 420 plate appearances across Double- and Triple-A in 2022, Baty hit .315/.410/.533 with 41 extra-base hits. The greatest effect the minor leagues would have on Baty would be to reduce how much service time he accrues in 2023; caring about such things is poverty franchise behavior and would be out of character for the Mets under Steve Cohen.
And therein lies the solution. While most other teams would be concerned with the expense of a bench that includes not only Escobar but Vogelbach and Ruf, the Mets care not one iota for the financial norms of baseball. They could make Escobar the most effective and well-remunerated fifth infielder in the league if they so chose.
Even so, Escobar isn’t exactly a perfect partner for Baty at the hot corner. While his switch hitting ability allows him to form a platoon with the rookie, giving Baty the lion’s share of the playing time, Escobar is far from an elite defender himself. Last year, his defensive WAR ranked between that of Austin Riley and Alec Bohm among full-time third basemen. But if the Mets truly view Baty as a defensive liability, they have players available to mitigate the problem. Given the Mets’ ambitions and the potential in Baty’s bat, they’d be foolish not to give him every opportunity.
Michael is a writer at FanGraphs. Previously, he was a staff writer at The Ringer and D1Baseball, and his work has appeared at Grantland, Baseball Prospectus, The Atlantic, ESPN.com, and various ill-remembered Phillies blogs. Follow him on Twitter, if you must, @MichaelBaumann.
I don’t know what the publishing term for the line under the headline on the front page is, but please considered adding it to archived posts. So many good references and puns lost to the ages!
The Soul Patrol on the early-00s Twins didn’t really catch on broadly, huh?
Who was included in that?
Torii Hunter, Jacque Jones, and Shannon Stewart if I recall correctly.
Is Escobar really “strong” enough to keep Baty on the bench? I’d think EE only has another year as Mets starter if both perform well, and less if only Baty performs well. If the Mets kept someone who could back up at 7 positions Baty would be a viable bench option
Why put a top prospect on the bench though? Baty is probably a mlb ready hitter, but his defense is very rough looking from what we’ve seen in a sss last year, and early this spring. Escobar is bad defensively but by Buck’s remarks it sounds like he thinks Baty needs more work defensively.
It’s all about the routine plays. Escobar has Showalter’s trust as a fielder because, while he’s bad according to every defensive metric and visibly lacking in range/first step, he has a strong arm and doesn’t flub the easy ones. Baty… well, Baty has flubbed a lot of easy ones in very limited looks at the position.
Muffing easy plays annoys the pitchers no end.
Bad throws from rushing or tough plays can be grudgingly tolerated but easy plays need to be outs.
Still, Baty would start In the bigs on a few other teams but not on a contender with WS aspirations. The mets can’t afford to blowvand early season game giving a rookie, no matter how promising, with Atlanta and the Phils gunning for them.
Barring a last minute injury or trade Baty starts in the minors, wherever he can get the best 3B coaching, and won’t be up until his glove catches up to the MLB minimum.
This muffing seems like it won’t improve. He might be a COF/DH. Hands of stone are only good in boxing
Baty isn’t seeing gotham soon if he needs to learn the OF.
One of the game’s best prospects can absolutely start on a WS contender
Not this one.
Again, his only calling card is his bat and the Mets don’t need him for his offense. They need a better glove tgan Escobar and right now he hasn’t shown that.
Wow you’re not kidding, the metrics absolutely hated him in 2022. That’s a pretty steep drop from 2021. And he was average from 2018-2020. That to me would be enough to give Baty a shot.
Also plenty of contenders have been aggressive with rookies in recent history
Does anyone know what happened to the graduated prospects list, and accompanying article?
It was mentioned in a chat last week that the article of post-hype sleepers (or post-graduation sleepers) was killed because there just weren’t enough guys to make a list.
I don’t think being a 2 win player makes Escobar a “strong incumbent”. He’s exactly the kind of mediocre veteran that should be swatted aside from one of the game’s top prospects
I suppose one could argue that, in a relative sense, being a consistent 2-win player does make one a “strong incumbent,” relative to other veterans who are closer to replacement-level and/or play on rebuilding teams, and thus might be in danger of losing their jobs to young players. (Whereas the typical 3+ win player on a good team might be too valuable to consider replacing, all else being equal.)
Baty’s value is his bat but the mets aren’t hurting for offense.
They can do without his bat until his glove improves.
Contenders in tight races can’t afford on-the-job training.
Disagree. Lots of contenders give their young players time. Though I won’t pretend to understand the nuances of MLB-level player evaluation and roster construction. I just want Baty on my fantasy team! ha
You’re acting like rookies rarely play on contending teams. There are too many examples to list
Rookies, yes. Rookies that are a liability on defense in the infield…?
Rookies play on contending teams when they look like they have nothing to learn/prove in the minors.
Is that Baty?
rookies play on contending teams when they’re the best option that team has.
Option A is a 34 y/o Eduardo Escobar, coming off a 106 wRC+ with an almost unfathomable -11 DRS and -7 OAA. I understand your premium on defense, but the incumbent isn’t a viable defender either
It’s really weird that the Mets are just keeping Baty and Alvarez in purgatory. They really should either play them or trade them, because keeping them in the minors is just lowering their value. I do understand perhaps they are trepid on their readiness or not wanting to rely on rookies for a championship contending team (although the Astros and the Braves certainly had no problem last year with Pena, Strider, or Harris II). But if so they should move them while they’re both super valuable prospects.
IMO the case for keeping down Alvarez to work on his defense is defensible, Baty really should be up though
Álvarez is only 21; if he struggles in the majors, that’s way more detrimental to his trade value.
Pena and Harris came with good gloves. The questions were the bats.
Note Atlanta is projected to outpace the Mets by 3 games.
And the Phils are projected 5 games back of the Mets but that is projecting Harper missing half the season. Things can get tighter.
So every game will matter.
Highly doubt Harper misses half the year
Per Wikipedia’s page “Nicknamed groups of baseball players”–which is a real thing–the only ones from this century are (1) the “Big Three” of Mulder, Hudson, and Zito; (2) the “Core Four” from the Yankees, although that started in the 1990s; (3) and the “Killer B’s” of the Astros, which also started in the 1990s. So you don’t have to go back to the Nasty Boys or the Bash Brothers or anything. To that, I would add “The Idiots” of the Red Sox in the mid-2000s.
If you want to know why we haven’t gotten any recently, I suspect the first reason why is because we are wary of any “group” of baseball players staying together and forming anything resembling a dynasty, even if it’s just winning the pennant a lot. And in fact, that skepticism seems well justified. Even when teams are repeatedly good, like the Dodgers, the players change over a fair amount. The second reason is a bit more depressing–I suspect we need the national sports media to get group nicknames to stick, and baseball does not get a lot of national headlines anymore.
In other words, the lack of a nickname is not divorced from the cultural impact and current practices of baseball. If we want more nicknames, baseball has to do better at capturing the imagination. A cultural reference to a movie that is 35 years old (and thus, older than all about about 60 players who appeared in major league baseball last year) is not going to move the needle.
I don’t even know that I would count “The Big Three” (so generic as to be nearly worthless) or “The Core Four” (never heard them called that ever, except by maybe Vinny in Piscataway on the morning drivetime shouting match).
Now the Killer B’s, Nasty Boys, and Bash Bros., those are the kind of group nicknames we need in these heady times. I wish a proper nickname had been affixed to Vlad Jr., Bo Bichette, and Cavan Biggio as they emerged together.
The nepotismist?
The Nepo Babies. The Large Adult Sons
I’ve heard Nepo babies before.
Not often, though.
I like “The Large Adult Sons” tbh
Not hearing the Core Four is legitimately surprising.
It is actually unbelievable. The core 4 have been mentioned so many times over the years that everybody knows the reference. I can’t believe there is a baseball fan not knowing that.
Never heard of the core 4 ???? Surely you are joking or hiding under a rock the last 25 years….
I’ve never heard them called the core 4. I also don’t know who they would be. I’m guessing Jeter, O’Neil, Martinez and Posada? Does Rivera or Pettite fit in there? Should they be the hit six?
Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, and Posada were called the Core Four all the time. I was never that fond of it because it ignored another home grown Yankee who was as important as any of them.
Without Bernie Williams that Yankee dynasty might be short one or more WS titles. He made the team a couple of year earlier but he was definitely “core.”
Pretty nuts that Bernie isn’t in that four…Tbh never noticed, mad disrispeck for my favorite Yankee of that time
It’s a clustfudge but in the end is all about money and making sure that money gets to our lords above….
It’s not a shock that this stuff cuts off just as social media, smartphones, and a new corporate internet show up to dominate our free and brave society. The screens era hasn’t just made gen pop easier to brainwash than ever but also more available to Work for sake of The Economy. The wildly successful anti-labor movement has made it so they have to work more than ever. Who has the time to come up with nicknames? Gotta hustle gotta grind, all that player did was steal an available job (all the more true with all these foreigners)
Affectionate nicknames requires familiarity, interaction, respect, and generally a grounding in reality. All are inefficiencies to be eliminated as they do nothing directly to improve The Economy
Today’s media is pretty openly anti-labor (prbly because they’re sooooo liberal lol), wouldn’t look to relate fans to players. Players are greedy, lazy, entitled, etc not doing a good enough raising ‘Merica’s kids (just like those danged unionized teachers). Heck, it’s not hard to see how many athletes would be criminals if not for sports! Today’s sports fans see themselves as owners who just haven’t grinded and hustled hard enough (no days off!!) yet
Check the demos on those affectionately nicknamed teams mentioned and then find me a Coredation today with enough white guys to meet quotas and ratios
Some mix of that, maybe missed something in that ramble
While I truly respect your ability to pound out 2,000 words of semicoherent boilerplate jeremiad in instant response to virtually any prompt, “who has the time to come up with nicknames?” is nonetheless a very silly question.
Team PR interns should have the time if they had the inclination.
Most teams are happy enough marketing the franchise nicknames so it falls to the players or local media.
This. My favorite thing about SenorGato is how he somehow includes labor, unions, rich people, corporations, etc (or some combination thereof) in almost every response on a baseball analytics website.
Wtheck are rich people?
The Prince of Egypt soundtrack finally getting the praise it deserves!
Seriously, amazing
I think the Mets might platoon him for the sequel, Three Men and a Little Baty
Nobody puts Baty in a corner! (outfield slot)
If he gets sent down, it’s hasta la vista, Baty!
Subtitled: In Which a Fangraphs Writer Goes Too Far in Adhering to the FG Styleguide.
An article with puns and no reference to putting Baty in the (hot) corner???
Well, it would appear nobody does put Baty in the corner after all.
Here’s the thing… I’m a huge Mets fan, and would really like to see Brett Baty’s bat in the lineup. But he’s really, really, really not good at 3B. He almost got hurt awkwardly chasing a foul ball in the first game of the spring; his errors are more like adventures. The kid struggles with basic footwork, position and mobility, never mind range, etc. Watching him play 3B is almost as hazardous as watching Lucas Duda try to play left field once upon a time – limited control of one’s own body doesn’t play well in the majors.
He’s a much better hitter than JD Davis, but it’s a similar scenario – the Mets are playing the kid at 3B and are going to try him in LF to see if he can be passable enough to stick, but he’s a 1b/DH only type at best.
And as a lefty, he’s superfluous against the overall roster construction needs. If he were a righty, he probably makes the team. But you can’t carry Vogelbach and Baty and a righty DH option as three roster spots…
How likely is he to hit better than Vogelbach this year?
Vogelbach is tradeable.
Of course, Baty needs innings in the field if he is to be anything other than a DH.
Can we call him Adventure Time?
Appreciate reading this take from someone who watches the Mets in spades. I, admittedly, do not. But I hope you are (prematurely) wrong about Baty. I agree he is likely not the best option at 3B this season, but certainly NYM would prefer him there over the next decade and that will never happen if he’s moved to LF or DH at 23. Young players *can* grow into solid defenders (c.f., Robin Yount), but it requires reps.
Being a better hitter than JDD is not a likely outcome for Baty. From 2019-2022 Davis’s OPS+ was 125. After the Mets (and whatever ungodly nonsense they were doing to him) unaccountably sent him and three more players to the Giants for Ruf, Davis immediately went on a tear and ended up being a reliable middle of the order bat for SF, with an OPS+ of 140.
I’d love to see Baty beat a 125 OPS+, but I’d cheerfully bet serious coin he does not.
I still do not understand why the Mets’ front-office, which has otherwise seemed fairly competent, made that trade with SF. It was SO blindingly stupid that I assume that pressure from idiot fans and local sports media had something to with it.
Nobody puts Baty in the corner. But maybe at DH
It does appear that the Mets, despite having Baty, Mauricio, and Vientos for 15 years, combined, have yet to teach a one of them to field the infield competently—nor have they figured this out and moved one of them to LF despite a severe shortage of competent, homegrown OFers and knowing they were unlikely to retain Conforto as of a few years back.
Weak pedagogy, leaky drafting, bad luck? Hard to say, but in four years they also haven’t been able to teach Mauricio to walk (or steal bases), and his OBP is stuck on .296. It’s the Mets, so betting on this being a systemic issue would be hard to fault particularly given how they also fumbled bringing guys up last season, and how no Met rookie looked ready for the bigs (See Braves, Atlanta, for how it’s done).
If it was easy to teach players to walk, everyone would do it.
You should also know that it’s common practice in baseball to keep prospects as high on the defensive spectrum as they can play, before moving them down once they prove conclusively they can’t handle it, or reach the majors and are subsequently blocked at that point.
No team in baseball moves Mauricio off SS at AA because Lindor plays it in the majors.