Lindor hopes to continue improving club’s culture

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — When Brett Baty was called up to the Mets last summer, the clubhouse culture left a lasting impression. More importantly, it left the right impression.

“I saw how close this core unit of the team is,” Baty told the Daily News on Thursday at Clover Field. “Just how welcoming they were when I first got up there. They wanted me to succeed, and you want all of your teammates to succeed but they were really pushing for me and not putting any pressure on me. It was a really good environment for me.”

It wasn’t that long ago that the club was hesitant to bring up some of their top prospects for fear of putting them in a less-than-healthy clubhouse atmosphere. The Mets might have had winning ambitions, but they didn’t have an environment that fostered winning.

Francisco Lindor has been vocal about trying to build a winning culture in Queens. After the Mets were eliminated from the playoffs last fall, the shortstop felt that the season was still beneficial because there were strides made in those building efforts.

The encouragement and belief that Baty had are exactly what a veteran like Lindor wants the younger players to experience and be a part of.

“We had a belief that anyone in the lineup — day in and day out — could get it done. And the same with the pitching staff and the defense as well,” Lindor said. “We need to carry that on.”

Carrying that on means getting the new players on board, but that shouldn’t be too hard considering the Mets signed guys like Justin Verlander over the winter. Verlander really needs no introduction, but a 40-year-old ace with three Cy Young Awards and two World Series rings is someone who commands respect and knows what it takes to win.