New York Mets infielder Brett Baty spent the winter preparing to play as many positions as he could, but yesterday against the Washington Nationals, he discovered in his debut at first base that playing a new position in game conditions is a very different matter, even if the games don't count.
First base is an action position, and the Mets’ newest first baseman found himself in the middle of it in the third inning on a ground ball to second by James Wood of the Nationals. Having spent some time at second, Baty did exactly what a second baseman would have done, which was go get the ball, but he quickly found himself in no man’s land as the actual second, Marcus Semien, fielded the ball and waited for Baty to recover and get back to the bag.
There are just some things you never see in practice until you get out there and do it in the game,” Baty said in an account written by Marc Feinsand of MLB.com. “It's just learning stuff like that, which was really cool. It was a fun challenge out there; no mistakes, but didn't look pretty, either. We'll get better over there, for sure.”
Welcome to the spring training tryouts, Mets style. If it feels like any player could play any position at any time, that’s because the Mets are pinwheeling different players around the diamond, and yesterday’s game was called “Who’s on first?”
“That’s the biggest thing with these guys learning that position, that there's going to be times when the ball is going to be hit to their right and they have to go to the left and get to the base,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I thought, overall, it was a good day. It was just good to see him out there in game action.”
As a possible super-utility player, Baty is getting reps all over the diamond, and according to Marc Feinsand of MLB com, Baty will get a start in right field this week. That, too, could be an adventure, as Juan Soto has proven to Mets fans so far, but at least Baty will know that his primary job will be to go get the ball.
“I feel like a football receiver out there,” Baty said. “I think it’s fun to run around out there, catch fly balls, show off the arm and stuff like that. I think you can showcase athleticism out there.”
Hopefully the Mets will put more of a definition on this experiment that now looks like something on the order of “hey, go try that spot, let's see what happens.” It’s fun to watch in the early days of spring training when miscues are plentiful and the intensity is low, but that’s going to change very quickly at the end of this month now that we’re officially in March.