NEW YORK -- Brett Baty sprinted diagonally back toward the wall in right field, stole a glance over his shoulder and then turned back around, continuing to track the baseball. At the last moment, Baty thrust his glove out in front of him, only for the ball to sail past it, ricochet off the bottom of the fence and trickle onto the warning track.
Just like that, Thursday’s game against the Diamondbacks was tied. Just like that, all of Nolan McLean’s brilliance was forgotten.
In a 7-1 Mets loss to the Diamondbacks at Citi Field, Baty’s inability to corral a game-tying Gabriel Moreno double in the seventh inning off Luke Weaver was hardly the only issue. One batter later, Alek Thomas hit a sharp grounder to first, where Mark Vientos gloved it, squared his body and fired home, only to bounce the throw well wide of the plate. Jose Fernandez scored the go-ahead run, as the Mets continued to pay for having multiple players out of position.
Baty, of course, is a natural third baseman who has moonlit this season at first base and in right field. Vientos is also a third baseman who began the year on the bench, moved to DH and, more recently, has become the Mets’ everyday first baseman. Neither has much Major League game experience at the position he manned Thursday.
In addition, both of the plays in question were hardly routine. But Moreno’s double had a Statcast hit probability of 45 percent, suggesting that it was, at a minimum, a catchable ball. The ball to Vientos, meanwhile, occurred with the infield drawn in, giving him the best possible chance to cut down the run at home.
“I think they’ve been playing the positions very well,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Baty and Vientos. “Even today, that ball in right field, that’s a tough play. And the one at the plate with Vientos, when you execute the way they did it -- hell of a job from the runner on third base going on contact. Anytime an infielder’s got to go to his right, to his left, you’re going to have to make a really good play to get the guy at home plate.”
On this night, it would have been just as easy to point fingers at the Mets’ offense, which produced just one run off Eduardo Rodriguez and two relievers, or even on the pitch inefficiency that forced McLean from the game. Even so, it was telling that the outcome hinged on consecutive defensive plays that weren’t made in the seventh.
At the start of the offseason, president of baseball operations David Stearns identified “run prevention” as the area he most hoped to improve. That meant upgrading the team’s pitching, which Stearns attempted to do through the acquisitions of Freddy Peralta, Devin Williams, Weaver and Luis García. So far, those pitchers have been a mixed bag, ranging from Williams’ lights-out performances to García’s 8.44 ERA.
But run prevention also meant improving the team’s defense, which Stearns tried to accomplish through the acquisitions of Jorge Polanco at first base, Marcus Semien at second and Bo Bichette at third. In addition, Stearns moved Juan Soto from right to left field, traded for Luis Robert Jr. to play center and cleared a path for top prospect Carson Benge to man right.
Through 13 games, those players have experienced varied levels of success. While Robert and Semien have been as solid as advertised, no one else -- with the exception of Benge, whose problems have been offensive rather than defensive -- has proven elite. Overall, the Mets rank near the middle of the pack in Outs Above Average, Statcast’s catch-all defensive metric. While Vientos has enjoyed enough moments of competence to earn additional playing time at first base, the challenges of learning on the fly for the Mets’ out-of-position players have been apparent.
Earlier this week, Mendoza said that even with Soto on the injured list, he wanted to keep Baty in right field because that’s where he had trained all spring. There’s some merit to that line of thinking, understanding Baty is not yet a finished product. After failing to catch Moreno’s double, Baty spoke about the difficulties of plays like those, which are impossible to simulate in practice.
“That was the first one I’ve gotten near the wall,” Baty said. “Still working hard to get some experience on the wall balls and stuff. I think they’re extremely hard.”
Harder still in games that count, both now and in the near-term future.
“I’m going to do everything I can to catch those,” Baty added. “Run through the wall if I can.”