Mets Minors Weekly Report: Brett Baty and Mark Vientos Bounce Back

17.05.2022 15:30

Photo Credit: Rick Nelson

Brett Baty posted nine hits, including two home runs and four doubles, to bust out of a slump in Binghamton, and Mark Vientos continued his recovery from a slow start last week in the Mets’ minor league system.

Weekly Recap

Triple-A Syracuse

Syracuse split a six-game set with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre bringing their record to 13-22.

Mark Vientos was the main story in Triple-A this week, hitting home runs in three straight games. The 22-year-old third baseman now has five homers and 15 RBIs. After a very slow start to the season, Vientos is now slashing .202/.308/.438. Nick Plummer had a nice week in Syracuse as well, going 5-for-13 with three doubles, a home run, and six RBIs. Plummer has a slash line of .276/.329/.539 through 76 at-bats with five homers and 28 RBIs.

The Mets also got home runs from Quinn Brodey, Johneshwy Fargas, Tzu-Wei Lin, and Daniel Palka in the series.

Syracuse Mets infielder Mark Vientos homered again tonight, he now has 4 home runs in his last 4 games.

pic.twitter.com/HqJCAe1LTB

— Michael Mayer (@mikemayer22) May 13, 2022

The Mets got a few encouraging pitching performances this week with a pair of shutout wins on Thursday and Friday.

Thomas Szapucki pitched nine innings across two starts, allowing just one earned run on six hits and three walks while striking out 10. Szapucki now has a 3.00 ERA through 21 innings with 12.43 K/9. David Peterson made another strong start in Syracuse, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out six over six scoreless innings. He may be called up to the majors soon after Tylor Megill’s injury.

Thomas Szapucki struck out 9 in 4 scoreless innings for Triple-A Syracuse last night.

He struck out 7 straight at one point –all swinging (including José Peraza below). He is throwing a ton of curveballs, probably like 50/50 with the fastball.

K/9 is 15.75 pic.twitter.com/uM9GpDOmN1

— Michael Mayer (@mikemayer22) May 11, 2022

Double-A Binghamton

The Rumble Ponies also split their series with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats as their record sits at 11-21.

Still, it was a positive week in Binghamton as both Brett Baty and Francisco Álvarez swung the bat well to break out of prolonged slumps. Baty went 9-for-25 with a pair of home runs and four doubles while Alvarez was 8-for-23 with two doubles. Baty leads the Rumble Ponies with a .284 average and a .832 OPS through 116 at-bats. Meanwhile, Álvarez still hasn’t hit a home run since April 17, after hitting four in his first six games at Double-A.

Mets prospect Brett Baty homered for the second time in three games.

He’s hitting .290 with a .849 OPS for Double-A Binghamton.

pic.twitter.com/GilzrszMu9

— Michael Mayer (@mikemayer22) May 14, 2022

Ronny Mauricio had a nice week as well, going 7-for-22 with a double and a home run. Luke Ritter also hit a pair of home runs and now leads Binghamton with five.

– led the Rumble Ponies on the pitching front again, allowing one run on four hits and a walk while striking out five over five innings. His ERA improves to 3.18 with a 1.09 WHIP and 12.39 K/9. Jose Chacin kept up his solid start in Double-A as well, striking out 12 over 6.2 scoreless innings across two starts. Chacin’s ERA drops to 1.44 with a 0.86 WHIP in 31.1 innings between Brooklyn and Binghamton.

High-A Brooklyn

The Cyclones dropped three of four to the Wilmington Blue Rocks (with two games postponed due to rain/fog) to fall to 13-17.

The JT Schwartz-led Brooklyn with nine hits in 17 at-bats improving his slash line to .265/.385/.752. Rowdey Jordan went 4-for-13 with three doubles while Brandon McIlwain was 5-f0r-12 with a couple of steals.

Shervyen Newton struggled in his first four games at High-A, going 2-for-14 with a double and seven strikeouts.

Do not adjust your screens. It's fog.

Video evidence that there was some baseball played. After Jaylen Palmer led off the bottom of the first with a double – the @TDBank_US Double of the Game – J.T. Schwartz plated him an RBI single. pic.twitter.com/66D2n2yUB0

— Brooklyn Cyclones (@BKCyclones) May 14, 2022

Brooklyn’s pitching was solid against Wilmington but the bullpen struggled, allowing 17 earned runs in the four-game series. Jesus Vargas was excellent Tuesday, allowing just one hit over six scoreless innings while striking out eight. The 23-year-old right-hander also pitched 1 1/3 innings on Saturday, allowing a run on three hits while logging another four strikeouts.

Daison Acosta also pitched well, allowing just a hit and two walks over five scoreless innings. Signed in 2016 out of the Dominican Republic, Acosta was impressive early in his minor-league career but missed all of 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Command has been an issue for the 23-year-old so far this season (8.44 BB/9) so his start on Sunday is a step in the right direction.

Low-A St. Lucie

St. Lucie dropped their first game to Lakeland before winning the next five to improve to 23-10.

William Lugo led the Mets with eight hits, including a home run, in 21 at-bats. The 20-year-old shortstop is now slashing .276/.339/.438 with three homers through his first 105 at-bats. Alex Ramirez, Stanley Consuegra, and Junior Tilien all homered as well.

LUGO to put us up 3-2… #StJuicy pic.twitter.com/jNm20JoC0B

— St. Lucie Mets (@stluciemets) May 13, 2022

Meanwhile, Omar De Los Santos continues to showcase some impressive baserunning. The 22-year-old outfielder went 7-for-18 with a double, triple, and four runs scored while adding another four steaks. De Los Santos ranks second in the Florida State League with 17 stolen bases.

Pitching continues to shine in St. Lucie. Carson Seymour and Mike Vasil both pitched five scoreless innings while Dominic Hamel allowed just one run over six, scattering five hits and a pair of walks. Calvin Ziegler struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on two hits and two walks. Ziegler’s ERA improves to 2.96 with a 0.99 WHIP and 14.42 K/9.

Organizational Leaders

Batting

AVG – Alex Ramirez (SLU) – .362

OPS – Alex Ramirez – .956

HR – Daniel Palka (SYR) – 9

SB – Omar De Los Santos (SLU) – 17

Pitching (min. 20 innings)

ERA – Carson Seymour (SLU) – 0.36

SO – Jose Butto (BNG)/Calvin Ziegler (SLU) – 39

WHIP – Jose Chacin (BNG) – 0.86

Players of the Week

Offensive: Brett Baty – 3B Binghamton

After a 1-for-12 slump to start the month of May, Baty is now riding a nine-game hitting streak going 13-for-37 in that span with four doubles and two home runs. The 12th-overall pick in 2019 is now slashing .284/.366/.466 on the season after posting a .292/.382/.473 between Brooklyn and Binghamton last year with 12 home runs.

While Baty will strike out at a high rate (a 28.3% K-rate in his minor league career) he still manages to get on base frequently thanks to a contact-first, opposite-field approach that allows him to hit the ball hard to the opposite-field gap. At 6-foot-3 and 210 lbs, Baty can certainly hit for power but he won’t sacrifice contact for home runs.

Baty, the No. 39 prospect according to Baseball America, is close to major-league ready and could feasibly make it to Queens later this season.

Pitching: Thomas Szapucki – LHP Syracuse

It was a weird week for Szapucki, which can also be emblematic of his baseball career. The lefthander was dominant, striking out nine in four scoreless innings on Tuesday. He got the ball again on Sunday and allowed just one earned run on three hits and two walks in five innings though only logged one strikeout.

Drafted in the fifth round in 2015, Szapucki saw his prospect stock rise after posting a sub-three ERA in 2016 and 2017 before missing the 2018 season following Tommy John surgery. While he rebounded with a 2.63 ERA in 2019, he struggled with control in 2021 with Syracuse and during a one-game stint in the big leagues.

This year, Szapucki has seen his command and velocity return this season (maxing 96 MPH on his fastball after averaging 88 last year) while continuing to utilize an above-average curveball. He’s averaging 12.43 K/9 so far this season, his highest mark since 2016, with an ERA of 3.00.

Szapucki’s future is more uncertain than most 25-year-0ld prospects due to his injury history and uneven performance in Triple-A. While his start to the season has been encouraging, Szapucki is still on a limited workload following ulnar nerve transposition surgery last year, making him perhaps better-suited for an eventual bullpen role in the Majors.