The New York Mets have new infielders at third and first, and Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco both have some issues.
It might seem premature to be assessing the quality of the New York Mets corner defense given that it's so early in the season, but we’ve seen enough of the basic performance of third baseman Bo Bichette and first baseman Jorge Polanco, and they’ve both struggled at one particular kind of play.
For Bichette, it’s throwing, especially while he’s moving. He’s sent multiple throws up the line, and while Polanco has been able to make multiple tag plays up the line, Bichette did get charged with his first throwing error yesterday in the Mets’ 2-1 win in 11 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
His throws on hot shots hit right at him haven’t been great, either. Bichette has a lot of confidence in his arm, and he’s shown a tendency to wait and load up so far. It hasn’t cost him to date, but Bichette has made multiple plays closer than they need to be.
Some of this will get better with time, but some adjustments are clearly necessary. Veteran broadcaster and former Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez weighed in on how he might handle this issue, which was especially relevant given that he experienced it first hand with third baseman Howard Johnson with the Mets championship club back in 1986.
Hernandez said he used to set a target for Johnson that allowed the ball to drift back to him when Johnson made the throw on the move. It took some time to work out the sequencing and get things precise, but Jorge Polanco has had some issues of his own, as did Brett Baty in his first game at first this season today.
Polanco’s problem has been positioning. He’s had a couple of ground balls get up on him too quickly, but he hasn’t been burned yet because he’s aware of how much time he has to make the throw. Once again, this will get better with time, but it does speak to the degree of the gamble the Mets are taking by breaking in two new infielders this way at once.
Baty, meanwhile had a different problem with pick-off throws that wasn’t really his fault at all. Sean Manaea made his first appearance as a reliever in the seventh inning today, and Baty clearly had no idea that Manaea was going to make his second pickoff throw, which scooted into foul territory as the pitcher picked up an error. Hernandez criticized him for not leaving the bag to get the errant throw, but Baty clearly had no chance to field it.
This is partly a communication issue that should also improve with time, but it’s going to be a while before the Mets get the kind of tight, improved infield defense when they basically started over at these two positions.