Spring Training Position Battles to Watch

Baseball season is finally upon us as pitchers and catchers officially reported to spring training earlier this week, while full-squad workouts are just a few days away. The New York Mets have several position battles that are shaping up and will play out over the next month, so let’s take a look at what areas of the roster are worth paying extra attention to as the action kicks into gear.

Third Base

Brett Baty’s arrival to the major leagues was supposed to mark an inflection point in the Mets’ long-standing hunt for stability and a cornerstone piece at third base. Instead, Baty has limped out of the gate and slashed .210/.272/.325 with a 68 wRC+ and -0.6 fWAR through the first 119 games and 431 plate appearances of his young career. Now, the 24-year-old and former top prospect enters spring training with little room for error with a new coaching staff and front office in tow while still remaining the presumptive favorite to begin the season as New York’s primary option at the hot corner.

Baty has the tools necessary to put it together at the plate, and it’s just a matter of whether it all materializes or not. His raw power was one of his crowning traits coming up through the minors, yet he has just 11 home runs to his name as a big leaguer thus far. Baty’s 31.5% whiff rate was a major red flag that emerged from his 2023 campaign, as were his poor expected stats and inability to hit both breaking and off-speed pitches. He wasn’t any more prosperous with the glove either, as he finished last season with -5 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and -4 Outs Above Average (OAA) in just over 800 innings in the field.

Simply put, Baty endured a disastrous rookie season in almost every way imaginable. Hope still remains that he can turn it around, however, and projection systems such as Steamer and ZiPs believe he will make a leap toward becoming an above-average regular for the Mets in 2024. Baty has to prove it this spring, though, and until he cleans up the shortcomings in his profile, it’ll likely be tough for the team to simply hand him the reigns at the position.

New York’s other options at third base as of now are Mark Vientos and Joey Wendle, who are essentially polar opposites of one another. Vientos, as has been relayed and speculated all offseason, is primed to receive a lion’s share of his at-bats this season as the Mets’ designated hitter, though he can’t be completely discounted in the equation at the hot corner. His defense has always been of concern, and those doubts were corroborated after he posted -4 DRS and -1 OAA over 153 innings at third last season.

Vientos’ likely path to earning reps at the position would come through his development and overall performance with the glove in spring training while also building on his promising finish with the bat last season. He mashed six home runs during September and October while slashing .230/.280/.460 over that span, and if he can continue to harness his power while cutting down on his strikeouts, he may play his way onto the field that way as well.

Wendle won’t offer much in the way of offensive production for the Mets after hitting .238/.275/.335 his past two seasons with the Miami Marlins, but there’s still a case to be made that he presents the highest floor of any of the team’s options at the position. An eight-year veteran who has accumulated 9.2 fWAR during his career, Wendle is a good baserunner who is a known commodity in the field. He didn’t spend any time at the hot corner with Miami last season, though he has recorded 2 DRS and 1 OAA there in 1563 2/3 career innings there. In total, Wendle has 45 DRS and 22 OAA to his name, and even though a majority of them came at second base or shortstop, his defensive chops should serve New York well in whatever role he assumes in 2024.

Sixth Starter

The top five in the Mets’ rotation is essentially set in stone, but opportunities exist behind that group for some of the team’s depth options at starting pitcher. Injuries are unfortunately inevitable at some point in the season, and perhaps New York will simply choose to operate with a six-man rotation at different junctures throughout the course of the year. While a team’s sixth starter is typically unheralded or uncelebrated, they almost always become immensely important pieces down the stretch, and the Mets have a couple of guys who will duke it out against one another in spring training with hopes of being the team’s next man up.

Though prospects such as Mike Vasil and Christian Scott are tantalizing and could factor into the mix at some point during the 2024 season, the trio of Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi and José Butto figure to be the primary players to watch in this race.

Megill started 25 games for New York last season and finished the year with a 4.70 ERA. He saw a significant drop in his K/9 rate, going from 9.70 in 2022 to 7.48 in 2023, while his BB/9 rate went from 2.47 to 4.13. Megill suffered from the ineffectiveness of his fastball as well as the lack of a go-to off-speed pitch, though the emergence of his so-called “American Spork” could remedy that situation. He did finish the year off on a high note, however, as he pitched to a 2.76 ERA in 29 1/3 innings during September and October, so it’s worth wondering whether or not he found a solution to his struggles that he can carry over and learn from with a fresh slate.

Lucchesi’s standout 2023 campaign was one of the more underrated storylines of the Mets’ season. After not pitching in a major league game for nearly two years following Tommy John surgery in 2021, he returned in April against the San Francisco Giants, where he pieced together a seven-inning shutout with nine strikeouts. From there, Lucchesi made eight more starts and finished with a 2.89 ERA over 46 2/3 innings. While he did significantly outperform his peripherals, and it would be unwise to expect that sort of production over a larger sample size, Lucchesi can still remain a productive starting option for the Mets and improve his standing with a strong spring. His cutter, which he sparsely threw before his injury, became arguably his most potent pitch, and an increase in both his HR/9 and GB% rates qualify as reasons for optimism with Lucchesi moving forward.

Butto had a rather solid rookie season, recording a 3.64 ERA over nine appearances, seven starts and 42 innings in 2023. While he likely is third in the pecking order behind Megill and Lucchesi as of now, there’s no reason he can’t pass both by with a strong spring. Butto mastered missing barrels last season, as opposing batters mustered just a 2.5% rate in that category against him. Additionally, Butto closed out the year with a whiff rate of 28.8% and largely held the best peripherals of any of the candidates as well. His control was a consistent barrier, and there’s a chance the Mets try him out as a reliever, but Butto can’t be discounted as a depth option in 2024.

Final Bullpen Spot

At the onset of spring training, seven of the Mets’ eight bullpen spots appear to be locked up. The recent signings of Jake Diekman and Shintaro Fujinami to guaranteed deals removed some of the uncertainty regarding the state of the team’s middle relief core while simultaneously erasing several spots that once appeared to be up for grabs amongst the bevy of New York’s minor league signees and non-roster invitees. Competition breeds excellence, however, so perhaps the incoming roster crunch will bring out the best in the remaining options as they jostle for a spot on the Opening Day roster.

From the outside looking in, Phil Bickford and Michael Tonkin both appear to be in good shape within this conversation.

Bickford, who came over to the Mets from the Los Angeles Dodgers at last year’s trade deadline, posted a 4.62 ERA in 25 appearances with the club and is just a few seasons removed from a 2021 campaign in which he recorded a 2.81 ERA with 10.34 K/9 and 0.5 fWAR through 57 appearances. His walk rate, which hadn’t been an issue throughout his major league career, ballooned to 12.8% last season while he also saw his slider become completely ineffective. Bickford’s fastball remains elite, however, as batters hit just .183 with a .290 slugging percentage and .286 wOBA against the pitch. Because he’s under team control for four more seasons, doesn’t have any options remaining and has proven himself to be a capable bullpen arm in the past, David Stearns may opt to keep Bickford around with hopes that he can turn it around in 2024.

Tonkin inked a one-year, $1 million split contract with New York in December after spending 2023 with the Atlanta Braves, where he put up a 4.28 ERA over 45 appearances and 80 innings. He began his career with the Minnesota Twins and played there from 2013 to 2017 before embarking on a world tour that included stops in Japan, Mexico and the Atlantic League with the Long Island Ducks. Tonkin is a sinkerballer who profiles as a prototypical swingman with loads of experience who can eat up innings at the front end of the bullpen. His command is one of his greatest assets, as his walk rate was a measly 7.1% last season, though he does tend to allow his fair share of home runs and hard contact in general.

Additional names to monitor include Sean Reid-Foley, Yohan Ramírez and Grant Hartwig. Reid-Foley appeared in eight games for the Mets last season and was rather impressive after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022, posting a 3.52 ERA and 1.43 FIP to go with 18.78 K/9. He dealt with a lat issue at the end of 2023 as well, though it appears the flamethrowing right-hander is a full go for spring training.

Ramírez has been on four different MLB rosters since 2020 and split his 2023 campaign between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox en route to posting a 4.23 ERA in 31 appearances. He boasts an enticing sweeper and powerful fastball that help him keep the ball on the ground and induce soft contact. Hartwig made his MLB debut with New York last season and finished the year with a 4.84 ERA in 28 appearances. Much like Ramírez, Hartwig excels at limiting hard contact, but command is somewhat of a concern.