Mets add Jose Bautista, hoping he can provide right-handed pop

That is not the version of Bautista that signed with the New York Mets on Tuesday and rushed to Citi Field to claim a spot in the lineup against the Miami Marlins. This Bautista is 37 years old and brought with him a .199 average since the start of last season, with 182 strikeouts.

“A lot of people have been striking out a ton over the last year and a half,” general manager Sandy Alderson said, dryly, outside the Mets clubhouse before the game. “I think what we do is, we start with a little bit narrower focus — what he has done well, at least recently, and then build off of that. We’ll just see where it goes.”

On the first night, it went like this: a double, a run scored, and two strikeouts in a 5-1 Mets loss. When Bautista’s spot came up again with two out in the bottom of the ninth, against the right-handed Brad Ziegler, manager Mickey Callaway replaced him with the left-handed Jay Bruce, who flied out.

For Bautista, who was home in Tampa, Florida, while most of the Mets were arriving at Citi Field, it was the end of a whirlwind day.

“One of my wildest in baseball,” Bautista said. “Sitting at home on the couch at 2, and at 6:30 I was walking into the clubhouse.”

You won’t find pricey superstars at home on the couch in late May, so this counts as another low-risk move for an extremely risk-averse franchise. While Bautista is worth a try, the Mets are basing their guarded optimism only on a whiff of a sample. In 20 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers for the Atlanta Braves this month, Bautista had two home runs, a single, and four walks. The on-base and slugging percentages add up to .913.

“The thing I focused on, if there was a statistic to focus on, was his OPS against left-handed pitching,” Alderson said. “At a time when he was hitting .150, his OPS against left-handers was still over .900. Given the way we expect he will be used initially, that fits pretty well with what we need.”

Bautista finished last among the 144 major leaguers who qualified for the batting title last season, hitting a meager .203 for Toronto. His OPS against left-handers was just .629, which was actually worse than it was against right-handers (.688).

“Bad seasons happen,” Bautista said. “I feel good enough and I know what it takes. I’ve kind of been there, done that, so when I’m ready to call it quits, I’ll do that. I don’t think I am ready to do that.”

Bautista did not get a job until April, when Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos, the former Blue Jays GM, signed him to play third base for the Braves. After playing just 12 games in the minors, Bautista joined the Braves, played 12 more games and went 5 for 35.

He took good at-bats and remains in fine shape, but with the Braves unexpectedly leading the National League East, they could not wait for Bautista to rediscover his timing. They believed Johan Camargo could help them more at third base than Bautista, and did not think Bautista could improve from the bench.

Rather than designate Bautista for assignment and leave him in limbo for up to a week, Anthopoulos released him on Sunday, allowing him to resume his career immediately. Now Bautista is chasing the team that just cast him aside — hastily, as he saw it.

“I think 35 at-bats, whether you have success or not, it’s still a tiny sample in baseball terms,” Bautista said.

The Mets had the need because of injuries to Yoenis Cespedes (strained right hip flexor) and Juan Lagares, who is probably out for the season after having surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left big toe. Without them, they needed an outfielder who hit right-handed; the original lineup Tuesday included three left-handed outfielders against the Marlins lefty Caleb Smith.

Callaway said he wants Brandon Nimmo, who has a team-high .410 on-base percentage, to stay in the leadoff spot. Michael Conforto batted cleanup on Tuesday, so Bruce sat against Smith. Callaway plans to put Bautista to work.

“We had three outfielders on the roster before we got him,” he said. “We’re going to use him to spell guys, and get in there and hopefully do some damage. We’re going to need consistent days off for three of those guys, so it’s probably three times a week, at least, he’s going to get in there.”

Bautista is the third Met on the roster well into his mid-30s, joining Adrian Gonzalez, 36, and Jose Reyes, 34, who made two errors on Tuesday and is batting .145. The Mets are not the Nationals, who just called up the 19-year-old Juan Soto, or the Braves, who recently promoted the 20-year-old Ronald Acuna Jr. They are not the Phillies, who have nobody on their active roster over 32 years old.

They are the Mets — old in some places, and flawed. But they are also still over .500, at 24-20, with two truly elite starters in Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard. They are 18-3 when scoring at least four runs, so taking a chance to improve their offense was an easy and obvious move.

The Mets’ hopes hinge much more on the progress of their other three starters — Steven Matz, Jason Vargas and Zack Wheeler — than on complementary pieces like Bautista. Vargas looked good on Monday and Wheeler was solid in defeat on Tuesday, but collectively, those three are 4-10 with a 5.79 earned run average.

Bautista might not be finished as a productive player, but even if he is, he will not hurt the Mets very much. If the Mets cannot count on Matz, Vargas and Wheeler, though, their playoff chances may be irreparable.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.