About a week or so ago (right around the second anniversary of this moment), I was bombarded online with videos of Mark Vientos's first inning solo home run off Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 4 of the 2024 National League Championship Series (a moment I remember far too well, as I was in attendance for the game). I was skeptical of Vientos up until this point in his career, but his 2024 regular season, combined with his exceptional postseason performance, made me eat my words and admit to myself that he was a future star for the Mets. Vientos is, after all, one of only five players to homer off Yamamoto in the postseason, joining a group that includes Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Kyle Schwarber, and Jackson Churio—a truly star-studded list. Now, that home run and his terrific 2024 season only serve as a reminder of what he could have been, and how far his star has fallen.
For the second straight season, Vientos failed to perform to the standards that he set during his breakout 2024 campaign, when he slugged a career-best 27 homers, posted a career-best 131 wRC+ and 2.8 fWAR, and followed that with five home runs, 14 runs batted in, and a 176 wRC+ in 13 postseason games. As a reminder, his numbers did dip precipitously in 2025, as he finished the year with a 96 wRC+ and 0.3 fWAR in 121 games. He also managed just 17 home runs and saw his OPS dip from a career-best .837 in 2024 to .702 in 2025. Despite the decline, there was some hope that maybe 2025 was the outlier, and not 2024.
Heading into 2026, Vientos was not a lock to earn an everyday spot in the lineup, especially with some new additions threatening his playing time. He began the year as a right-handed platoon designated hitter, mostly seeing time against left-handed pitching, but injuries to Jorge Polanco opened the door for Vientos to snag some reps at first base, perhaps opening the door for more playing time. When he did see the field, he spent most of the time at first base, logging just over 519 innings at the position, but his -3 DRS proved that Vientos was not the long-term solution for first base.
That brings us back to Vientos' bat, which is what he's here for. As mentioned, he got plenty of chances to DH, and he failed to hit when his name was written on the lineup card. He actually started off the year red-hot, picking up hits in ten of his first 21 at-bats, which included three straight multi-hit efforts in San Francisco on April 3-5. At that point, he was hitting .476/.522/.714 and looked to, perhaps, be on his way to a bounce-back season.
Not so fast! Lest you think this was a precursor for things to come, it was not meant to be, as he went hitless over his next 23 at-bats to plunge his slash line to .227/.255/.341. Carlos Mendoza continued to give the 26-year-old playing time to try and get him out of his funk, but he ended April on an 8-for-32 stretch after snapping that long hitless drought. He also demonstrated an alarming power outage, as he ended April with just two home runs and three doubles, and for someone who was in there to slug homers and drive in runs, this was not what you wanted to see. He broke out from that funk a bit in May, putting together his lone multi-home run effort on May 3 against the Angels and picking up five home runs and six doubles in the month. Despite that, he still ended the month hitting .225/.260/.390 on the year.
His playing time further diminished, and he recorded just seven hits across 48 at-bats in June. He was relegated to late-game pinch hitting opportunities against left-handed pitchers, and with good reason. While his overall numbers were not good across the board, they were downright putrid against right-handers. He finished the year with a 48 wRC+ and a .182/.229/.309 slash line in 159 at-bats against righties. Comparatively, he posted a much more respectable 119 wRC+ with a .252/.296/.513 slash line in 115 at-bats against south paws. While those numbers will hardly put him on the road to Cooperstown, they are, at the very least, playable. He also struck out a ton against righties, picking up 44 Ks against them against 27 Ks against lefties. That, understandably was why Mendoza, and eventually Andy Green, played him the way they did.
Misfortune befell Vientos when he got struck by a pitch on July 9 that resulted in a fractured hand and a lengthy Injured List stint. He would not return until August 31, with the Mets' season well over. He recorded 37 at-bats over the final few weeks of the year and contributed eight hits, including one homer, which failed to impress. In all, he concluded 2026 with 13 home runs, 41 runs batted in, a 78 wRC+, a .652 OPS, and -1.1 fWAR in 87 games.
As a result, Vientos may very well may have played himself off the Mets' roster. While he is still under team control, he really is a man without a role in New York. He doesn't hit well enough to serve as Designated Hitter, and it's hard to roster someone solely to DH or pinch hit against left-handed pitching. His defense at first and third are mediocre, to put it kindly, and he really is just eating a valuable spot on the 26-man roster. He has three more years of team control and is entering his first year of arbitration this winter. He is probably a good "Change of Scenery" candidate, and the promise of his bat is probably enough to entice a team to give him a shot. It's very likely this is exactly how the front offices approaches the Mark Vientos Problem this winter.
It really is a shame, because Vientos was one of the many great stories from the 2024 season. A kid from Connecticut who grew up a Mets fan putting it all together and having himself a terrific postseason…what could be a better sell? It was the perfect set up for what could have been a long, productive career in orange and blue. That story looks like it may not play out that way in the end, and it looks like Vientos will either not play a significant role in New York going forward, or will find himself suitinwg up elsewhere in 2027.
