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The Mets are informing teams that corner infielder/designated hitter Mark Vientos is available in trade conversations, writes Jorge Castillo of ESPN. That aligns with reporting from Will Sammon of The Athletic, who wrote last night that the Mets were willing to discuss each of Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña.
Vientos looked like a lineup building block at this time last year. The righty-hitting infielder was coming off a 27-homer season in which he’d hit .266/.322/.516 across 454 regular season plate appearances. He was even better in the playoffs, blasting five homers and a pair of doubles while hitting .327 across 13 games. Vientos was a huge reason the Mets made it to the 2024 NL Championship Series. He would have been the heir apparent at first base had Pete Alonso found a robust enough market to price him out of Queens.
Instead, Alonso returned on a short-term deal. That came shortly after the Mets had 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 had him 10 runs below average in just 556 innings. Statcast had him at six runs below par.
Defensive struggles were to be expected. More surprising is that Vientos’ bat also significantly regressed. He only hit 17 homers with a .233/.289/.413 slash line in a similar amount of playing time as he had in 2024. The underlying numbers were more encouraging. Vientos made hard contact (an exit velocity of 95 MPH or higher) on half his batted balls. He cut his strikeout rate by five percentage points from an alarming 29.7% clip.
He probably didn’t change all 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. Among hitters with 400+ plate appearances, only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani had seen a higher percentage of their fly balls clear the fences. Vientos has big power but was unlikely to keep that kind of company. As is often the case, his true talent likely lies somewhere in between his numbers of the last two years. He’s an annual threat for 25+ home runs but has a worrying enough plate discipline and contact profile that he’s not going to post strong on-base percentages.
Alonso’s free agent departure opens the door for Vientos to carve out regular first base or DH reps with the Mets. He shouldn’t get much playing time at third base anymore, as the Marcus Semien acquisition pushed Brett Baty firmly to the hot corner. The Mets are in agreement with Jorge Polanco on a two-year, $40MM contract and intend to play him mostly at first base. Polanco’s history of knee issues suggests he’ll probably need a decent number of DH at-bats. They could keep Vientos and have him split playing time with Polanco between those positions.
However, Sammon wrote last night that the Mets are kicking around possibilities 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 projected lineup. He’s out of minor league options, so a trade would seem almost inevitable at that point.
The Mets reportedly discussed Vientos with teams going back to the trade deadline. He was linked to the White Sox as the Mets kicked the tires on Luis Robert Jr., though New York balked at that framework. Robert suffered another injury shortly after the deadline and is now set to make $20MM. It’d be a surprise if the Mets give up four years of control over Vientos for him, even though they could still use a better center fielder than Tyrone Taylor to bridge the gap to prospect Carson Benge.
Acuña and Mauricio have also found themselves in trade rumors for months. Both players’ stocks are down. Acuña, 24 in March, is a good defensive infielder but owns a .248/.299/.341 line in 233 MLB plate appearances. He hasn’t hit much at the Triple-A level either and is out of options. Maybe another team thinks he’d be a Gold Glove caliber shortstop who can fit at the bottom of a lineup, but he increasingly looks like a utility player.
Mauricio is approaching his 25th birthday and coming off a .226/.293/.369 showing over 184 plate appearances. He’s a switch-hitting infielder with huge power but significant plate discipline questions. Mauricio debuted 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 remaining and is a boom or bust player who probably fits better on a non-contending team that can live with inconsistency at the plate.