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Upon hearing that free-agent infielder Carlos Correa and the Minnesota Twins officially agreed to a deal, the Mets have been left with uncertainty surrounding their ability to add more pieces to the team this offseason. While there is still time to strike a trade or sign a free agent, they currently have two internal options worth looking at to fill the massive void Correa has left at the third base position.

First, they have the player who appeared in 130 games as their third baseman in the 2022 season in Eduardo Escobar. Escobar has one year remaining on his two-year agreement that he signed prior to the 2022 season, and is certainly looking to cash in during free agency next offseason with a strong 2023 campaign. During the 2022 season, Escobar proved to be a reliable option offensively, as he accumulated a slash line of .240/.295/.430 with 20 home runs and 69 RBIs. Consequently, his 106 wRC+ puts him at just above league average offensively, and he is ranked 16th out of 22 qualified third basemen in this metric. Based on this, it can be concluded that Escobar is a reliable option offensively that will find himself in the lineup more often due to the Correa situation.

However, Escobar’s defensive ability at the hot corner can be called into question due to his uninspiring -11 DRS and -4.4 UZR that he accumulated during the 2022 season. The Mets are likely hoping that this was an anomaly for Escobar, as he posted a much better -3 DRS and 1.7 UZR the prior season with two different clubs. While the Mets also have Luis Guillorme, who is an exceptional defensive option at third base, he fails to provide the same offensive output as Escobar.  As a result, manager Buck Showalter seems to prefer using Guillorme in a utility role in which he fills in for the infielders when a need arises.

Brett Baty is the second internal option for the Mets at third base. While there have been some rumblings of moving Baty to the outfield, this article will run under the assumption that he will remain at third base due to the dramatic turn of events with Correa. During his rookie campaign, Baty had a slash line of .184/.244/.342 with two home runs and five RBIs in a mere 11 games. Since this is a very small sample size, it is important to examine his 2022 stats in the minors. Between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse, Baty accumulated a promising slash line of .315/.410/.533 with 19 home runs and 60 RBIs in 95 games.

Defensively, Baty is hard to assess due to his very small MLB sample size. In 93 innings at the position, Baty earned a -3 DRS and -0.2 UZR.  While these numbers are not very good, it is unfair to Baty to evaluate his defensive ability based on 93 innings. As a result, it is important that the Mets allow Baty to take reps at the position in order to develop into a better defender. Jim Callis of MLB.com showed confidence in Baty’s defense in a recent mailbag, “Baty won’t win any Gold Gloves at third base, but he can play there for a while.”

Callis also broke down the competition between Escobar and Baty as well. “New York should give him its third-base job at some point in 2023 because he’d offer more offense & at least as much defense as 34-year-old incumbent Eduardo Escobar,” Callis said.

Overall, the Mets infield situation was heavily complicated by the Correa mishap as it opened up the full-time third base job. While the options are not limited to Baty and Escobar, it is likely that they will be able to compete for the job throughout spring training and the early part of the 2023 season. It will be interesting to see whether they go with the veteran Escobar or the potential long-term answer in Baty.