Biography:

Brett Baty was born on November 13, 1999 in Round Rock, TX. The Mets selected Baty in the first round of the 2019 MLB draft. He attended Lake Travis High School in Austin, playing basketball, baseball, and football. As a senior, he hit .615 with 19 home runs, 50 RBIs and was named the Gatorade Texas Baseball Player of the Year. He committed to play college baseball at the University of Texas but was drafted by the Mets and began his career as a professional baseball player.

At 22 years of age, Baty made his major league debut and played in 11 games for the New York Mets before being injured to end his 2022 season. He memorably homered in his first at bat and went on to struggle to hit consistently in his all too brief debut. At the time of his promotion, Eduardo Escobar, the Mets starting third baseman had been struggling and the Mets were hoping that Baty’s immediate success in AAA would translate to immediate major league success as well.

Thankfully for the Met season, Escobar bounced back mightily in the month of September as Baty would not be able to return after his last game on August 28th.

Resume:

Baty would go from draft to an assignment with the GCL Mets which would only last 5 games as he proceeded to hit to the tune of a 1.130 OPS and earn himself a promotion to the slightly higher Kingsport squad. In Kingsport his numbers leveled off to a more realistic level but he still played well enough for the Mets to give him a late promotion to Low-A Brooklyn where he got a little playoff experience and managed to not look overmatched by the older competition.

After the lost season of 2020, the Mets assigned Baty to the restructured Advanced A Brooklyn team. Again, Baty played exceptionally well at this level and hit an outstanding OPS of .911 before earning a mid-year promotion to AA. Once in Binghamton his fantastic numbers were downgraded to merely “Very Good”  as he still managed a .788 OPS through 40 games.

This season he began the year in AA and was outshone by Alvarez in the early going as the Top Prospect looked to be unstoppable. After the Met catcher was promoted to Syracuse, Baty proved to be just as unstoppable, achieving a .950 OPS on the year before the Mets sent him up to AAA. Ultimately, the Mets only had BAty play in 6 AAA games before he got the call to the majors but he looked just as awesome in Syracuse as he’d looked in Binghamton earlier.

Hitting:

Contact:

Like Alvarez, Baty does sacrifice a bit of his contact for power but unlike the Mets’ catching prospect his projected batting average looks to range North of .275 once he finds his footing. This places his contact rating slightly above Alvarez. It’s possible, at the major league level, that Baty could become more of a contact hitter than a power hitter but it remains to be seen when you stretch out his hitting into a full year at the level.

Power:

Baty looks like he’s not yet a 30 home run threat as he hit only 21 homers between the minors and majors but, if you look at him, you can see how strong he is and imagine the power growing. Right now Baty looks like more of a Mark Canha style player (albeit with slightly more power already) and it remains to be seen if he will develop to threaten the elite echelons of third basemen in baseball as he matures. I would expect a dip in his batting average to coincide with any large gains in his power.

Speed:

Few third baseman are touted for their baserunning ability and Baty is not going to defy that trend. He runs well enough for his position and shouldn’t lose the Mets any runs by being slow on the basepaths but he’s also not going to steal many (if any) bases.

Fielding:

The most concerning thing about Baty is that his numbers at third aren’t as good as the Mets would want them. He is a better fielder than, say J.D. Davis (not saying much), but he hasn’t impressed with his smooth fielding skills. Last season he had a .920 fielding percentage with AA Binghamton compared to the best third baseman in baseball (Nolan Arenado) and his .968 percentage or Escobar and his .961 mark. The Mets have considered putting Baty into the outfield but that doesn’t seem like the team’s primary plan.

Outlook:

While Alvarez is squeezed by the presence of two soft hitting defensive players, Baty’s 2023 season is jeopardized by the presence of quite a few very good offensive players. First and foremost, if the Mets re-sign Brandon Nimmo, the Mets have no room for Baty with Escobar and Jeff McNeill still on the infield. Even if the Mets don’t re-sign the centerfielder the Mets have Luis Guillorme on the team and could get by, for a while, without him. The other possibility is that the Mets don’t bring back Daniel Vogelbach and utilize Baty as the primary DH while giving him occasional starts at third. If Baty is viewed as the longterm thirdbaseman, this doesn’t make a ton of sense as he wouldn’t be gaining the fielding experience to improve that part of his game. Ultimately, I would say that Baty’s 2023 role is tied very heavily into how the Mets spend their offseason budget.