Mark Vientos is not prone to overthinking. His confidence is so sturdy that it renders any anxious analysis moot: If he is hitting, of course he is. If he isn’t, he will be soon.
So Vientos sees no mystery in the way he has gone from struggling this spring to settling into the cleanup spot, protecting Juan Soto in the Mets’ injury-riddled lineup, and tied for fourth in baseball with 14 May runs batted in. He was, the way he explains it, merely due.
“I think baseball’s just being baseball,” Vientos said after the Mets’ win over the Yankees Saturday night. “You have a good month you have a bad month. “The season’s so long. You have a bad month, you have a good month, you have a bad month, you have a good one. That’s just the nature of the game.”
Two months ago, Vientos was in a 2-for-35 spring training that left him with no clear path to regular at-bats other than as a part-time designated hitter. A month ago, the 27-year-old was clawing out an 0-for-23 hitless streak that spit him out as a part-time player even for the Mets’ patched-together lineup.
But then Jorge Polanco landed on the injured list and Francisco Lindor followed. Suddenly, Vientos was the Mets’ every day first baseman. Eventually, he secured the cleanup spot. Since April 18 — the first of 21 starts in 22 games — Vientos has five home runs, three doubles, and an OPS of .747.
“He knows he’s in the lineup. He knows he’s playing every day. He knows he’s hitting cleanup,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He doesn’t have to worry whether he’s going to be in the lineup or not, whether he Has to get two or three hits to be in there again — which is the competition. You have to earn it. And he’s done that, obviously. We need him.”
Vientos acknowledged that being in the lineup every day helps him, but he did not seem to think it made some transformational difference. And to his earlier point about being subject to baseball’s whims, Vientos has been unlucky: Even those solid numbers since April 18 include several near misses on deep fly balls as well a batting average on balls in play so low (.228) it suggests they should be even better.
“He’s just swinging the bat well. He’s just been a little unlucky lately. He’s a great talented player,” Soto said, before cracking a rare postgame interview smile. “His talent, it has to come out at some point. Now, it’s just coming out.”
Certainly, Vientos’ talent has come out before. His 2024 postseason outburst, for example, seemed to signal a star turn that did not materialize.
But whether it lasts or not, this latest reemergence arrived at a crucial time for the Mets, whose cleanup options were whittled away by injuries in recent weeks. If they want to revive their season, they will probably have to claw back to .500 over the next few weeks — a period they will almost certainly spend without Franciscos Lindor and Alvarez and could possibly spend without Polanco and/or Luis Robert Jr., either.
Bo Bichette is still slumping. Soto is still aching. Recovery will probably require several members of their bruised lineup producing beyond their usual levels. Vientos, meanwhile, need simply to keep doing what he’s doing.
“I don’t think there’s a formula to it,” Vientos said. “It’s going my way now, and just gotta trust it.”
