After lost '26 season, Mets' Baro focused on adding pop in the desert

PEORIA, Ariz. -- When Boston Baro connected on a three-run homer to the right of the batter’s eye at Peoria Sports Complex on Thursday, there were the typical big-moment caveats. It gave Surprise a 5-1 lead over Peoria in the sixth inning. It was the first of five combined homers hit by the two sides. It was the start of an offensive onslaught in the final few frames that led to a 12-11 final score with Baro’s Saguaros falling to the Javelinas on a walk-off dinger from Alex McCoy (SD No. 26).

“It was important,” Baro said. “Put us ahead and got the vibe rolling.”

That wasn’t the only momentum the Mets prospect was hoping to get going Thursday. The homer was also Baro’s first in a game environment since July 27, 2025, with High-A Brooklyn.

An eighth-round pick out of the California high school ranks in 2023, Baro saw what was meant to be his third full Minor League season limited to only 11 games by both a right shoulder and a right quad injury. The shoulder initially placed the infielder on Brooklyn’s 60-day injured list at the start of the season, and he made his 2026 debut at last on May 21 in the Florida Complex League. In his second game just two days later, he suffered the quad injury, which forced him to miss another three months.

“I was devastated because my body was feeling great,” Baro said. “Everything we worked on was feeling good going into games, and then that happened, which was unfortunate. But I guess it gave us more time to get stronger and better.”

Technically, all 11 of the 22-year-old’s games played were on rehab assignment, making him the perfect candidate to make up for lost at-bats in the Fall League.

Getting stronger has been a point of emphasis for Baro since he signed for well above slot at $700,000 three years ago. The left-handed hitter’s contact rates have been solid to great throughout his Minor League career, including an 87.5 percent mark in this year’s very small sample, but the impact behind it has been lacking. He hit only four homers in both the 2024 and '25 seasons, and while he’s a solid runner with enough glove to feature anywhere on the dirt, Baro needs to slug at least a little to make himself a potential everyday player in the bigs.

Beyond focusing on nutrition and the weight room, Baro has also undergone an approach change that he believes could get him to more pop.

“Not really lunging forward, like going to get the ball, [and more] letting it come to me, staying behind it,” he said. “That was the main thing. … If I'm going to get it, the room for error is minimal. But when you let the ball get deeper, you have more time and a little more room for error.”

To that point, Baro’s homer on Thursday came when he didn’t try to jump on a 92.9 mph sinker from Peoria right-hander Braxton Bragg (BAL No. 22) but instead focused on driving it to the big part of the field up the middle.

Getting to that consistently will be the next step; the resulting 99.6 mph exit velocity was Baro’s third-highest of the AFL and only the fourth batted ball out of 15 to exceed the hard-hit standard of 95+ mph. Through eight games with Surprise, Baro is 5-for-22 (.227) with the homer representing his only extra-base hit, though he does have nine walks compared with seven strikeouts in that span.

The former UCLA commit -- who has played second, shortstop and third base in the desert -- will also have to contend with a Mets Minor League infield depth chart that got deeper at this year’s Trade Deadline with the additions of Jefferson Rojas (NYM No. 1/MLB No. 68), Billy Amick and fellow Fall Leaguer Bruin Agbayani (NYM No. 28).

Given how 2026 has gone, the first step to Baro reaffirming his place in that hierarchy is simply by playing at all, and it certainly helps that he’s getting in work somewhere beyond the Mets’ complex in Port St. Lucie.

“Arizona is awesome,” Baro said, “and to be around this group of guys, it's been amazing.”