{"id":665355,"date":"2026-04-05T22:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665355\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T22:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:32:13","slug":"mets-brett-baty-scratched-late-with-thumb-soreness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665355\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets’ Brett Baty scratched late with thumb soreness"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Brett Baty<\/a> was set to play right field in the Mets<\/a>\u2018 series finale against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday, but was scratched late with a sore left thumb. It\u2019s the second injury the Mets suffered in San Francisco, with Juan Soto straining his calf Friday night in the second game of a three-game set, though Soto\u2019s injury also seems to be minor at the moment.<\/p>\n

And speaking of Soto, the Mets\u2019 highest-paid player and star slugger, there was no update on his right calf as of Sunday morning. The team still plans to give him until Tuesday to see how he\u2019s feeling.<\/p>\n

But back to Baty. The super utilityman had surgery in 2022 to repair his right thumb ulnar collateral ligament, but told the Mets it doesn\u2019t feel like a UCL injury. If it\u2019s still sore when the team returns to Citi Field on Tuesday, they\u2019ll send him for imaging. He was also able to finish the game Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to be smart about it,\u201d said manager Carlos Mendoza.<\/p>\n

Jared Young played left field in place of Baty, with the Mets deciding not to use rookie Carson Benge<\/a> in left, instead keeping him in right field and Luis Robert Jr. in center field. Mark Vientos played first base with Jorge Polanco still working through Achilles tendinitis. Polanco was able to DH for the second straight game and for the third time in the series.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to take Vientos\u2019s bat out of the lineup at the moment, and the Mets don\u2019t want to aggravate Polanco\u2019s injury further. Vientos came into the game hitting .471 with a home run and three RBI on the season, riding a four-game hitting streak. Defense has never been the strongest part of his game, and he\u2019s playing more first base this year than third, which is what he\u2019s typically always played for the Mets.<\/p>\n

Vientos told the Daily News this week he\u2019s pleased with how he\u2019s handled his defensive duties at first base and sees the extra work that he\u2019s been putting in paying off. The pitching staff has noticed as well, with Clay Holmes saying he was impressed with the way he made some tough diving stops during this seven-game road trip through St. Louis and San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s made some incredible plays, and some plays that he\u2019s had to dive for,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cSome plays that have kind of been in-betweeners where he\u2019s had to flip to the first to the pitcher covering and he\u2019s been really good. It\u2019s just good to see because he\u2019s been putting in the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coaching staff has seen better instincts and better reads from Vientos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jumps off the bat \u2014 the ball is coming off the bat, and he\u2019s already moving in the direction of the ball a lot quicker,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to give him credit and the coaches. With the new setup, he\u2019s feeling comfortable. There\u2019s a better rhythm there in the timing. It\u2019s all about timing. Just like hitting, defensively, it\u2019s the same way. He\u2019s putting himself in a really good position to react when he needs to, and we\u2019ve seen that especially going side-to-side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Brett Baty was set to play right field in the Mets\u2018 series finale against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,358,5805,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,15738],"class_list":{"0":"post-665355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brett-baty","10":"tag-carson-benge","11":"tag-mets","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkmets","17":"tag-thumb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116354478731529817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}