Baty's positive attitude propelling him back to Majors

This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Anyone observing Brett Baty in the Minors would have found it impossible to tell that he preferred not to be there.

During his time at Triple-A Syracuse, Baty bounced between tasks with enthusiasm, taking ground balls daily at third base and batting practice on the field. He joked and laughed, bantering with manager Dick Scott about his off day activities and teammate Ronny Mauricio -- “Chimi,” as Baty calls him -- about whatever came to mind. Baty was smiling, vibrant. A year of tribulation, including a demotion to the Minors early last month, did nothing to dim his outlook.

Now, he’s back, set to be called up alongside Mauricio before Friday’s game against the Mariners, according to multiple sources. His intention is never to go down again.

“I can only blame myself,” the third baseman said this week in Allentown, Pa., days before his callup. “I didn’t play well enough to warrant me staying up there.”

When the Mets decided in the final week of Spring Training not to carry Baty on their Opening Day roster, the hope was that once they ultimately did recall him, it would be for good. Initially, that line of thinking seemed plausible, as Baty returned in short order and produced a .333/.391/.524 slash line over his first 13 games, becoming the Mets’ regular five-hole hitter.

But Baty was unable to sustain that success into the midsummer months. Defensive shortcomings combined with -- or perhaps helped cause -- an extended offensive slump that saw the former first-rounder bat under .150 from the start of July through the time of his demotion. When the Mets finally sent him back to Triple-A in early August, Baty was in the midst of an 0-for-19 skid at the plate.

“I definitely understood it,” he said of the demotion. “I wish it could have happened differently. I wish I could have stayed up there the whole year and played well and done my thing, but unfortunately, sometimes that’s how it goes. That’s the game we play. We play a game of failure. [When] I get my opportunity again, I’m going to try to take advantage of it and make the most of it.”

For those who have seen Baty over the past few weeks, the fact that he’s jumping quickly back to the Majors isn’t particularly surprising. When the third baseman arrived at Syracuse last month, Scott called him into his office to “take his temperature,” concerned that the 23-year-old would take his demotion hard. Behind closed doors, Baty radiated optimism, saying he was mentally fine and ready to work.

Scott quickly became convinced.

“There’s all kinds of guys that go up there their very first time and it just doesn’t work the way they want,” the Syracuse manager said. “They go down and regroup, and then they go back and have their big league career. It happens all the time.

“That was the message that I -- and probably many others -- gave to him. You don’t have many guys like David Wright that go to the big leagues, he does well, and then the next year he does better, and then the next year he does better than that. That’s hard to do.”

Back at Triple-A, Baty rediscovered success to an extent; five home runs in 15 games seemed promising, but Baty’s .329 on-base percentage and 25% strikeout rate left room for growth. Quality fastballs troubled Baty after he spent months in the Majors seeing a steady diet of breaking pitches. Defensively, he never completely patched over some of the issues that came to light in New York.

Yet within the player development arena, no less optimism surrounds Baty than at this time last year, when he rated as the Mets’ second-best prospect behind Francisco Alvarez. On the field, he is still young enough to consider a leap to stardom reasonable. Off the field, Baty surrounds himself with a strong support system -- including his parents; former Minor League coaches Mariano Duncan and Reid Brignac; and Scott and the Syracuse staff.

At times, his perspective on all this seems unbefitting of his age. After the NBA Finals in June, when Nuggets star Nikola Jokic produced a viral moment for appearing exhausted by the idea of a championship parade, Baty found himself struck by Jokic’s comments that professional success “is not everything in the world.” Like Jokic, Baty deeply burns to succeed at his job. Also like Jokic, he refuses to allow that to rule his worldview.

“Like, I love this game, and I’ll give everything to this game, and I’ll put all the hard work, all the blood, sweat and tears -- whatever cliche it may be,” Baty said. “But at the end of the day, I’m going to go home with my family and I’m going to enjoy my life outside of this game as well. That’s just how I look at it, and I feel like when you do look at it that way, you really can’t be defeated.”