Brett Baty: Mets Third Baseman (2022 - 2024)

Brett Austin Baty was born November 13th, 1999, in Round Rock Texas.

In his senior year at Lake Travis high school, he was named the Gatorade Texas Player of the Year. He attended the University of Texas at Austin. 

The six foot three third baseman also plays outfield, he bats lefthanded & throws righthanded. He was selected by the Mets as a 12th round pick in 2019.

In 2019 he went through the ranks of A Ball from the Gulf Coast Mets to Kingsport to the Brooklyn Cyclones. 

After the 2020 year of the Covid pandemic he returned to Brooklyn in 2021. He made the All-Star Futures Game played in Denver. Baty finished the year at AA Binghamton with the Rumble Ponies.

In 2022 he played 89 games at Binghamton; he batted .312 hitting 22 doubles & 19 HRs with 59
RBIs. He was promoted to AAA Syracuse & quickly hit .364 in six games. He quickly became the Mets second ranked prospect.

Mets Debut: In August the Mets needed help at third base when they suffered injuries to Eduardo Escobar & Luis Guillorme, J.D. Davis was gone by this time as well. They called up Baty to play third base, for the first-place club. It was quite a jump through the ranks in the last month for the 22-year-old.

August 17th, Baty made his MLB debut batting in the 8th position & playing third base in a big series in Atlanta. In the 2nd inning in his first career at bat he hit a two run HR off Jake Odorizzi, putting the Mets up 4-0. 

With his family in the stands, it was an exciting thrill for Baty & his family. As he rounded third base, he signaled a sign of "I love you all" to them. It was a much-publicized event & a happy story for baseball & for family.

Trivia: Baty became just the fifth Met to HR in their first career at bat. Benny Ayala (1974) Mike Fitzgerald (1983) Kazuo Matsui (2004) & Mike Jacobs (2005) are the others.

Quotes- Brett Baty: "I was just up there looking for a pitch to drive & had some fun with it. Thats a great way to start a career for sure. I mean my family is here, I get to celebrate with them. Honestly the bigger thing was we won the game."

That night he went 1-4 reaching on a fielder's choice in the Mets 9-7 win. He got a hit the next game as well. The Mets lost two of three in that series but still held a 3.5 game lead over the Braves in first place.

On August 19th, in the Mets 7-2 win at Philadelphia, Baty hit a two-run single in the 7th inning off Andrew Bellatti. When Escobar returned to the lineup, he was to platoon time with Baty.

On August 26th he hit his second HR, it came off the Rockies Chad Kuhl to lead off the 3rd inning
in a 7-6 Mets win over the Rockies. Pete Alonso hit the games walk off single to win it.

That Sunday while sliding over to field a ground ball off the bat of the Rockies Charlie Blackmon, Baty inured himself tearing his UCL in his right thumb, he needed surgery & was out for the rest of the regular season.

2022 Post Season: The Mets season ended after losing the Wild Card Series to the Padres. Had they advanced Baty may have been ready for the NLCS or World Series.

2023: Baty began the season at AAA Syracuse with Eduardo Escobar starting at third base. Escobar struggled & Baty was batting over .400 so he was brought up on April 17th.

In his first game back, he collected an RBI single in a 8-6 win over the Dodgers. e was given the third base job as the team parted ways with Escobar.

Multi- Three Hit Game: On April 27th in a 9-8 win over the Nat's at Citi Field, Baty had his first career three hit game. In the bottom of the 4th, he hit a 400 ft solo HR off Trevor Williams. 

Two games later he hit his second HR of the season, off the Braves Dylan Lee in a loss to Atlanta.

From May 14th to May 28th, Baty drove in nine runs in over thirteen games to close out the month. On May 19th he homered off Cal Quantrill helping the Mets come back over Cleveland, in a game where Pete Alonso hit a grand slam HR & Francisco Lindor hit a walk off single. 

Like the rest of the Mets team, Baty struggled into the summer. 

On July 18th & July 19th, in wins over the White Sox at home, he homered in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

On July 21st in a suspended game at Boston, his 8th inning single brought home Pete Alonso helping the Mets in a 5-4 win.

By early August the Mets were eleven games under .500 & Baty was batting just .216 with 7 HRs & 27 RBIs. The Mets sent him back down to AAA to further develop. 

Back at AAA Syracuse, he did well overall batting .298 with 10 HRs 31 RBIs & a 1.013 OPS in 26 games at Syracuse.

On September 1st, Baty returned to the Mets. His average fell to a low .207 before he got it back up to a poor .212 to end the season. On September 22nd, he hit a 9th inning HR off the Phillies Craig Kimbrel to tie the game & send it to extra innings. The Mets lost it on Alec Bohm's Walk off single.

In the dismal 2023 he had 75 hits with 12 doubles 9 HRs & 34 RBIs, he posted a .275 on base % & .598 OPS. In 100 games at third base, he made ten errors in 227 chances posting a .956 fielding %.

In the off season he worked on is skills with Francisco Lindor.

2024 Mets Wild Card Season: Baty began the season as the Mets third baseman, out of Spring
Training.

In the second game of the season he hit a three run HR off the Brewers Hoby Milner in a loss at Citi Field. In mid-April he hit safely in 10 of 12 games & briefly got his batting average up over .300.

Multi- HR Game: On May 3rd in Tampa, Baty had his first career multi-HR game. In the 2nd inning he hit a three run HR off Aaron Civale & added a 9th inning solo shot off Jason in Adam in the 10-8 loss.

He struggled to hit & was batting .225 at the end of May when he was sent down to AAA Syracuse. Mark Vientos would take over third base & have a breakthrough season basically taking the job away from Baty as the Mets went to the post season.

Baty did play in the one game of the London series against the Phillies, going 1-2 in the Mets 6-5 win.

At Syracuse he hit .256 with 16 HRs with 45 RBIs in 62 games. 

He also began a transition to play second base as well. In late August he injured his thumb ruining any chances of a September call up.

 He was on the Taxi-squad at the time the Mets clinched a playoff berth & was able to celebrate with the team.

In a three-year career, he is batting .215 with 1117 hits 15 doubles 15 HRs & 55 RBIs. He struck out 159 times with 47 walks posting a .282 on base % .607 OPS.

Trivia: Baty is an experienced juggler. He is long time friends with NY Jets Garrett Wilson, as the two had played football together since childhood. Baty often attends Jets home games. 

Family: Brett is in a relationship with Anna Sprys.