ATLANTA — Ninety minutes before first pitch, a crowd of about two dozen people watched Brett Baty, the Mets’ latest symbol of promise, from behind a white fence. When batting practice ended, Baty obliged all the outstretched hands carrying baseballs for him to sign, the smile never leaving his face. Throughout Wednesday, the happy expression would become a theme. One person wearing a blue Mets cap backward said to a nodding gray-haired man in an orange jersey, “I’m so glad he’s here.”
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For someone making his major-league debut, it was an interesting place and an important time. Baty’s path to Truist Park was somewhat unconventional, and not just because he missed his initial flight from Charlotte late Monday afternoon and instead arrived Monday night.Two infielders landing on the injured list on consecutive days — first Luis Guillorme on Monday, then Eduardo Escobar on Wednesday — opened a vacancyat third base, Baty’s primary position, on a team with the highest of aspirations.
Baty had played just six games for Triple-A Syracuse. But Baty was New York’s best option in the middle of August, on the road against the divisional rival Braves, who entered Wednesday just 3 1/2 games behind the Mets in the NL East after winning the first two of a four-game series. Baty is an incidental third baseman, maybe, but always a hitter.
It took one at-bat and the first strike he saw in the Mets’ 9-7 win Wednesday for him to showcase as much. When Baty stepped to the plate for the first time, a chant of “Let’s go Brett!” broke out. Or maybe it was “Let’s go Mets!” Whichever. It wasn’t “Let’s go Braves!” because a large number of boos followed. After Baty’s first at-bat, there was mostly silence, except for the Mets’ dugout and the section at Truist Park where Baty’s mother, father, sister and other relatives jumped up and down in jubilation.
With the count 1-0, right-handed starter Jake Odorizzi hung a breaking ball over the plate. Baty stayed balanced, unleashed a pretty left-handed swing and clobbered the pitch, sending it 377 feet, beyond the wall in right-center field. For most of his jog around the bases, he smiled before pointing to the crowd.
Wow, welcome to the majors.
In his first at-bat, Brett Baty hit a home run.
— Will Sammon (@WillSammon) August 17, 2022
“Just pure joy,” Baty said. “Just to look up and see my family there and to be able to celebrate it with them, just pure joy.”
Inside the dugout, there was no silent treatment for Baty. Teammates mobbed him, with some, like Pete Alonso, embracing him in a bear hug. After the game, Baty was the last Mets player still in uniform inside the clubhouse. His uniform was wet, too, evidence that his teammates continued to celebrate him in the aftermath of a vital win.
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In a game that featured a playoff-like atmosphere and several tense moments, Baty went 1-for-4 with a fielder’s choice that registered at 113 mph off lefty reliever Tyler Matzek — the hardest-hit ball of the game — and the two-run home run.
Funny, it was a home run just like that a couple of weeks ago that evaluators cited when speaking of Baty’s readiness.
On July 29 while playing for Double-A Binghamton, Baty hit a grand slam. It was his second home run of the night. Don’t let the flashy results distract from the finer details. To those who had worked with Baty leading up to the moment, a couple of small things to the untrained eye added up to something of a breakthrough, a sign that Baty might just be ready.
Baty hit the grand slam off New Hampshire lefty reliever Braden Scott, sending the ball over the scoreboard in right field. The destination mattered. For weeks, Mets complex hitting coordinator Collin Hetzler, while stationed with Binghamton’s staff, was one person who worked methodically with Baty on unlocking more power to right field, his pull side. To be clear, Baty had shown an ability to do so. He can hit. But leading up to the grand slam, quality contact from the pull side in certain game situations was an emphasis.
In the dugout, while watching the ball travel off Baty’s bat, Hetzler said to himself, “This guy is the real deal.”
Binghamton hitting coach Tommy Joseph watched the home run with a similar thought — for another reason.
Scott threw Baty a first-pitch breaking ball. It was the kind of get-me-over strike that months ago — weeks, even — Baty would’ve watched as it floated into a catcher’s mitt. Not anymore. Baty had learned how and when to ambush.
“That was a telling sign for me whether he was ready or not,” Joseph said by phone hours before Baty’s debut. “Once he figured that out, that that was gonna be one of the best pitches for him to hit, then you just kind of knew that that was when he was really going to take off.”
Baty's second jack of the game is GRAND.
The @Mets' No. 2 prospect has a career-high 7 RBIs for @RumblePoniesBB. pic.twitter.com/n75RB6Af1y
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 30, 2022
Baty’s grand slam that July day happened in the middle of a hot streak. In 23 games for Binghamton that month, Baty had eight home runs with a 1.123 OPS. In six August games for Binghamton, Baty went 9-for-23 (.391) and hit three more home runs. On Aug. 8, he was promoted to Syracuse, where he went 8-for-22 (.364) before manager Kevin Boles informed him during batting practice Monday that the Mets had requested his services.
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Boles understood why the Mets wanted Baty now. Guillorme (groin) is out for three or four weeks. And although Escobar and the Mets are optimistic about the chances of his stint on the injured list lasting the minimum of 10 days, he has been limited so much by side discomfort that the switch hitter couldn’t confidently bat from the right side the past couple of days. The Mets originally selected Deven Marrero, a 31-year-old utility type, from Triple A on Monday to offer the positional versatility they were missing without Guillorme. But once the Mets realized Tuesday that Escobar’s injury could worsen, it was clear they needed more. Defense was something that Baty still needed to work on, but come Tuesday afternoon it was obvious that it wouldn’t hold him back from a promotion. Not anymore. Not now.
Although scouts question Baty’s defense, Boles said his fielding has consistently improved, especially when it comes to footwork. In addition to third base, Baty also dabbled in left field, and Boles said Baty has a strong arm that “plays.” Of course, so does the bat. Baty can hit balls as hard as 110 mph the other way and as hard as 115 mph to his pull side. He takes his walks. He doesn’t strike out at a crazy clip.
“He’s a guy that has a presence at the plate,” Boles saidby phone before the debut. “The biggest thing I noticed is the adjustments that he made against left-handed pitching. He’s a line-drive type hitter. But there is the potential for power. He’s a very confident hitter. He manages the strike zone. He has really good strike-zone knowledge.”
Said Hetzler: “He has raw strength, but his acumen as a hitter really stands out. He’s just really advanced.”
And Joseph said, “His pitch selection has always been very good. His approach at the plate has blown me away since the first day I met him. But one thing that I just believe in is if you can’t ambush the first pitch for a homer, I just don’t think you’re ready to be a big leaguer. And he’s got that ability.
“Now I don’t think there’s a pitch that the kid can’t hit, and I don’t think there’s a count that he can’t hit. He’s just got the ability to be special at any moment of the game. It’s just one of those things as a coach or even as a teammate or anything like that, he’s one of those guys you always want at the plate no matter the situation just because it’s fun to watch.”
The Mets do not need Baty to be some kind of savior. They’re a veteran team with plenty of leaders and All-Stars along with an experienced manager. Unlike Mets teams of the past, a sudden implosion does not seem likely. In addition to Baty’s home run, they won Wednesday because Starling Marte and Francisco Lindor hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, Marte added another home run in the seventh, Alonso added to the lead with a two-run single in the ninth, Max Scherzer delivered 6 1/3 quality innings, and Edwin Díaz pitched a pivotal 1-2-3 eighth inning against the heart of the Braves’ order. The point is, the Mets’ star power runs deep.
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But Baty can be helpful. Heading into Wednesday, the Mets’ .653 OPS at third base ranked 23rd. Even though Guillorme’s ability to hit for average and provide terrific defense has helped, the Mets’ fWAR at third base was 0.8, which ranked 22nd. The Mets’ production from the sixth spot in the lineup to the ninth was middle of the pack with a 92 wRC+ (15th in the majors) and .659 OPS (18th). On Wednesday, Baty batted eighth.
The Mets selected Baty, 22, out of Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas, with the 12th pick of the 2019 draft. He is the Mets’ highest draft pick to earn a call-up since Michael Conforto, the 10th selection in 2014. In 2015, Conforto hit nine home runs in 56 games down the stretch as the Mets won the pennant. Could Baty follow a similar path? The Athletic’s Keith Law pegged Baty as the No. 38 prospect in baseball in his midseason rankings. The only Mets prospect to rank higher was 20-year-old catcher Francisco Álvarez, whom Law listed at No. 6. The way opposing teams saw things, Baty and Álvarez were two jewels in a farm system that at the time of the trade deadline could’ve used more. When teams talked to the Mets, they expressed interest in Baty. The Mets kept him, thinking of the future. Now, Baty can also supplement the team in the present.
“I’m not putting any expectations on myself,” Baty said before Wednesday’s game. “I’m just gonna go out there and play to the best of my ability. I’m here for a reason. So I’ll let it show and do my best out there.”
Baty smiled throughout his pregame chat with the media. Just before that session, Brandon Nimmo took him aside and said, “Hey, man, slow it down. It’s gonna be a pretty big atmosphere, for sure. But we all trust you out there, and we have your back.”
Recounting the conversation later, Baty said, “That’s what I wanted to hear. It was huge.”
Showalter offered similar advice, telling Baty that he wasn’t going to see anything Wednesday that was foreign and to “let it rip.”
On Day 1, Baty did just that.
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How long will Baty last this season with the Mets? What will he provide? And even if he doesn’t stick for the rest of the season, what can the experience do for him in the future? No one can say, but those who know Baty well have their guesses. Most point to his character and say he’s a relentless worker who is more mature than the average rookie. They call him a “special kid.” And maybe that’s similar to what coaches say about many top prospects who get called up after excelling in the minor leagues as first-round picks. But with Baty, perhaps it’s worth hearing them out.
“He has an elite-level mindset that is superior to other people,” Joseph said. “There’s just not a lot of things that fazes that kid. When the game starts, there’s nobody that will be more locked in. He knows how to pay attention to the game as the game goes along, too. There’s not anything that he’s going to miss, which is very unique at such a young age.”
(Photo of Brett Baty: Brett Davis / USA Today)
Will Sammon is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the New York Mets. A native of Queens, New York, Will previously covered the Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Gators football for The Athletic, starting in 2018. Before that, he covered Mississippi State for The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi’s largest newspaper. Follow Will on Twitter @WillSammon
