Reese Kaplan -- "What's on Second?" Brett Baty!

Over this past weekend news broke that Jeff McNeil’s oblique strain turns out to be a bit more severe than originally thought.  While no one really gave much thought to a week or two on the IL while either Brett Baty and his hot bat took over for the former batting champion or Luisangel Acuna with his solid defense and blazing speed would substitute for the former All Star would be that big a deal for 10-14 days. 

However, manager Carlos Mendoza recently announced that the low right strain is likely to amount to a full month or more of missed time.  It starts out with a period of up to ten days with no baseball related activity whatsoever, then followed by a period of three to four weeks until he is deemed to be symptom free.

Whoa!  So now that decision not to bring back hot hitting and solid fielding Jose Iglesias seems a bit short sighted.  With newcomer Nick Madrigal gone for the entire year due to his own injury and prospect Ronny Mauricio also not yet ready to play every day it leads the Mets back to where we started with Baty and Acuna.

Now many people are still not yet on the Baty bandwagon despite his red hot bat throughout the 2025 preseason.  While he’s started off hot in the past and not done anything with it, consequently there is quite a bit of disbelief until he’s able to sustain it in the major league when the bell rang in The Show.  He’s already had more than ample opportunity to prove he’s more than a hot spring hitter.

To be fair, there are other players who have been great in Florida but not so much in New York.  Had he stumbled just once then the naysayers might be too still cynical.  However, until he is able to do what Mark Vientos did in 2024 it is understandable to have this level of “prove it to me!”

The younger sibling of the Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuna who hit 41 HRs and drove in 106 runs while stealing 73 in 2023 before going down with long term injury in 2024 is not at that same level of player. 

Yes, he had a rock solid 2023 when obtained during the Mets salary dumps.  He followed it up with a very hot winter performance in 2024.  Unfortunately Luisangel’s 2024 minor league numbers were OK but nothing eye popping. 

Despite a .308 stint covering for Francisco Lindor in September last year, Acuna had delivered off the basis of a .258 2024 season with 7 HRs and 50 RBIs to accompany 40 SBs.  Now that AAA so-so performance is not representative of what he did in his minor league past.  Roll in 2024 to his career and he’s still a .280 hitter who has stolen as many as 57 in a season.  He doesn’t have Ronald’s middle of the order run production, but he’s shown very solid ability to hit while matching it with great defense and respectable running speed.

So the question for the Mets right now is whether you believe Baty is the most deserving to demonstrate he is for real or do you look for the glove and speed of Acuna?  Actually, although both have the need to prove at a higher level what they can do, it’s a nice problem to have rather than looking to fill in for McNeil with someone with a mere .200 hitting profile.  Right not it would appear that the right handed hitting Acuna might line up against lefties where the left handed hitting Baty will start most of the time and the Mets get to see what happens. 

I’m as doubtful as the next fan of seeing Baty take it to the next level, but I’m also fond of giving the hot hand the chance to play.  I’d pencil in his name nearly every day until he demonstrates he can or cannot get it done.