If the Mets don’t pick up a third baseman before Opening Day — and president of baseball operations David Stearns made it clear recently that he doesn’t consider an addition at the spot a must — then they’ll be going into the season with a combination of Brett Baty and Mark Vientos at the position.
And they’ll be banking on some serious improvement.
Of third basemen with at least 350 plate appearances last season, no player finished with a worse WAR than Baty’s -0.5, according to Fangraphs.
As for Mark Vientos, among third basemen with at least 230 plate appearances, only Nick Maton and Jean Segura had a lower WAR than Vientos’ -0.9.
Also worrisome is that Baty, who turned 24 in November, struggled more in the second half than he did in the first, with a miserable 0-for-18 stretch in August followed by a disappointing September, when he had a .514 OPS — his lowest in any full month of 2023.
Still, when asked this month if he thought he needed to add another bat to the lineup, Stearns said, “I wouldn’t necessarily close the door on that, but I also don’t think it’s essential. Some of that is interrelated to third base, where we do have young players. I want to make sure they have sufficient at-bats.”
Right now, the lefty-swinging Baty is penciled in as the starter at third, with Vientos having played poorly there last season in his 19 games at the spot and the promising Ronny Mauricio out after suffering a torn ACL while playing winter ball.
Baty started 94 games at third last year and was especially ineffective against breaking balls and offspeed pitches.
What can give the Mets reason to hope, however, is the fact that Baty showed improvement in his second season at multiple minor league levels during his career, including at Double-A Binghamton, where he went from a .787 OPS in 2021 to .950 in ’22.
And he was consistently solid with Triple-A Syracuse in his stints there a year ago.
They’ll be counting on a similar upswing in Queens in 2024.
One American League scout noted a marked improvement isn’t impossible for Baty in the upcoming season, comparing him — in a way — to Detroit first baseman Spencer Torkelson.
“They’re both talented hitters and Torkelson looked awful at times [in 2022] and got sent back down for a good chunk of the second half,’’ the scout said of Torkelson, also 24. “Then he looked a lot better last season.”
He brought his OPS up from .604 to .758 and his Fangraphs WAR from -1.0 to 1.4, which, while not spectacular, is a marked improvement.
Torkelson was the first overall pick by the Tigers out of Arizona State in 2020, while the Mets took Baty out of high school with the 12th overall pick in 2019.
“They seem committed to him, so let’s see if he’s learned from last year,’’ the scout said.
As for potential outside help, the Mets have been linked to former Yankee Gio Urshela, who remains a free agent and is coming off a season in which he was limited to 62 games with the Angels after suffering a season-ending pelvis injury in June.
Former Met Justin Turner could return to Queens but is seen more as a DH option.
He started just five games at third base last year with the Red Sox after starting 59 games there in 2022 in his final season with the Dodgers.
