Vientos looked like a building block for the lineup this time last year. The right infielder was coming off a 27-home run season in which he had hit .266/.322/.516 in 454 regular-season plate appearances. He was even better in the playoffs, with five home runs and a pair of doubles while hitting .327 in 13 games. Vientos was a big reason the Mets reached the 2024 NL Championship Series. He would have been the heir apparent at first base Pete Alonso found a market robust enough to price him out of Queens.
Instead, Alonso returned on a short-term deal. That came shortly after the Mets re-signed Jesse Winker as their designated hitter against right-handed pitching. Vientos moved back to third base, where he has never been a good defender. The numbers were predictably ugly. Defensive Runs Saved gave him 10 runs below average in just 556 innings. Statcast had him undersized by six points.
Defensive battles were to be expected. More surprisingly, Vientos’ bat also declined significantly. He hit just 17 home runs with a .233/.289/.413 slash line in a similar amount of playing time as in 2024. The underlying numbers were more encouraging. Vientos made hard contact (an exit velocity of 95 MPH or better) on half of his batted balls. He lowered his strikeout rate by five percentage points, from an alarming 29.7%.
He probably didn’t change that much as a hitter, but the regression suggested his ’24 level of play wasn’t sustainable either. Vientos had a career-high .324 average on balls in play that year. Only among batters with more than 400 plate appearances Aaron Judge And Shohei Ohtani had seen a higher percentage of their fly balls fly over the fences. Vientos has great power, but he was unlikely to keep that kind of company. As is often the case, his true talent probably lies somewhere between his numbers over the past two years. He is an annual threat for 25+ home runs, but has a concerning plate discipline and contact profile that will prevent him from posting strong on-base percentages.
Alonso’s departure as a free agent opens the door for Vientos to provide regular first base or DH reps for the Mets. He shouldn’t get much playing time at third base anymore, because the Marcus Semien acquisition pushed Brett Baty firmly to the hot corner. The Mets agree Jorge Polanco on a two-year, $40 million contract and plans to play him primarily at first base. Polanco’s history of knee problems suggests he’ll likely need a fair amount of DH at-bats. They could keep Vientos and have him split playing time between those positions with Polanco.
However, Sammon wrote last night that the Mets are exploring options to add another bat-first player. Acquiring a left fielder might not impact Vientos’ path to playing time, but bringing in a traditional first baseman or DH would push him out of the expected lineup. He’s out of minor league options, so a trade seems almost inevitable at that point.
The Mets reportedly discussed Vientos with teams heading back to the trade deadline. He was linked to the White Sox when the Mets kicked the tires Luis Robert Jr.although New York opposed that framework. Robert suffered another injury shortly after the deadline and will now earn $20 million. It would be a surprise if the Mets gave up four years of control of Vientos for him, even though they could still use a better center fielder than Tyrone Taylor to bridge the gap with prospects Carson Benge.
Acuña and Mauricio have also been in trade rumors for months. The shares of both players have fallen. Acuña, 24 in March, is a good defensive infielder but owns a .248/.299/.341 line in 233 MLB at-bats. He also hasn’t hit much at the Triple-A level and is out of options. Maybe another team thinks he’s a Gold Glove-caliber shortstop who can fit at the bottom of a lineup, but he’s looking more and more like a utility player.
Mauricio is approaching his 25th birthday and is hitting a .226/.293/.369 with over 184 plate appearances. He is an infielder with tremendous power, but major questions about plate discipline. Mauricio made his debut at the end of the 2023 season and missed the entire ’24 campaign after tearing his right ACL in winter ball. He still has an option left and is a boom-or-bust player who would likely be a better fit on a non-competing team that can live with inconsistency at the plate.
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