As the Mets rebounded from a poor start to the 2024 season, Mark Vientos emerged as the obvious choice to be their starting third baseman.

There had been a time when there were questions about whether Vientos or Brett Baty would emerge to take the starting spot before Vientos’ bat carried him to it. He ended up hitting 27 home runs and driving in 71 runs. It wasn’t a debate.

It’s too soon to say that Baty is reigniting the debate, but since being recalled from the minors on May 5, he has looked excellent at the plate and in the field while starting almost exclusively at third base.

In his 14 games since the call-up, Baty was batting .275 with five home runs and 11 RBIs. Manager Carlos Mendoza has raved about the plays he makes in the field.

Baty opened the season with the club, mostly playing second base before he got sent down in the last week of April. In his final game before the demotion, he hit a home run off the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler and raised his batting average to .204.

On Saturday, Baty again was the starting third baseman, though he was batting ninth in the order. Vientos, who is batting .232 with five homers and 18 RBIs in 46 games, was available to come off the bench after left abdominal discomfort made him a pregame scratch Friday night.

Batty has mostly hit in the bottom third of the order since being recalled. Asked about positioning him there Saturday, Mendoza replied, “I don’t want to put extra pressure . . . It’s just more like, let’s keep him in one spot until you get him comfortable and we’ll go from there. I’m not opposed to moving him — whether he’s sixth or seventh — but I feel like today again, give him another day [there].”

One might theorize that comfort has been part of what’s opened things up for Baty at the plate. He is back to playing his natural position and doing it well. However, Baty isn’t that invested in it.

“I don’t think that’s played any role because I try to separate the two,” he said. “I try not to carry over defense to offense and I try not to carry over offense to defense.”

Asked what he ascribed the uptick at the plate to, Baty replied, “It’s the game and there are times when you’re up and times when you’re down. I haven’t changed anything. I am trying to do the same thing every day, challenge myself to be the best player I can be.”

Mendoza thinks the final game before he got sent down was the spark for Baty’s current offensive production.

“He knows he can hit at this level,” Mendoza said. “There’s not the doubt of ‘maybe, can I do this at this level?’ . . .

“I think he has the confidence now that ‘hey, I can hit anybody here.’ . . . I’m going to go back to that day when he took Wheeler [out]. That homer right there [was] against one of the best pitchers in the game.

“It’s more about him knowing he belongs.”

Vientos didn’t seem bothered by the abdominal discomfort before Saturday’s game, took batting practice and infield practice at third base and is likely to start at third base again soon.

With Jesse Winker on the injured list with an oblique strain, the Mets have been able to keep both Vientos and Baty in the lineup. When Baty has started at third base, Vientos has been stationed as the designated hitter. They used Baty at second base in one recent start in which Vientos was at third.

“I am willing to play any position as long as I am out there,” Baty said. “Third base? Second base? It doesn’t matter as long as I am playing.”