Baty, Mauricio stinging ball in time with Syracuse

To people who have been watching Brett Baty for a while now, the way he’s been mashing the baseball doesn’t come as a surprise.

Entering Friday, the second-ranked Mets prospect led all of Triple-A in average exit velocity (min. 20 balls put in play) by a fairly wide margin -- at 100.4 mph, he’s the only batter at the Minors’ highest level that averages an exit velocity in the triple digits.

The next two on the list? Catcher Jorge Alfaro, who has seven years of MLB experience, at 96 mph; and a rehabbing Fernando Tatis Jr., who averages 95.2 mph.

“If I make solid contact and stay within myself and hit the ball hard to pretty much wherever it’s pitched, then good things tend to happen. I’ve always thought that way,” Baty said. “I’m just staying within myself, and good things are happening right now.”

In this era of baseball where everything can be tracked and measured, there’s an undeniable correlation between hard-hit balls and base hits. Baty has tagged 13 balls over 100 mph in his first nine games, with 10 of them resulting in a hit (he's racked up 14 hits total). He only has one ball put in play under 90 mph so far this season, and only one of his five homers have come under 100 mph.

The 23-year-old missed four games due to right thumb soreness -- the same thumb he had surgery on in the offseason. When he returned to action on April 9, it was evident that the discomfort was no longer there -- he swatted a flyout 106 mph in his fourth plate appearance of that game.

MLB’s No. 19 overall prospect is batting .400 with a 1.386 OPS.

“I always try to tell myself, ‘You’ve got to do it again the next day.’ I try not to get too high, not to get too low, and just try to play to the best of my ability every single night,” Baty said.

He may not smoke the ball on a consistent basis the way Baty does, but teammate Ronny Mauricio has been opening eyes in his first taste of Triple-A. Once a Top 100 prospect, the shortstop has struggled for the past couple of years before breaking out in LIDOM by earning MVP honors.

Heeerrree'sssss Ronny!!!

His team-leading SIXTH home run this season! pic.twitter.com/A68GuMhXCx

— Syracuse Mets (@SyracuseMets) April 15, 2023

He continued his hot hitting in Spring Training, going yard three times in four games, and hasn’t stopped since joining Syracuse. After ripping three doubles and a homer in the Mets’ most recent game, New York’s No. 6 prospect is slashing .380/.436/.880 with 12 extra-base hits, including a team-leading six dingers. It's the second straight game that Baty and Mauricio have both gone deep.

The exit velocities on all three of Mauricio's doubles Friday night? 105.5 mph, 105.7 mph and 108.4 mph.

“We’re finally starting to see him putting it all together,” Baty said of Mauricio. “Even tonight, he was taking some pitches that were really competitive pitches that they were making, and he was just sitting on them like he saw it the whole way. … He’s a tremendous talent. He has every single tool in the book and he’s a great teammate to play with. We’re just having fun right now hitting baseballs.”