Mark Vientos hit two homers in the 5-1 win over the Angels<\/a>, and for only the 12th time in 34 games this year, the Mets got to leave a ballpark happy. <\/p>\nMostly, they didn\u2019t make winning look impossible. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not always going to be like this \u2014 it certainly helps that the 13-22 Angels aren\u2019t exactly blowing opponents away \u2014 but maybe there\u2019s something to be said for stability. They\u2019ve had it in Holmes, whose 1.69 ERA is second best in the National League, but it\u2019s largely been absent from a lineup in which they have used four different shortstops, three different third basemen and a revolving door of corner outfielders. <\/p>\n
Before the game, Mendoza said the situation at shortstop will be \u201cfluid\u201d and matchup-based. The team called up light-hitting Vidal Brujan and Mendoza said he intends to mix and match, moving Bichette back to third as needed and peppering Baty throughout the field. <\/p>\n
But maybe, just maybe, the Mets should consider the novel approach of keeping players at the positions they play best. <\/p>\n
When the Mets first introduced Bichette at Citi Field, president of baseball operations David Stearns noted that there would be times that they technically would have four shortstops populating their infield \u2014 Bichette, Marcus Semien, Francisco Lindor and Jorge Polanco. <\/p>\n
It was meant to be a good thing: anyone who\u2019s so much as played Little League knows that the most athletic players go to short. It also highlighted Stearns\u2019 continued focus on positional versatility \u2014 something best typified in Baty, who has played four positions this season. <\/p>\n
But that hasn\u2019t worked out incredibly well. The Mets, who came into the year with a focus on \u201crun prevention,\u201d nonetheless have showcased a defensively subpar infield \u2014 minus-2 fielding run value \u2014 made even weaker by Lindor\u2019s absence (worth two extra runs with his glove alone this year). <\/p>\n
Baty\u2019s best position (by far) is third, and he showed it when he began a nifty double play in the first, allowing Holmes to scurry out of a laborious inning and eventually pitch into the seventh. Though Bichette committed a borderline error on a tough grounder in the seventh, he also flashed some leather on the previous play, backhanding a ball deep in the hole and making the long throw to nail Vaughn Grissom at first. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, an outfield with MJ Melendez and Carson Benge at the corners likely saved two runs. Melendez made a diving catch with a runner on first in the sixth and Benge laid out to make a stunning grab on Grissom\u2019s sharp liner in the ninth \u2014 a play Baty would have been less likely to make. <\/p>\n
Still, Mendoza maintained that he intends to stay flexible. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe played a pretty good game defensively,\u201d he said. \u201cBut again, Bo has been pretty good at third and Brett has been pretty good pretty much everywhere we put him.\u201d <\/p>\n
It goes beyond that, though. The Mets\u2019 offense continues to be among the worst in baseball, and whether they want to or not, players can bring one half-inning to the next.. Keeping them at their natural positions could help ease some of the mental load. <\/p>\n
Mendoza didn\u2019t think this was a factor for Baty, who entered the day hitting .207. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think\u201d sticking at third will influence Baty\u2019s offense either way, Mendoza said. \u201cHe handled the role very well. He\u2019s a pro, he knows how to prepare, but he\u2019s super-familiar with that position. Maybe he gets comfortable there, but he\u2019s going to continue to move around the infield and the outfield \u2014 like I said, [it\u2019s] matchup-based, who\u2019s in the lineup, who\u2019s available, but I don\u2019t see it that way.\u201d <\/p>\n
While that may be the case, Baty showed how valuable he can be last year, when he earned an everyday role largely because he proved he could hit lefthanded pitching. <\/p>\n
Brujan, a career .199 batter who hit well in 60 major-league games last year, historically has been a subpar defender at shortstop and slots in better as a backup or a bench option against lefthanded relievers. <\/p>\n
Bichette said he\u2019s happy to play wherever he\u2019s needed. He proved as much last season, when the Blue Jays moved him to second base during the playoffs, and this offseason, when he opted to sign with the Mets despite knowing he\u2019d be sent to third. But though he\u2019s looked good at his new position, he remains their best option at shortstop for the time being. <\/p>\n
And isn\u2019t that kind of what it\u2019s all about? Though it\u2019s only May, the Mets have very little margin for error, and that means eliminating as many variables as possible. <\/p>\n
For his part, their most consistent member seemed to like .\u2002.\u2002. well, the consistency. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe made some great plays in the outfield today and especially a guy like me, I need the defense,\u201d said Holmes, a tried-and-true contact pitcher. \u201cBrett back at third and Bo there at short, it\u2019s just good to see. There\u2019s a lot of confidence in those guys and so, for me, it\u2019s like, man, the more plays they make, the more I can kind of feed off it. It\u2019s fun pitching in front of them.\u201d <\/p>\n
He should get the chance to do more of it.<\/p>\n
![\"Laura](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777993654_425_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She’s been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Clay Holmes worked his way through the Angels\u2019 order with his usual business-like precision \u2014 weak contact,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,3674],"class_list":["post-300911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-new-york-mets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}