HOUSTON — Brett Baty had a good idea what message he was about to receive when he got summoned to the manager’s office on the final day of spring training, but that didn’t dull the occasion any.
He had earned a spot on the Mets’ Opening Day roster.
“It’s excitement when Mendy told me,” Baty said, referring to manager Carlos Mendoza. “I put in a lot of work this offseason and it paid off.”
It took an injury — Jeff McNeil has been sidelined with a strained oblique — and Baty had to look comfortable enough playing second base to warrant the roster spot.
Baty passed the test, and Friday received his first major league start at second base.
The Mets are counting on Baty to handle the position with Luisangel Acuña until McNeil returns, likely by late April.
Baty’s left-handed power potential is a welcomed addition to a top-heavy lineup.
Even so, the impressive numbers the 25-year-old Baty produced in the Grapefruit League are irrelevant.
Baty has to show he can handle major league pitching when the games count, something that has been a challenge for him the last two seasons.
But Mendoza doesn’t want Baty thinking in those terms once he enters the batter’s box. Such a message was imparted to the player.
“Don’t feel like you have to get four hits, three hits, every day to be in the lineup,” Mendoza said. “Let us make those decisions. Control what you can control. Trust the work. We saw the results in spring training. Now it’s up to him to just go out there and continue to be himself and trust the work.”
Baty said he won’t put pressure on himself to start the season with big numbers.
“I can go out there and go 0-for-20 to start the season or I could go 20-for-20,” he said. “In baseball you never know. You just stay the course and stay even and go out there and play hard.”
Baty won the starting third base job last year in spring training but struggled at the plate and was replaced by Vientos in mid-May.
In 171 plate appearances for the Mets he had a .209/.326./.327 slash line, prompting a demotion to Triple-A Syracuse for a second straight year.
But one benefit of Baty’s return to Syracuse was it allowed him to begin playing second base, on a part-time basis, for the first time in his career.
So when Baty arrived at spring training this year, he was already familiar with the position.
“I think having that experience set him up to be successful this spring,” infield coach Mike Sarbaugh said. “He’s still working on it and there’s still things we’re learning from, but I’m very pleased with how he looked in spring training.”
What’s the toughest challenge for a player learning second base?
“It’s just the footwork around the bag, the different throws, knowing with what foot to lead,” Sarbaugh said. “It’s a work in progress, but he’s doing well and he’s got the arm strength, which is going to help him.”
Mendoza was just looking forward to watching Baty play second base in a meaningful game after an impressive spring.
The manager was asked where he saw improvement from Baty at the position by the end of camp.
“I think there was a lot with the communication from pitch to pitch,” Mendoza said. “There’s a lot that goes into when you are playing the middle infield as opposed to third base. There is communication with your shortstop, with your first baseman, with the pitcher. I think he did a really good job going to the right places when he needed to.
“Going to his right, especially, he made some plays that weren’t easy and throwing with a different angle, so he did a lot of that and we’re encouraged by it.”
