Laura Albanese: Mets not putting best defensive foot forward, put Brett Baty in an awful position
Mets' Brett Baty swings during the fifth inning against the Brewers on Wednesday in Milwaukee. Credit: AP/Kayla Wolf
MILWAUKEE – Baseball lifers like to say that if you’re going to get beat, get beat with your best stuff.
The maxim is generally applied to pitching – this idea that if you’re going up against a formidable opponent, you’re better off leaning on your own strengths rather than the other guy's weaknesses. But it applies in other areas, too, and we saw evidence of that in the second inning of the Mets' 4-3 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field Wednesday.
Christian Scott had allowed the first two batters to reach before getting the next two out, bringing Joey Ortiz to the plate. The light-hitting third baseman skied what should have been the final out of the inning to the warning track in right, and Brett Baty, playing the outfield for only the fourth time since May 7, looked to have it in his sights.
Until he didn’t.
“I felt I had a good read on it and then got back to the track and it just tailed on me a little bit more,” Baty said. “That play has to be made.”
He’s right in that respect – the ball had a .200 expected batting average, drove in both runners to give the Brewers a 2-1 lead, and opened up the floor for Christian Yelich, who plated another run with a single. But the greater narrative is one that Baty doesn’t have the luxury of acknowledging, even if he wanted to – he, like so many misplaced Mets fielders this year, hasn’t been put in a position to succeed.
“There are no excuses,” Baty said sternly – not the first time he’s publicly had to don the sackcloth and ash for a misplay this year.
But is it more difficult to adjust, especially since he’s had so very little time out there of late?
“I don’t know,” he said. “This is my first time bouncing around like this. I mean, I bounced around the infield last year, but I just pride myself on being able to make all the plays in the field. I’m very disappointed in myself there.”
You can't really blame him all that much, can you?
This was the season of “run prevention,” but the Mets' patchwork defense has registered -9 outs above average, and their defense is ranked 22nd in baseball. And Baty, an average or above average second and third baseman, ranks at -1 outs above average in right, where he has been inconsistently deployed. Of all the Mets to play a corner outfield position this year, only Juan Soto (-2) has fared worse.
And so, the Mets Wednesday defied the maxim: They got beat while not using their best stuff.
In fairness, interim manager Andy Green had some restrictions to work around. Baty has been one of the Mets’ hottest bats, hitting .283 in his last 16 games, with 11 runs, four doubles and three homers (one of which he hit in the fifth inning Wednesday), and getting him in the lineup against a tough righthander in Logan Henderson was the correct move. Soto is nursing a manageable calf injury, and Green wanted to give the slugger a rest day with a scheduled off day tomorrow to “get this thing completely behind him,” the manager said.
And Luis Robert Jr., fresh off the injured list and woefully injury prone, wasn’t a great candidate to play in the outfield for three straight days. Tyrone Taylor would have been the superior defensive choice, and he’s on a scorcher – coming into the day hitting .379 in 15 games since his return from the injured list – but has historically struggled against righties.
Still, Baty’s miscue points to a few of the flaws that were baked into this Mets season. For one, the focus on positional versatility has led to many players who can do many things, but not necessarily excel at them. The Mets are actually a significantly worse fielding team than they were last year, and they weren’t all that good back then, either. And as an addendum, the caution they must exercise with Robert once again highlights that they did not properly evaluate his risk of injury.
All of this translated to the Mets having five natural outfielders on their roster, and still starting an infielder against the best team in baseball. As if to belabor the point, when Jared Young was lifted for Taylor as a pinch hitter in the seventh, Green was forced to play catcher Luis Torrens at first for only the eighth time in his career.
“You get the opportunity with versatile pieces to have your best lineup out there,” Green said. “Scoring runs is important. Preventing runs is important. Trying to balance that out is something every manager does and every staff does every single day…We had a chance to make a play today that didn’t get made. I do have faith that Brett can and will make that play. He has that faith, too, so you’re balancing those things.”
It’s a fair opinion, but faith isn’t a plan – not when you’ve scuffled as much as the Mets have. And though there’s not much left to be done about this season, you can only hope that this provided some insight for next year.
Because at this level, defensive fluency is a necessity and versatility is a luxury – not the other way around. After all, if you’re going to get beat, you should at least know you used your very best stuff to avoid it.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
