Mets fans aren't happy with shaky Brett Baty struggling at bat, in field
Mets second baseman Brett Baty runs on his single against the Miami Marlins during the sixth inning at Citi Field on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Boos directed at Mets players during the first homestand at Citi Field have been as rare as seeing a Mets fan wearing a Yankees cap.
Unless you are Brett Baty.
Baty went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts to drop his average to .111 and made a key throwing error at second base on Wednesday as the Mets saw their six-game winning streak snapped by the Marlins, 5-0.
Thus concluded a 5-1 homestand that was mostly a lovefest. Mets fans said hello to Juan Soto, welcomed back Pete Alonso and generally had a fine time despite iffy-at-best weather. The Mets have Kranick and Stanek, and Senga threw to Senger and, until Wednesday, the good vibes from 2024 carried over into 2025.
But not for Baty, who lost his third-base job to Mark Vientos last season and spent most of it at Triple-A Syracuse. It’s possible he never even got to meet Grimace.
Baty learned to play second base in the minors last season (27 games) and had a sizzling spring training, which was timely when Jeff McNeil started the season on the injured list because of a strained right oblique.
But McNeil is in Port St. Lucie fiddling with a torpedo bat and getting ready for a rehab assignment. The Squirrel looms and Baty has three hits in 27 at-bats with 11 strikeouts.
The Mets say they haven’t run out of patience with Baty. But some among the 29,232 who attended Wednesday’s matinee clearly have.
The first murmurs came in the fifth when Baty — playing his ninth big-league game at second, all this season — fielded a grounder to his left and threw wildly to second for an error. The Marlins went on the score two unearned runs to take a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, Baty looked at a called strike three on 3-and-2 that may have been outside for his second strikeout of the day. You could make the argument that the smattering of boos were more for plate umpire Adrian Johnson.
But there was no mistaking the crowd’s target when Baty led off the eighth by grounding out to third. The boos were for Baty, who actually stung the ball 103 miles per hour in his best AB of the game.
Still, the fans were a little ornery since the Mets had been no-hit by Max Meyer until Francisco Lindor singled with one out in the sixth.
The Mets were a comeback team in 2024 and showed some of that mojo on this homestand. But it was not to be on Wednesday, as the Mets were held to just one more hit, an Alonso single in the seventh.
When Edwin Diaz gave up three runs in the ninth, the final two on a home run by Matt Mervis, some of those fans headed for the exits. Mets magic had taken a day off.
After it was over, Baty was the first Mets player to face the media.
There were various ways to phrase the questions, and Baty handled them all with poise. But the basic query was, “You stink right now. Tell us why,” and what can you say to that?
Of the error, Baty said: “A slower ball to my left, Fielded it on the lefthand side, came up, threw on one leg. Just threw a little wide. Just sailed on me a little.”
Of his at-bats, Baty said: “I don’t know how many exactly it is — I think it’s about 25 ABs or so. I know that is not an excuse at all, but I’m just saying it’s a very small sample size.”
Of whether he feels the pressure of McNeil’s eventual return: “That’s always in the back of your mind. But what I’ve tried to tell myself is I just have to control what I can control.”
Baty said all the right things, and the Mets are convinced his is doing all the right things to try to work out of his poorly-timed slump. They will point out that Vientos is batting .119 and Luisangel Acuna, the other current option at second base, is at .158.
“I’d love to see one of them step up,” David Stearns, the Mets president of baseball operations, said of Baty and Acuna on Monday. “I’d love to see one of them take advantage of at-bats and perform, and that’s what someone like Mark Vientos did last year. When he got an opportunity, he solidified a spot at the major-league level. You’d love to see that from young players. I also understand it can’t always happen at the exact moment we want it to.”
Vientos has a robust resume after his 2024 heroics and Acuna is a 23-year-old with seemingly unlimited potential.
Baty is 25, practically a graybeard for a former top prospect who made his big-league debut in 2022.
“I need to do a better job offensively and defensively, for sure,” Baty said.
That about sums it up. The time for Baty to seize the day is now. And as Mets fans let him know on Wednesday, that time is running out.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
