The Mets’ Pete Alonso contingency plan is coming collectively.
On the identical day crew proprietor Steve Cohen described the “exhausting” nature of his free-agent negotiations with Alonso’s camp, third basemen Mark Vientos and Brett Baty confirmed the Mets just lately requested them to start taking reps at first base.
“I started maybe like a week or two ago,” Vientos, 25, stated Saturday in the course of the Amazin’ Day fan pageant at Citi Discipline.
“I’ve taken millions of ground balls at third base. It’s the same thing. It’s more so the footwork around the bag, and the picks, and kind of just getting familiar with different plays that can happen.”
Alonso has been the Mets’ beginning first baseman for the final six years, however the 30-year-old stays unsigned with spring coaching lower than a month away.
Baty, 25, received the Mets’ third-base job out of spring coaching final 12 months, however Vientos took it over early within the season and finally made 103 begins on the place throughout a breakout marketing campaign.
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns reached out to Baty a few weeks in the past and requested him to begin getting reps all around the infield, together with at first base, Baty stated.
“I turned around, got on the phone, got a first-base glove right away,” Baty stated Saturday. “Got it shipped overnight and I’ve been doing first-base reps, along with second base and third base as well.”
Baty has by no means appeared at first base within the majors or minors, although he did spend time on the place throughout his sophomore 12 months of highschool.
“First base is still a little new to me,” Baty stated. “But I’ve been hammering it the past couple of weeks, so it’s been fun working on picks and stuff like that.”
Transferring Vientos to first base, the place he’s began 9 video games over three MLB seasons, would open a contest at third base. Along with Baty, the Mets have center infielder Luisangel Acuña, 22, taking reps at third, whereas fellow prospect Ronny Mauricio, 23, is working his manner again from knee surgical procedure that price him the 2024 season.
“There’s always competition,” supervisor Carlos Mendoza stated Saturday. “We like what we’ve got on our roster right now, and we keep saying it: Our young players are going to get opportunities.”
Vientos hit 27 house runs with an .837 OPS in 413 at-bats final season. Baty, a former first-round decide, hit 4 house runs with a .633 OPS in 153 MLB at-bats final 12 months, in comparison with 16 homers and an .853 OPS with Triple-A Syracuse.
Acuña flashed throughout a late-season call-up, hitting .308 with three house runs in 39 at-bats.
Mendoza talked about Jared Younger and Joey Meneses — each of whom the Mets signed to minor-league contracts this offseason — as choices at first base. Younger, 29, is on the 40-man roster however boasts solely 62 profession MLB at-bats. Meneses, 32, is a .231 hitter in 1,114 MLB at-bats.
The 30-year-old Alonso, who’s represented by agent Scott Boras, hit 34 house runs with 88 RBI final season. The Mets reportedly supplied him a three-year contract within the $70 million greenback vary.
Throughout a panel at Saturday’s pageant, Cohen stated he didn’t just like the contract buildings which were introduced to him, saying, “I think it’s highly asymmetrical against us,” and acknowledged the Mets might transfer on from Alonso if nothing adjustments.
