From the moment he was signed, I saw Polanco splitting his time at 1B, mainly to help keep him in the lineup as he's dealt with knee problems over the past few seasons. That being said, Brett Baty needs to be in the lineup everyday. I was surprised at the Bo Bichette signing, especially after Stearns had said Baty would be the starter 3B. Although Bichette has an opt-out after this season and most likely will use it, I think David Stearns is willing to move Baty and sees Jacob Reimer as the Mets 3B of the future. Bichette's arrival signaled (to me, anyway), that Baty would be packaged for a frontline starting pitcher. That still might happen as I'm not convinced the Tigers won't move Tarik Skubal, before the start of the season and certainly before the trade deadline.
Disagree. Haven't seen anything that would lead me to think they don't value Baty highly. And I'm not sure why people don't accept the idea that the Tigers are going for it this year with the best 1-2 starting pitcher situation in the majors. If they don't perform to expectations they can always trade Skubal at the trade deadline, albeit for less of a return than they'd get now.
I've been wondering about a lot of this myself. Bichette at third looks a bit like a square peg in a round hole situation. Had we not dealt for Semien, I could see Bo at second and Baty at third, but as it is, it looks ... a bit forced.
So yeah, I could see Baty as part of a package. I can also see us keeping him and playing him around the field and then moving him into third full-time if Bichette opts out.
He's definitely one of the more intriguing questions on the roster.
We can't expect perfection from Stearns but I'm wondering what his team saw in Polanco that justified a two year deal for 40M as a first baseman/DH. At this point, looks like they overpaid. Time will tell.
Same here. I mean, the lineup looks good with Polanco slotted in behind our Big Three, but it seems to go against the drive to upgrade defensively.
That being said, having four middle infielders across the dirt looks pretty good, too. If Jorge can work out when to go for the bag and when to go for the ball, it should be fine. And the same goes for Baty and Vientos.
That also being said, I'll go out on a limb and say we should be working Swaggy at first nonstop. Don't even play him anywhere else. Just give him constant reps and see if he can master it and settle into it as his regular position.
And yes, I know it's all thrills, chills and spills when he has a glove on his hand. But my old baseball instincts tell me he could lock in over there if he gets the hot corner out of his headspace and commits.
Don't underestimate the value of that across-the-diamond gun, either.
I don't think 2024 was a fluke. Get him settled in at a fixed position and get him starter-level PAs and we might find ourselves with a serious player. Especially now, with him being surrounded with all these veteran hitters who know how to make consistent contact.
He showed signs of getting it back in July and August last year before fading in September. Honestly, I think he just had too much stuff rolling around in his head by then. Simplify things for him, let the vets teach him how to hunt fastballs and fend off everything else, and let's see what he can do.
Baty is a much better athlete than Vientos. I believe he was the QB of his high school football team if memory serves me right. He also played there in HS? Then he’s learned the basics and that won’t change much all the way to the pros. Vientos with any glove on scare the hell out of me and we have seen him play there in real games and it was a disaster. The Mets should stick Mauricio there in the minors or give Clifford the job soon. I feel Vientos,Baty, & Mauricio are sticking around for trade bait at the deadline. Ewing and others are knocking at the door and Stearns has already shown disdain for anyone he didn’t draft.
Don't agree with your Stearns comment, I think he's bigger than that. If this were a rebuilding club I could see giving the job to Clifford and let him sink or swim but it's a contending club. I still think Vientos might turn out to be a good DH or even, as Baron writes, a competent first baseman.
If Vientos doesn’t hit this spring he very well might get DFA’d. If he doesn’t field (which we know he can’t) he just committed 2 errors at first yesterday and doesn’t hit he offers nothing to be on this team. Baty is a much better athlete.
One aspect of Alonzos ability at first was/is his exceptional skill at stretching to catch the throw...and beating a runner by half step. I DID respect him for that. It befuddled me when I see some not 'meet the ball'. Did Baty have to stretch for any thrown balls?
Another skill is to instantaneously/instinctively know how far to go to corrall a ball tween 2nd & first. And then to lead the pitcher sprinting to 1st. Alonzo was only fair on both.
Alonso was a good “stretcher” and “scooper” (by some metrics best in the league in the latter) but he was absolutely dreadful in everything else defensively. He had terrible range (positioning was only helped by coaches), was by far the worst thrower in any situation I’ve ever seen (throwing to 2nd to get a lead runner, throwing to home to get a force out, and of course throwing to first when the pitcher is covering the bag) and his general instincts often led to bad decisions. This is in part subjective but also very objective - if not for his otherworldly scooping skills, Alonso would’ve rated in the bottom 3 defensive 1B in MLB.
I’m a firm believer that if the Mets had some level of consistency in the front office and manager role over Alonso’s tenure, he would’ve been a full-time DH along ago…and maybe still a Mets today.
I wasn't aware that metrics specifically for scooping existed. Can you post a link? It's true that Alonso graduated with honors from the Lucas Duda school of throwing for first basemen.
I’m not sure where the metric resides, I just know I’ve heard multiple talking heads repeat for most of the last year that he was ranked best in the league at scooping throws…maybe statcast or baseball savant has it.
Unfairly perhaps....but I blame him for getting Zenga hurt as Pete came barreling towards the plate on a popup and pitcher held up abruptly and he popped his ligament. This happened '24....
Obliged. The piece is interesting. Funny that despite its in-depth approach, his poor throwing doesn't get a mention. For that matter, the fangraphs page has Alonso near the top in total assists, illustrating how misleading totals can be.
Baty already showed his infielder skills as he took a low pickoff throw from the pitcher in a way Alonso never could. He's much more athletic than Pete and has a better arm. To say Alonso was "fair" at leading the pitcher covering first is awfully generous. His throwing is dreadful and has gotten worse over the years.
Is issue with Polanco health or ability? If it’s ability … that would be weird, a guy not good enough to play a position full-time shouldn’t be good enough to start at the position 80 games. If he can’t be relied on at 1st, then make him the DH.
I liked Baty's action on the groundball hit to his right. He started to go after it but stopped and retreated to first base and let the 2B (I think Semien) make an easy play. Alonso would have made a belly flop dive, knocked the ball into center field and another run would have scored. Baty is a far superior athlete to Alonso and higher baseball IQ. Sorry to see Pete go and I would have loved to see him remain a Met, but not at the cost and duration of what he received from Baltimore. Good luck to him, but within a year or two, the Mets will be better off without him. Perhaps even in 2026.
From the moment he was signed, I saw Polanco splitting his time at 1B, mainly to help keep him in the lineup as he's dealt with knee problems over the past few seasons. That being said, Brett Baty needs to be in the lineup everyday. I was surprised at the Bo Bichette signing, especially after Stearns had said Baty would be the starter 3B. Although Bichette has an opt-out after this season and most likely will use it, I think David Stearns is willing to move Baty and sees Jacob Reimer as the Mets 3B of the future. Bichette's arrival signaled (to me, anyway), that Baty would be packaged for a frontline starting pitcher. That still might happen as I'm not convinced the Tigers won't move Tarik Skubal, before the start of the season and certainly before the trade deadline.
Disagree. Haven't seen anything that would lead me to think they don't value Baty highly. And I'm not sure why people don't accept the idea that the Tigers are going for it this year with the best 1-2 starting pitcher situation in the majors. If they don't perform to expectations they can always trade Skubal at the trade deadline, albeit for less of a return than they'd get now.
I've been wondering about a lot of this myself. Bichette at third looks a bit like a square peg in a round hole situation. Had we not dealt for Semien, I could see Bo at second and Baty at third, but as it is, it looks ... a bit forced.
So yeah, I could see Baty as part of a package. I can also see us keeping him and playing him around the field and then moving him into third full-time if Bichette opts out.
He's definitely one of the more intriguing questions on the roster.
We can't expect perfection from Stearns but I'm wondering what his team saw in Polanco that justified a two year deal for 40M as a first baseman/DH. At this point, looks like they overpaid. Time will tell.
Same here. I mean, the lineup looks good with Polanco slotted in behind our Big Three, but it seems to go against the drive to upgrade defensively.
That being said, having four middle infielders across the dirt looks pretty good, too. If Jorge can work out when to go for the bag and when to go for the ball, it should be fine. And the same goes for Baty and Vientos.
That also being said, I'll go out on a limb and say we should be working Swaggy at first nonstop. Don't even play him anywhere else. Just give him constant reps and see if he can master it and settle into it as his regular position.
And yes, I know it's all thrills, chills and spills when he has a glove on his hand. But my old baseball instincts tell me he could lock in over there if he gets the hot corner out of his headspace and commits.
Don't underestimate the value of that across-the-diamond gun, either.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who's not ready to throw Vientos on the dung heap.
I don't think 2024 was a fluke. Get him settled in at a fixed position and get him starter-level PAs and we might find ourselves with a serious player. Especially now, with him being surrounded with all these veteran hitters who know how to make consistent contact.
He showed signs of getting it back in July and August last year before fading in September. Honestly, I think he just had too much stuff rolling around in his head by then. Simplify things for him, let the vets teach him how to hunt fastballs and fend off everything else, and let's see what he can do.
Baty is a much better athlete than Vientos. I believe he was the QB of his high school football team if memory serves me right. He also played there in HS? Then he’s learned the basics and that won’t change much all the way to the pros. Vientos with any glove on scare the hell out of me and we have seen him play there in real games and it was a disaster. The Mets should stick Mauricio there in the minors or give Clifford the job soon. I feel Vientos,Baty, & Mauricio are sticking around for trade bait at the deadline. Ewing and others are knocking at the door and Stearns has already shown disdain for anyone he didn’t draft.
Don't agree with your Stearns comment, I think he's bigger than that. If this were a rebuilding club I could see giving the job to Clifford and let him sink or swim but it's a contending club. I still think Vientos might turn out to be a good DH or even, as Baron writes, a competent first baseman.
If Vientos doesn’t hit this spring he very well might get DFA’d. If he doesn’t field (which we know he can’t) he just committed 2 errors at first yesterday and doesn’t hit he offers nothing to be on this team. Baty is a much better athlete.
For sure Baty is a much better athlete. I'd be shocked if Vientos was DFA'd.
He will be traded for a bag of balls before that
One aspect of Alonzos ability at first was/is his exceptional skill at stretching to catch the throw...and beating a runner by half step. I DID respect him for that. It befuddled me when I see some not 'meet the ball'. Did Baty have to stretch for any thrown balls?
Another skill is to instantaneously/instinctively know how far to go to corrall a ball tween 2nd & first. And then to lead the pitcher sprinting to 1st. Alonzo was only fair on both.
Alonso was a good “stretcher” and “scooper” (by some metrics best in the league in the latter) but he was absolutely dreadful in everything else defensively. He had terrible range (positioning was only helped by coaches), was by far the worst thrower in any situation I’ve ever seen (throwing to 2nd to get a lead runner, throwing to home to get a force out, and of course throwing to first when the pitcher is covering the bag) and his general instincts often led to bad decisions. This is in part subjective but also very objective - if not for his otherworldly scooping skills, Alonso would’ve rated in the bottom 3 defensive 1B in MLB.
I’m a firm believer that if the Mets had some level of consistency in the front office and manager role over Alonso’s tenure, he would’ve been a full-time DH along ago…and maybe still a Mets today.
I wasn't aware that metrics specifically for scooping existed. Can you post a link? It's true that Alonso graduated with honors from the Lucas Duda school of throwing for first basemen.
I’m not sure where the metric resides, I just know I’ve heard multiple talking heads repeat for most of the last year that he was ranked best in the league at scooping throws…maybe statcast or baseball savant has it.
Unfairly perhaps....but I blame him for getting Zenga hurt as Pete came barreling towards the plate on a popup and pitcher held up abruptly and he popped his ligament. This happened '24....
Here’s an MLB.com article from May of last year…a Google search mentioned FanGraphs has the stat (defined as “Picks”, not scoops).
https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/unpacking-pete-alonso-ability-to-scoop-pick-at-first-base.html
Obliged. The piece is interesting. Funny that despite its in-depth approach, his poor throwing doesn't get a mention. For that matter, the fangraphs page has Alonso near the top in total assists, illustrating how misleading totals can be.
Baty already showed his infielder skills as he took a low pickoff throw from the pitcher in a way Alonso never could. He's much more athletic than Pete and has a better arm. To say Alonso was "fair" at leading the pitcher covering first is awfully generous. His throwing is dreadful and has gotten worse over the years.
Is Baty putting up 35 hrs 120 rbis?
Is issue with Polanco health or ability? If it’s ability … that would be weird, a guy not good enough to play a position full-time shouldn’t be good enough to start at the position 80 games. If he can’t be relied on at 1st, then make him the DH.
I liked Baty's action on the groundball hit to his right. He started to go after it but stopped and retreated to first base and let the 2B (I think Semien) make an easy play. Alonso would have made a belly flop dive, knocked the ball into center field and another run would have scored. Baty is a far superior athlete to Alonso and higher baseball IQ. Sorry to see Pete go and I would have loved to see him remain a Met, but not at the cost and duration of what he received from Baltimore. Good luck to him, but within a year or two, the Mets will be better off without him. Perhaps even in 2026.