Biography:
Born in Florida, Mark Vientos allegedly grew up rooting for the New York Mets. He spent his first three years of high school at Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines, Florida. In 2016, as a junior, he hit .321. That summer, he played in the Perfect Game All-American Classic at Petco Park.
He transferred to American Heritage School in Plantation, Florida for his senior year in 2017. There, he hit .417 over 26 games. After the season, he was selected by the New York Mets in the second round (59th overall) of the 2017 Major League Baseball draft. Vientos was a shortstop in high school but was drafted under the (ultimately correct) assumption that he would have to shift out of this position.
Resume:
His debut season of 2017 was spent between the GCL and APP organizations where his numbers were solid but did not jump off the page. He maintained an OPS above .700 and established himself as a viable middle of the order hitter at the levels at which he was playing.
In 2018 he was given a full development season in Kingsport and saw hit production benefit greatly as his OPS jumped up to .878. Interestingly his hit tool outshone his power tool at this point in his development. He had a nice manageable strikeout rate and looked to be a blossoming all-around hitter.
He then experienced the growing pains many met power hitters felt as he was sent to the pitcher friendly SAL in 2019. Again, his numbers fell to the realm of acceptable rather than exemplary. It was also 2019 when his overall numbers shifted from contact to power with an increase in SLG and a decrease in OBP (combined with more strikeouts per game).
Whatever Mark Vientos did during the lost year in 2020 worked as he showed up in 2021 and absolutely smashed through AA on his way to AAA. His OPS in 2021 was an outrageously good .933 between the two levels.
Last year Vientos started in AAA slowly before finding his footing and putting together a solid overall season. With the Mets failing to get production from JD Davis and Dominic Smith the Mets chose not to bring up their minor league masher to help the team at DH and instead brought in RHP specialist Daniel Vogelbach and LHP specialist Darin Ruf. Ruf proved so poor in this role that the Mets would bring up Vientos anyway but he was never afforded the time to find his footing in the role.
Hitting:
Contact:
Vientos once appeared to be a player capable of hitting over .300 but he seems like his power tools have won over his contact ones. He still seems to level off around a .280 batting average which might take a further dip at the major league level but shouldn’t dip lower than .260 given a full season.
Power:
Pete Alonso has the edge over Vientos for power but it’s closer than you might think. Mark Vientos could be a 40 HR threat if he finds his footing in the major leagues. He has shown particularly good numbers against left handed pitching but hasn’t been terrible against righties either.
Speed:
Nothing to speak of. The good news is that he’s a better runner than Pete Alonso for sure.
Fielding:
Fielding, unfortunately, is the weakest part of Vientos’ game. His .908 fielding percentage at third base in the minors is not promising and while he has a 1.000 fielding percentage in left field this is partially caused by a lack of mobility in the outfield. This means that Vientos profiles as pretty much only a designated hitter.
Outlook:
If the Mets want to bring back Vogelbach and give him 50% of the starts at DH (all of them coming against righties) and give Vientos the other half (regardless of pitcher) then it might make sense for him to stay in the majors. Multiple times in this article I’ve talked about finding his footing in the majors. Vientos has shown a need to settle in at each new level he’s been assigned and the Mets did not afford him this in their desperation move of 2022. Vientos cannot get this with a minority timeshare at DH where he would only start against left handed pitchers either. If he does wind up in AAA he should be shifted to first base and left field exclusively.
Saw an article this morning about the Mets six years from now and was intrigued by the idea that their pundits see Brett Baty shifted to left field and Vientos at third. The reasoning had to be related to getting both Alvarez and Parada to the lineup but the only on-field position I see Vientos playing is first base. Honestly, it might be more realistic to have Parada in left with Vientos sticking at DH.
It is an interesting question. How do you fit the following players into one lineup?:
Pete Alonso
Francisco Lindor
Francisco Alvarez
Brett Baty
Kevin Parada
Mark Vientos
Ronny Mauricio
Alex Ramirez
Jett Williams
Pete Alonso 1B
Francisco Lindor SS
Francisco Alvarez C1
Brett Baty 3B/LF
Kevin Parada C2
Mark Vientos DH
Ronny Mauricio 2B/3B
Alex Ramirez CF
Jett Williams INF
I think that the goal of management would be to maximize how often you can get Alvarez and Parada into the same lineup. While I don’t think these prospects will all pan out or wind up on the future Met team here’s my own.
1. Jett Williams, 2B
2. Alex Ramirez, CF
3. Francisco Lindor, SS
4. Pete Alonso, 1B
5. Francisco Alvarez, C
6. Brett Baty, 3B
7. Kevin Parada, LF
8. Mark Vientos, DH
9. Ronny Mauricio, RF
Probably defeating the purpose of this exercise, but its my feeling that the Mets need to stop playing people out of position or making them learn positions in AA and AAA. If the Mets are fortunate to have too much pipeline depth at a certain position, then they should be traded.
With Vientos essentially heading for a career at DH, it strikes me that he has decreasing value as that outcome becomes inevitable. Perhaps now is the time to trade him before he is cemented in stone (much like what has happened to Dom).
Vientos doesn’t have much value until he hits at the major league level. You’d be trading him for less than his actual value right now.
Unless hes a flop at DH!
and a top 10 prospect. that is marketable for trade purposes.
So you want to assume all Met prospects will be flops? Man, would it be great to trade Vientos for a mediocre relief pitcher only to have him become a 40 home run designated hitter with another team. (I don’t know what you think you are getting by pre-emptively trading a player and indicating to other teams his value is questionable)
Furthermore, Dom Smith didn’t pencil himself into a corner of only being a DH. He was a first baseman on a team that also had Pete Alonso and Smith forgot how to hit.
I’m enjoying your Off-season deep dive series.
If the Mets are going to have Alvarez in the minors it would be a mistake. But if they do, then your suggestion of 50% at DH is a good one just to give him a chance.
Ideally Alvarez will be on the major roster and be the 100% DH against LHP and 50% splitting catcher. That is leaves 70% as the DH against RHP.
The choice would Vogelbach, and career .822 OPS career hitter vs RHP or Vientos, a RHB and a rookie, to face MLB RHP for the majority for the time. I prefer Vogelbach.
If things break right for the Mets , Alvarez and Baty will make a team. Vientos will have no position therefore look to package in a trade.
Hey Metsense,
Thanks for the read and the comment. I am just concerned about stunting Alvarez’s ability to be a position player in the future by not giving him time at catcher. If you want to tell me that he gets half of the starts at catcher, 100% DH starts vs LHP I’m all for it. (Whatever gets us less of McCann and Nido in the lineup everyday lineup)
I was also on team Baty for having him make the MLB squad but I can only see that in a scenario where the Mets are shifting McNeil into the outfield and not bringing back Nimmo (or signing another outfielder). I was wondering what you saw as the scenario for Baty’s starting time.
I’m wondering what the trade value for Vientos would be if the Mets don’t prove he can hit in the majors. If he returns to AAA and has an OPS near .800 he still shows he has value but I am struggling to see a team giving a lot of value to a player the Mets don’t seem to trust.
Nido trade , who has some value because McCann doesn’t.
At third, Baty should start 67% of the time Escobar 33% vs RHP. Escobar 100% vs LHP.
Packaged Vientos, Nido and Megill for a young #3 starting pitcher like Brady Singer -KCR, Jeffrey Springs- TBR, Drew Rasmussen-TBR, Roaney Contreras – PIT or Cal Quantrill -CLE.
This is one of the better uses of prospect valuation in a trade proposal that I’ve seen.