The reeling New York Mets are sending right-handed starter Christian Scott and third baseman Brett Baty to Triple-A, sources told KeynoteUSA on Friday, further shaking up their roster a day after designating reliever Jorge López for assignment following his release. expulsion and subsequent throwing of gloves. to the stands.
Scott had been something of a bright spot for the Mets (23-33), who are 15½ games behind first-place Philadelphia in the National League East. In five starts, the 24-year-old posted a 3.90 ERA and struck out 25 and walked six in 27⅔ innings. He is expected to return to the major leagues soon, as the stint in the minors aligns with an upcoming period in which the Mets will have additional off days due to their games in London and also helps keep innings totals in check. of Scott’s entire season.
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Baty, 24, was sent away for the second straight season after struggling to break out with full-time reps at third. The Mets recently called up slugging prospect Mark Vientos, who took some of Baty’s at-bats at third base and made the most of them, hitting .295/.354/.591 with three home runs in 14 games. On the season, Baty is hitting .225/.304/.325, and Pete Alonso replaced him as a pinch-hitter in Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks after going 0 for 1 with a walk and a ground ball for a double. play.
The victory over defending National League champion Arizona was at least a consolation after a nightmarish stretch for the Mets. On Wednesday morning, they placed closer Edwin Díaz on the disabled list with a shoulder impingement. During the game, Alonso was hit in the hand by a pitch, although subsequent images did not show any injury. Then came the Lopez incident that led the Mets to remove him from the roster.
After being ejected by third base umpire Ramón De Jesús for objecting to a check-swing call, López threw his glove into the stands. After a 45-minute meeting with just players, Lopez said he has no regrets about his actions. He later posted on Instagram that he had been misquoted by some outlets that reported him as saying the Mets were “looking (like) the worst team probably in the whole damn MLB.” Lopez confirmed that he had said that he “seemed to be the worst teammate probably in the whole damn MLB.”
“I apologize to my teammates, coaches, fans and management,” Lopez said in a subsequent Instagram post. “I felt like I let them down (Wednesday), both on and off the field.”
The Mets designated Lopez for assignment on Thursday, giving them seven days to trade or release him. Lopez, who signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Mets in December, is tied for second most appearances in the major leagues with 28 and has a 3.76 ERA in 26⅓ innings pitched.
“We have standards here,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters. “When you’re not playing well, guys show emotions. There are frustrations, but there’s a fine line and (Wednesday) he crossed that line.”
The episode summed up the Mets’ season. While they entered 2024 aware of the difficulty of securing a playoff spot, they weren’t expecting another $300 million disaster like last season, when they finished 75-87 after fielding the most expensive roster in MLB history. This incarnation of the Mets lost expected Opening Day starter Kodai Senga to an arm injury after trading his co-aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at the trade deadline last year, saw young catcher Francisco Álvarez went on the disabled list on April 21 with a thumb injury, and it went downhill from there.
The most recent streak was the most brutal. Since starting 19-20, the Mets have gone 4-13 and have been outscored 99-62. On the season, the Mets allowed the 23rd most runs in MLB and scored the 11th fewest.
Along with free agent signings Luis Severino and Sean Manaea, Scott had helped the Mets cobble together a rotation that had performed relatively well. Scott’s best start came in his debut, when he pitched 6⅔ one-run innings. He allowed three runs in six innings in his second start, four to the Miami Marlins in four innings of his third start and finished with a pair of two-run outings, the first going six innings and another on Thursday going five.
Scott, a reliever at the University of Florida, had slowly been converted into a starter for the Mets. Last year, he set a career-high with 87⅔ innings after pitching 58⅔ in his first full season in 2022. Scott is expected to work on his sweeper when he’s in Triple-A and could stay fresh with short outings.
Baty, at one point a top-25 prospect in all of baseball, has struggled to square the ball this season despite a well-above-average bat speed. The power potential he showed in the minor leagues has not translated to the major league level, as he hit .212/.275/.323 in 386 plate appearances last season. His defense at third base is considered superior to that of Vientos, who had been optioned in late April after hitting a home run. But Vientos’ power, with at-bats split evenly between left- and right-handed pitchers, earned him the job for now.
“This is a difficult question. There is no easy solution,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said this week. “I think we have two players who deserve to be in the Major Leagues, and that’s why they’re both here right now.
“I’ve also been consistent that this current roster construction can’t last in perpetuity. At some point, we’re going to have to become a little more conventional. But we have two guys who I think have proven that they really deserve to be in the big leagues. “
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