Due to Jesse Winker’s oblique strain, the New York Mets had to call up Brett Baty on Monday to the big league roster. Winker, who is expected to be out for the next six to eight weeks, will be missed in the Mets’ lineup.
However, for Baty, who hasn’t proven to be a serviceable big league player yet, this is an opportunity he has to take advantage of.
Despite the reasons for the Mets sending him down to Triple-A, he didn’t take it as a sign of disrespect. Instead, he viewed it as the Mets having a roster crunch with left-handed bats, perhaps a promising sign that he hasn’t lost confidence.
“It was just a roster crunch and a lot of lefties on the bench,” Baty said Tuesday, per the NY Post. “They didn’t know how many at-bats I was going to be able to get.
“They just told me to go down there and keep doing what I had been doing the past couple of weeks,” Baty said. “Pick up where I left off.”
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Baty understands that if he wants to stay at the big league level, he has to hit.
He didn’t get an at-bat against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night, but the Mets are expected to use him off the bench sometime in the near future, mainly if they need a left-handed hitter against a right-handed pitcher.
“It’s always nice to get the call to go back to the big leagues, so I was excited,” Baty said.
New York, playing as one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, currently sits at 23-14. However, the Mets are 4-6 over their last 10 games.
They’ll look to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday afternoon and win the series.
