For most players, they would like to find their form both at the plate and on the mound in the final week of spring training. With the New York Mets giving Brett Baty every opportunity to take the Opening Day third base spot, he is trying to do just that. 

On Tuesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals, Baty hit a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the second against Lance Lynn to tie the game at one. It was his first home run since March 2 and his second of the spring. However, the 24-year-old has recorded at least one hit in seven of the last nine games he has appeared in. 

Baty has only three extra-base hits this March (one double, two home runs), but what was encouraging on Tuesday was that the home run he hit went 105 miles per hour off the bat. If there is one thing that the Mets will want to see from him going into 2024, it is hitting more line drives and getting the ball in the air. 

According to FanGraphs, Baty has hit a groundball over 50% of the time in each of the last two seasons. As for his flyball percentage, that went down from 30% to 27.3. Meanwhile, he did hit more line drives, but he had a low bar to clear (22.4% in 2023 compared to 16.7% in 2022).

Tuesday gave New York Mets fans a taste of what the Opening Day lineup could look like a week from Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers. With Baty, Mark Vientos, and Francisco Álvarez towards the bottom of the lineup, the Mets will need their young core group of players to lengthen out the lineup. 

The Mets are hoping Baty will continue to finish off the spring strong and bring that confidence into the regular season next week. Confidence can go a long way for a player who will be looking for more positive results at the big league level this year.