PORT ST. LUCIE — When Brett Baty was called up to the Mets last summer, the clubhouse culture left a lasting impression. More importantly, it left the right impression.
“I saw how close this core unit of the team is,” Baty told the Daily News on Thursday at Clover Field. “Just how welcoming they were when I first got up there. They wanted me to succeed, and you want all of your teammates to succeed but they were really pushing for me and not putting any pressure on me. It was a really good environment for me.”
It wasn’t that long ago that the club was hesitant to bring up some of their top prospects for fear of putting them in a less-than-healthy clubhouse atmosphere. The Mets might have had winning ambitions, but they didn’t have an environment that fostered winning.
Francisco Lindor has been vocal about trying to build a winning culture in Queens. After the Mets were eliminated from the playoffs last fall, the shortstop felt that the season was still beneficial because there were strides made in those building efforts.
The encouragement and belief that Baty had are exactly what a veteran like Lindor wants the younger players to experience and be a part of.
“We had a belief that anyone in the lineup — day in and day out — could get it done. And the same with the pitching staff and the defense as well,” Lindor said. “We need to carry that on.”
Carrying that on means getting the new players on board, but that shouldn’t be too hard considering the Mets signed guys like Justin Verlander over the winter. Verlander really needs no introduction, but a 40-year-old ace with three Cy Young Awards and two World Series rings is someone who commands respect and knows what it takes to win.
“It starts with believing in each other. It starts with helping each other out, and then just adding the right group of guys in the clubhouse,” Lindor said. “Respecting the clubhouse, respecting the clubbies, respecting the game and respecting everything that’s happening around us.”
Lindor was encouraged by the Mets’ moves over the winter and encouraged by the types of players the club was looking to add. The Carlos Correa contract ended up being a debacle, but Lindor still endorsed the character of his friend and fellow Puerto Rico native.
The Mets did bring in another close confidant of Lindor in Carlos Beltran, who was named a special assistant Thursday. The moves beyond the clubhouse matter as well, and adding a former player and a Spanish-speaking as well was important.
“He’s someone that is very knowledgeable,” Lindor said. Someone that has had ups and downs in his career, and someone that will help [general manager Billy Eppler] and any other members of the front office could communicate with us. Sometimes we can’t really relate, whether it’s because they talk a different language or they never really played the game, but having Beltran that has done both.”
Lindor credits Beltran with helping him turn his performance around after a disappointing first season in New York. He helped Lindor understand what it means to play in the city and how to block out some of the noise that comes along with it.
Fans may remember that 2021 season as the “toxic positivity” season. The infamous “thumbs-down” incident with Javier Baez and Lindor and the pleas for praise from former players like Marcus Stroman and Dom Smith did not sit well with fans that have remained exceptionally loyal to a team that has not often rewarded them with wins.
That group had a close bond as well but ultimately, it wasn’t a winning team. It fell apart in a spectacular, Mets-like fashion.
The negativity and the boos will always be there. New York fans are famously demanding of their sports teams. But now in the third year the Lindor era and the Steve Cohen era, it seems as though the Mets are giving fans more to cheer about. The roster has improved and so has the culture. Now it’s about putting in the work for an improved product on the field.
“There are teams that spend a lot of money they’re not good,” Lindor said. “We’ve got a good team and people are going to come after us. We’ve got to give everyone our A [game].”
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