Top prospect far too hot to keep out of majors — and Amazin’s need his bat
BRETT BATY was killing it at Triple-A. He was killing it so much that Eduardo Escobar — the one Baty is replacing — was practically the first to endorse Baty’s call-up to the majors, which officially will occur Monday in Los Angeles.
With his endorsement, Escobar was perhaps behind only Mets fans who have been clamoring for the call-up for weeks, since way back in spring training, when Baty was hitting the ball hard and Escobar, a notorious peak-and-valley guy, was beginning his descent into a valley from which he hasn’t emerged.
The fans were ahead on this one since mid-March. But this is the right time.
It’s hard to tell anything in spring training. Most established big leaguers are presumably just counting the days until they are out of Port St. Lucie and playing games that count. Meanwhile, Baty wasn’t facing any great competition, and when he was, he wasn’t showing that he needed to be in the majors yet.
Not that there are any Julio
Uriases in the International League. Or any Clayton Kershaws, either.
No sir, Baty — the former first-round pick out of Lake Travis (Austin, Texas) High — isn’t facing major league caliber pitching up in Syracuse, either. However, the numbers simply became too great to ignore. The batting average is exactly .400 and the slugging percentage exactly .500.
My general rule is that when the numbers are so great they look made up, it’s probably time for a change of venue.
He has the numbers, he has the reps (at 23 years old certainly way more than higher-ranked Francisco Alvarez) and he has the endorsement of scouts. One of those scouts told me Sunday, “He has the ability to be a hitter first and has shown excellent plate discipline and if there’s one part of his game that’s improved it’s the ability to lift the ball. He can hit the ball as hard as anyone in the Mets’ organization or majors … and he has power to all fields.”
As a professional quibbler, I might quibble with the part where anyone has as much power as major league home run leader Pete Alonso or for that matter Alvarez (once he hits the ball). But you get the point. The kid should be a threat in a lineup that looks like it needs one.
That said, the jump from Triple-A to the majors is enormous, and it’s not going to be easy. Let’s not forget that Baty got a cup of coffee last season, and it was on the bitter side. He was only up for 38 at-bats, which was long enough to post a -0.3 WAR. As bad as Escobar has been this year, he only has a -0.5 WAR.
As if the jump wasn’t tough enough, two more realities will make it that much more difficult here. One is that he’s joining a team that is not only expected to contend but has the highest payroll in baseball history at $377 million (Spotrac, which keeps track of such things, has it up again, from $375). That he will be making only 0.2 percent of that (yes, zeropoint-2) doesn’t change the equation.
The other reality, as one rival scout put it, is that “he’s supposed to come in wearing a cape.” The Mets’ 9-6 record entering Sunday is a mirage as it’s been built mostly on the backs of the
Marlins and A’s, who should be in the International League themselves.
As great at Baty is hitting, and that 1.386 OPS looks as made up as the other numbers, the Mets’ offense is hurting. That 17-run output in Oakland was an aberration, constructed on 17 walks from an organization that has ceased to try. The Mets look like they need him now.
They have two very weak spots in the batting order, either of which Baty could fill — third base and DH. Third base will be his primary spot with Escobar recently making Daniel Vogelbach and Co. look like
Babe Ruth, and of course Baty’s the third baseman of the future and needs the experience. Scouts generally believe he can become an average big-league third baseman defensively.
The offense is really where the Mets need him most. It’s a little surprising Escobar didn’t engender more fan support since at .114 he is hitting about as well as the average person pulled out of the stands. But the reality is that beyond Alonso, Lindor’s recent RBI splurge and Nimmo’s non-stop on-base ability, most Mets have been rather hit-and-miss.
Alonso doesn’t complain because he’s not that type but he’s managing to do it again without a bona fide power threat behind him as the team’s regular No. 5 hitter. The guess here is that Buck Showalter, who helped break in another pretty fair third-base prospect, Manny Machado, isn’t going to push Baty into the five hole right at the start. But ultimately, it would be nice if Alonso had someone worthy of that spot following him in the order.
By all rights, the only one who should be happier today than the fans is Alonso. And the fans, well, they are pretty darned pleased.