'Baby Mets' trying to be building blocks for team's future
Mets youngsters Mark Vientos, Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty. Credit: Jim McIsaac
BOSTON
Not all of the Baby Mets were in the lineup for Sunday night’s series finale at Fenway Park. But the two names on the card, Mark Vientos and Brett Baty — hitting fifth and sixth, respectively — stayed on brand during their pregame routines.
Both sported their specially designed T-shirt, the one titled “The Babies” that has cartoons of each of them as toddlers, along with Francisco Alvarez, and blocks stamped with an L, G and M.
The three homegrown Mets spent their time in the minors not only imagining what it would be like to play in The Show but discussing the scenario of doing it together, which is happening for the second time this season. Their planning didn’t end at merely sharing the lineup on a regular basis, however.
“We always talked about how much fun it would be,” Alvarez said Sunday through his interpreter before enjoying a well-deserved night off after catching 14 innings Saturday. “Then we would start to broaden those dreams to ‘we want to win a World Series on the Mets.’ We used to have those conversations a lot.”
The question is whether the Mets will continue to have them, especially as they look more to the future in the coming weeks. Sunday night’s 6-1 loss to the Red Sox dropped them below .500 (4-5) since the All-Star break, and the Baby Mets went a combined 0-for-8 with two strikeouts, stranding five on the night.
Now that the front office is being nudged more toward seller mode, we should expect the spotlight to shine more on the younger players, with Vientos staying up here after the Aug. 1 deadline and perhaps Ronny Mauricio being promoted at some point despite the Mets’ hesitancy to do so right now, as Newsday reported.
Obviously, Alvarez — a catching prodigy who leads all major-leaguers at the position with 19 homers — is staying put in Flushing. But Baty and Vientos certainly will come up in trade conversations. Both enhanced their value this past week, or at least before Sunday night’s stumble.
Baty swatted homers in back-to-back games and has five RBIs in his last five games, including a run-scoring single Saturday in the Mets’ failed ninth-inning rally (.850 OPS in that small sample). His spotty defense remains a concern, as he oscillates between bad decisions and brilliant play, but he’s still only 23 and playing his first full major-league season (coming off last year’s thumb surgery).
Having Vientos back, along with good friend Alvarez by his side, has been a plus for Baty. The three went out to dinner together in Boston following Friday’s game after Vientos was promoted.
It’s fairly unusual to have three top prospects with such a tight friendship all sharing a major-league clubhouse at the same time in significant roles.
“We don’t really know what could happen in the future,” Baty said before Sunday’s game. “We’re just kind of focused on this season . . . But I feel like this gives us confidence. When one of us sees the success that another one is having, we just feed off it and hype each other up. It’s a really cool experience for sure.”
While the Mets committed to Baty, manager Buck Showalter was reluctant to turn over the everyday DH gig to Vientos during his previous stay in the bigs. He languished in a part-time role (.178 batting average, .465 OPS, one homer in 16 games) after raking at Triple-A Syracuse. At least for the weekend series at Fenway, Vientos, 23, got a pair of DH starts. On Saturday, Vientos, Alvarez and Baty had RBI singles to fuel a ninth-inning rally before Daniel Vogelbach, the tying run, popped to left to end the game.
“We have a chemistry,” Vientos said of his former Syracuse teammates. “And to bring that chemistry up to the major leagues is pretty cool. To be doing this at this high level, you have to be thinking about it, you have to be talking about it, to have it manifest itself like that. I feel like we visualized moments like [Saturday] night and it’s cool that our hard work is paying off.”
Alvarez, 21, may have separated himself in the Mets’ eyes by amplifying his Rookie of the Year candidacy, but the bond with his fellow Baby Mets is real. Recalling Saturday’s frenzied rally, Alvarez said he crossed the plate and told the next-up Baty, “Anything can happen in this game — let’s go win it.” Baty then did his part, so maybe there is something about the “chemistry” Vientos alluded to regarding the Baby Mets.
“It’s like we’re brothers,” Alvarez said. “So there are times we get annoyed with each other. But we’re the type of guys that we like to sit down and tell each other the truth and what we need to do to get better. We’re a very transparent group, and that’s what I think kind of keeps us together — how honest we are and how transparent we are.”
For the front office to keep the Baby Mets together, they’ll have to continue to climb the learning curve. Or, in other words, grow up fast.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
