ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Brett Batty’s season got off to a solid offensive start, but a red flag fell.
The Mets third baseman was batting .316 with a .757 OPS after the first 16 games, but more than half of his batted balls (51.1 percent) were ground balls.
He didn’t pitch particularly hard, hitting .386 with balls in play, but his results screamed regression after that.
In Batty’s next 13 games, he went 5-for-35 (.143 batting average), with his only extra-base hit being a double.
He was unable to use his strength, and the ball that went through the infield was caught instead.
To eliminate batting luck, Batty only hit balls over the top of everyone’s gloves on Friday.
The 24-year-old hit two home runs, his first multi-home run day in the majors, which was a positive sign for the Mets for several reasons.
His four RBIs helped the Mets take an early lead and then close the gap in their loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.
But more importantly, Batty learned to lift the ball, something that has long been an issue for the promising young hitter.
His ground ball percentage of 54.5 percent entered Saturday’s game tied for ninth in the league, despite the drive. That single moonshot shot so high that it missed the dome’s catwalk and then flew back into the depths of the right field seats. — he launched the night before.
“I feel good,” Batty said after hitting his second and third home runs of the season. “My main goal is to go out there and make quality ABs every night and hit the ball hard.
“And I was up in the air tonight, so I feel really good.”
Batty, a first-round pick in 2019, came out of the system with obvious talent and a penchant for driving the ball south.
He made swing adjustments before the 2022 breakout and was able to shoot all the way to his major league debut after hitting 19 home runs in 95 minor league games.
It turns out Batty hasn’t completely overcome the issue, with secondary hitting coach Eric Chavez admitting this week that his fly ball rate is “still too low.”
“Jeremy [Barnes, the other hitting coach] And I’m going to have to help guide him through it and make some changes along the way,” Chavez said Tuesday, and perhaps those changes are starting to bear fruit.
In the second inning on Friday, Batty hit a ball through Aaron Civale’s sinker in the middle of the plate and into the ceiling of Tropicana Field.
“I haven’t seen many players go from left-handed to pull side.” [at this park]” said manager Carlos Mendoza, who is familiar with the Rays’ home base from his time with the Yankees. “I’ve seen a lot of right-handed pitchers pull side to left field. As soon as he hit it, I knew he was out.”
In the ninth inning, Batty turned on a hanging slider from Jason Adam that beat 421 feet to right.
In one game in which he also singled, his OPS increased from .628 to .725.
A lot can change early in the season, and that’s what Batty keeps reminding himself.
“It’s very early, very, very early,” Batty said. “We have a lot of baseball to play.”
But the signs are increasingly encouraging.
Mr. Batty’s performance was solid for half of April, but disappointing for the other half.
The Mets will happily accept Friday’s results.
But the home run could be a signal that Batty is learning to put the bat under the ball.
His power used to be down, and so was his strikeout rate. Perhaps that trend will change as Batty leverages the power the Mets know he has.
The Mets want Batty to swing and find the type of contact he can prove.
“We want him to be aggressive and make mistakes,” Chavez said. “And if they involve more strikeouts, we don’t want a player to strike out. But his DNA is to be able to hit the ball hard. So we definitely think it’s better that way. think.”
