The quality of the at-bats. Pitches being hit hard. Balls landing in spots across the outfield or soaring over walls.

David Stearns has seen it. In person. For more than a calendar year.

So, in his mind, it was just a matter of time before Brett Baty began to experience success at the major-league level.

“If you go to catch a week of Brett Baty in Syracuse, you can very easily run into a week like we’ve just seen,” the Mets’ president of baseball operations said prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Pirates at Citi Field. “He’s clearly seeing the ball well. He’s gotten some pitches he can handle and he hasn’t missed them. [There’s] probably a variety of reasons for that.

“Some of it is confidence. Some of it [is that] he’s a really talented baseball player. Some of it is preparation. And it kind of all combines and we’ve had a pretty special week for him.”

Baty, who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse on May 5 after Jesse Winker was placed on the injured list with an oblique strain, is hitting .353 (6-for-17) with four home runs, seven RBIs, a 1.412 OPS, .353 OBP, and is slugging 1.059 in six games in May.

Over the course of the season, he is hitting .239 with five home runs and 11 RBIs in 25 games.

Baty was on the Opening Day roster, due in part to Jeff McNeil suffering a strained right oblique during spring training. Following a rehab assignment, the Mets called up McNeil on April 25 and sent Baty to Triple-A Syracuse in a corresponding roster move.

Manager Carlos Mendoza said at the time the decision “was tough.”

Baty played three games in Syracuse and went 3-for-10 with two doubles, three RBIs, and two runs before being recalled.

“What he’s doing here for the last week is what — when we go to Syracuse and we watch him — [is] the quality,” Stearns said. “It’s the same quality of at-bats that we have seen in Syracuse since I’ve been here.”

In 328 minor-league games over parts of six seasons, Baty slugged .507 with a .382 OBP and .889 OPS.

Which prompts a question: Why hadn’t the work in the minors translated in Baty’s previous stints with the Mets?

Player development is not a straight-line trajectory, Stearns said. Some take longer than others.

“We learn all the time that it just takes different pacing for different players to establish themselves or break out, or whatever you want to call it, at the major-league level,” Stearns said. “When [a] player has that level of talent, they’re generally going to figure it out at some point and have success at the major-league level. And I think we’re seeing that with Brett right now.”

The 25-year-old has slugged home runs in three of his last five games, including the go-ahead solo homer in the seventh inning of the Mets’ 2-1 win over Pittsburgh Tuesday night.

Baty was not in the lineup for the series finale with the Pirates starting lefthander Bailey Falter. Instead, Mendoza opted to start Luisangel Acuna as part of a righty-heavy lineup.

Mendoza, as he has said repeatedly since Baty was called up, explained that he has 13 position players and, as such, creating the lineup on a daily basis is somewhat of a balancing act.

“That was another [tough decision],” Mendoza said. “I’m going back-and-forth trying to get to the point where he’s going to face some lefties, too. It’s not so much about Brett. It’s about the other guys, too, in the way we [construct our roster] and keeping everybody sharp, keeping guys active, and giving guys what we think are good matchups for them.

“I don’t think this is a Brett Baty conversation. But obviously it is not an easy decision when I’m not writing his name on the lineup, even with a lefty, with the way he’s playing right now.”

Baty wasn’t the only slugger out of the lineup for the series finale. Juan Soto was given the day off by Mendoza.

The Mets are off Thursday before the weekend Subway Series in the Bronx.

“Hopefully give him a couple days,” Mendoza said. “It wasn’t an easy conversation when I was presenting it to him, but I thought it was best to give him today [off].”