A Brett Baty truth the NY Mets can’t deny

Brett Baty continues to get regular playing time with the New York Mets. Whether it’s a belief in his abilities or a lack of alternative options (there’s isn’t), the Mets are devoted to making him work. They refused to trade him in the offseason, buying into his second-half success prior to an early season-ending injury.

The back-and-forth between who’s good and who isn’t with Mark Vientos has continued into this year with the quick conclusion about both being the worst of all: neither is. We’ll save the Vientos criticism for another day. He has been through it enough. Baty, on the other hand, is in a far worse stretch of baseball. He’s not hitting and his defense has left a lot to be desired.

Baty’s “truth” remains one of the biggest ongoing questions with the Mets. They believed one thing and the facts are now staring them in the face.

The truth: Brett Baty is useful, just not useful enough in the way the Mets wanted him to be

The Mets set Baty up to be their new utility man in place of Jeff McNeil. He has rewarded them with time split at first base and right field. In a short period, he has raised defensive questions at both spots. The misplay in right field last week and error at first base more recently have the one good thing about Baty on paper looking less than satisfactory.

His usefulness is limited to pure belief that he can play multiple positions. As a bench player, that’s not so bad. As an everyday option, which they’re now forcing him into being, it’s only getting more painful each day.

Baty’s hot August when just about every Mets hitter was actually hitting and the pitching was failing them is what turned his season around most. He went into August hitting .227/.284/.404. He’d finish at .254/.313/.435. Satisfied with a strong finish, the Mets bought fully into his progress as a defensive player, hitter, and overall useful member of the roster who’d be a cheaper version of McNeil with room to grow.

Baty went into Saturday’s Mets loss with a 33.3% strikeout rate and no walks on the year. Finally drawing his first free pass of the year, it’s far from enough to start to think he’s turning things around. Hitless since April 9, he's striking out and grounding out with the worst of them.

The truth with Baty is he can remain useful in the right situation. The problem is he isn’t in the right spot. The Mets set themselves up for him to be a solution at too many places with too many questions. He’s not playing better than Carson Benge. Vientos has snail-crawled past him in offensive reliability. Better meant to truly be a utility player off the bench, we’re getting to the point where he needs even just two weeks in the minors to give him a needed wake-up call. Ryan Clifford hitting a home run in both parts of a doubleheader on Saturday surely shouldn’t go unnoticed.

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