Reese Kaplan -- A Different Approach to Promoting Brett Baty

As the trade deadline approaches no one is sure what to expect from the front office.  During the first game of July it appears that the Mets have followed up on their strong June the same way with a come-from-behind effort against the Nationals.  Many on the fence about buy or sell are going to have to wait for a philosophical and business decision made on expiring contracts and the hot hitting of Brett Baty in AAA. 

What occurred to me just recently watching regular All Star slugger J.D. Martinez is not only how much he has helped the club after his late start, but also how instrumental he has been in seeing a few of the younger hitters all of the sudden step up a level.  

We all know how markedly better the should-be All Star catcher Francisco Alvarez has been.  Today, however, let’s take a little look more closely at Mark Vientos.

Thus far everyone is focused on what he’s doing now with the bat while at the same time griping about how he plays the field and chomping at the bit to hand the position over to Brett Baty.  I’m certainly one who has advocated playing both of them for all of August and September to help decide what you have here with their overall abilities.  The question is how and where.

For the most part people have envisioned having Vientos make a diagonal trek across the diamond to man first base assuming the decision is made to peddle away free-agent-to-be Pete Alonso.  While that would be a seemingly acceptable solution, Alonso would be leaving massive shoes to fill and Vientos would forever be associated as the cause rather than the effect of the club trading away their all-time best home run hitter.  No matter how well Vientos did there if he didn’t hit 40 HRs people would gripe.

Curiosity got the better of me while watching J.D. Martinez in Monday’s game.  He is hitting a highly respectable .274 with 9 HRs and 34 RBIs over 208 ABs.  That is a pace a little low on power but tracking close to 100 RBIs if he had played a full season.  His slugging percentage is .476 and his OBP is .831.  Those two numbers are slightly below his career norms, but no one here is complaining that the $12 million man is not worth every penny paid. 

Not to be unfair to Pete Alonso, but his 17 HRs and 46 are certainly desirable.  Unfortunately his SLG of .474 and his OBP of .808 are good but not even up to the level that the 36 year old Martinez is delivering. 

Now comes the surprising part.  Mark Vientos is hitting over .300, has 10 HRs and 26 RBIs in 139 ABs with a SLG of .585 and an OPS of .947.  Now the batting average is probably the biggest surprise and as the league adjusts to him as a regular player those other metrics may tick down a bit as well. 

The funky idea that hit me was perhaps the Mets do their very best to extend hometown hero Pete Alonso, trade away solid hitting J.D. Martinez and instead of Vientos crossing over to 1st base, have him take over the DH duties which would also remove his below average fielding from the game and open up a spot for Brett Baty to play.  

There should be no long term loyalty for Martinez who is a first year Met and will be 37 next season.  Obviously he would cost far less than would Alonso, but this approach would be creating a way for all of Alonso, Vientos and Baty to be in the lineup every day.

All that being said, of course, you still have to figure out what to do with Starling Marte once he recovers.  I have a feeling the Mets will be insisting he come back by the end of the third week of July to show for a week he’s healthy enough to play to open up a trade opportunity, though if they keep him as he enters his later 30s and suffering with defense in RF perhaps he is a viable DH candidate as well.