3 NY Mets players who could ‘Wally Pipp’ an injured teammate

You know you’ve made it when your name is a verb. To ‘Wally Pipp’ someone is to ‘Lou Gehrig’ them. Baseball fans know the basics of the story. Pipp sat down for a day only for Gehrig to enter the New York Yankees lineup and take first base away from Pipp for good. We probably won’t see a New York Mets player quite at that scale do anything to a teammate, but there are some candidates who could steal a job, or at least significant playing time, from someone currently on the IL.

Who’ll be Pipp’ed during their rehab?

1) Brett Baty has an opportunity to do unto Jeff McNeil what was done to him

Jeff McNeil’s spring training injury will have the veteran super utility man missing the first few weeks of the season. The Mets are well-equipped to replace him at second base in the future. Presently, it’s Brett Baty who’ll get the playing time for the bulk of the time.

Third base is now occupied by Mark Vientos. Baty’s time with the Mets could have come to a close, except he managed to show he can handle second base this spring. Competency at the new position helps. A major league bat will keep him there or at least in some sort of a role with the Mets once McNeil is healthy.

The Mets won’t move McNeil permanently to the bench and into obscurity this season. However, with both players swinging from the left side of the plate, they might need to find a creative way to keep both around and active. McNeil’s ability to play multiple positions still has value. Trading him is always possible, but with another year on his contract and probably not a whole lot of teams interested, we’d have to expect the Mets to look at other casualties if they had to. Players like Starling Marte, Jesse Winker, Jose Siri, and Tyrone Taylor could all end up on the chopping block if underperforming.

That’s a long way into the future and would require Baty to show off his MLB abilities and McNeil fight back.