Brett Baty’s September Hot Streak Might Buy Him One More Mets Lifeline

[Michael Reed]

Image courtesy of © John Jones-Imagn Images

The New York Mets have been playing some respectable baseball in September, and that can partially be attributed to the hot streak of Brett Baty.

The 26-year-old veteran is slashing .313/.393/.646 with a 1.039 OPS in his last 20 games. Combine that with the ability to play six of the nine spots on the field, and Baty is proving to be too valuable to move on from in the offseason. It can also be said that this point in his career, you know what you are going to get with the former top prospect, and it is up to president of baseball operations David Stearns on where his value lies.

Since his debut in 2022, Baty’s problem has always been his inability to consistently elevate the ball. When he is in a slump, you will often see him going down 0-2 in the count and either striking out or grounding out. Baty has tried different things to try to make his swing better like switching from a one-handed follow through to a two-hander and planting his leg earlier to allow himself more time to swing. While those tweaks have yielded mixed results as a whole, they allow for the occasional hot streak here and there.

When Baty is hot, he's elevating the ball to the pull side and hitting home runs and playing good defense. It's not an all-or-nothing proposition, but it does feel like the confidence in one aspect of his game affects all others. Case in point: his breakout season of 2025, when he finished with 3.0 WAR and a 111 OPS+ season. In 2026, Baty has not had the same luck.

Last season, in Miami, Baty suffered an oblique injury that ended his season. A few nights ago in Miami, Baty left the game with an apparent leg injury (and missed Friday's action). He was hot last season before his injury and that played a part in the Mets missing the playoffs. The Mets and interim manager Andy Green hope this injury is not as serious as last seasons.

While this hot streak is encouraging to see of the Brett Baty of old, the Mets would like to see him have these results over 162 games. At the very least, he's doing what he can to earn himself one more shot in Queens in 2027.

View full article