Mauricio (thumb) drives in three at Triple-A

The Mets are being careful to ease Polanco back into full-time action following his extended stay on the injured list. Juan Soto will serve as the team’s designated hitter in his place on Sunday while Brett Baty draws a start in right field and will bat eighth against Phillies’ right-hander Alan Rangel.

Baty led off the seventh inning with a 378-foot (95.6-mph EV) solo shot off of Aaron Nola that extended the Mets’ lead to 2-0. He also singled in the contest. With his two-hit attack, the 26-year-old infielder is now slashing .224/.299/.327 with five homers, 32 RBI and five stolen bases across his 332 plate appearances.

The Mets aren’t going to take any chances with the All-Star break looming at the conclusion of the weekend. Virtually every player is dealing with bumps and bruises at this juncture of the season. Bichette has delivered at the dish recently, hitting .309 (38-for-123) with five homers and 19 RBI over his last 30 games. There’s a decent chance he’s back for Sunday’s first-half finale. It’ll be Brett Baty taking over at the hot corner for the second straight contest.

In a game where the Mets mustered 10 hits, only two went for extra-bases and they only scratched across two runs. Baty scored both of those and hit a home run in the process. He also had a 111 mph lineout and 106 mph single, accounting for three of their five hardest hit balls on the night. While he was an unmitigated disaster at the plate for the first few months of the season, he’s currently riding a 10-game hitting streak, stole a base in consecutive games, has loud tools, and has started 19 consecutive games.

He’ll miss several weeks, perhaps enough to knock him out until September. Vientos hasn’t been much of a regular since his 2024 breakout, and proved completely unable to hit right-handed pitchers when given the chance during Jorge Polanco’s absence. He can be dropped in most fantasy leagues at this point.

He’s “obviously going to miss weeks” per DiComo. Vientos has struggled this year, hitting .211/.253/.388 with 11 homers — and just .169/.215/.297 in 158 plate appearances against right-handers. The Mets may do the simple thing and add Ronny Mauricio back to the roster here for the weekend, but it’s possible they’ll look for a replacement first baseman.

Mauricio winds up losing his roster spot with veteran Jorge Polanco returning from the injured list. The 25-year-old former top prospect has hit .180 (9-for-50) with one homer and two RBI in 17 games at the highest level this season.

Vientos took Chris Sale deep for a two-run homer in the sixth inning to cut into the Braves’ lead. It wouldn’t matter much as Atlanta pushed their lead to 11 runs by the time Vientos added a base hit in the ninth. The 26-year-old first baseman is almost exclusively playing against left-handed pitching on a short-side platoon. He’s hitting .213/.252/.391 with 11 homers, 25 runs scored, and 35 RBI across 250 plate appearances.

Despite hitting .147/.261/.173 in 27 games in June, the Mets continue to play Baty at second base against right-handed pitching. Ronny Mauricio has made only one start in the last month, so there doesn’t seem to be any threat to Baty’s playing time. We would not be trusting him in fantasy leagues, though. Tyrone Taylor will make his first start against right-handed pitching since coming off the injured list, starting in left field and batting ninth.

The Mets are simply easing Lindor back into a full-time workload after missing so much time with his calf injury. Bo Bichette will slide over and cover shortstop while Mark Vientos starts at the hot corner on Sunday afternoon against Phillies’ southpaw Jesus Luzardo.