With just hours left before Major League Baseball’s trade deadline on Thursday afternoon, Mark Vientos’ name remains in the rumor mill, and fault lines between him and the Mets are now clearly showing.
The 24-year-old infielder has regressed significantly after bursting onto the scene in 2024 with 27 home runs. This season, which featured a demotion to Triple-A, he is batting just .230 with a .654 OPS, and seven round-trippers in 74 games.
Couple that with the logjam of young infielding talent on the roster, whether it be Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, or Luisangel Acuna, and the playing time for Vientos has not been as consistent.
That lack of regular run has taken its toll on the righty, who told MLB.com that it is “extremely difficult” to improve when at-bats are sporadic, though any sort of dissatisfaction — at least according to him — would fall upon deaf ears.
“No, because there’s really no point,” Vientos told MLB.com when asked if he has gone to management. “Nobody cares. Nobody really cares, to be honest, how I feel. But it’s the business.”
That does not necessarily fit the vibe of the player-friendly setting that has been made abundantly clear under owner Steve Cohen, president of baseball operations David Stearns, and manager Carlos Mendoza.
He has provided a flash of last year’s success with a recent stretch of constant playing time, though. Starting 12 of the Mets’ last 15 games, he is batting .319 with an .844 OPS, one home run (a grand slam in Monday night’s loss to the Padres), and 10 RBI.
Regardless, his name in trade talks makes sense by the Mets’ standards, considering Stearns has preached versatility since his arrival last year. With Pete Alonso playing every day at first base, Vientos’ only chances for at-bats come as a third baseman, where his defense has taken a step back, or at DH, which is a role filled by committee and already includes the right-handed bat of Starling Marte, who is batting .362 with a .925 OPS since May 23 (30 games).
Perhaps the Mets see Baty, Mauricio, or Acuna’s ceilings as higher, or at least as more versatile options to keep around while another crop of prospects headlined by Jett Williams brew in the farm system. But a resolution with Vientos will have to come sooner rather than later.
“I see it as a good thing,” Vientos said about his name being in trade talks. “It’s a good thing that I’m being talked about. You can see it as like,’Damn, it’s bad.’ But I see it as, ‘Man, I’m that important in the league that I’m being talked about in trade rumors.’ Obviously, it sucks because I don’t want to get traded. But this is a business. At the end of the day, I feel like it is what it is. What can I do?”
