Looking for Offense, the Mets Call Up a Top Prospect
The News
The Mets have known as up Mark Vientos, a power-hitting infielder who MLB.com ranks because the group’s sixth finest prospect within the minors.
Vientos, 23, was hitting .333 with 13 dwelling runs, 37 runs batted in and a 1.104 on-base plus slugging share in 38 video games for Class AAA Syracuse this season — he was 2 for five with a house run in final night time’s loss.
He is beginning at third base on Wednesday, giving Brett Baty a day without work, and batting eighth, one spot forward of catcher Francisco Álvarez. Baty, Álvarez and Vientos are a part of a brand new era of Mets gamers that the group hopes can finally take over for higher-priced free brokers.
Why It Matters
Expectations have been sky excessive for the Mets after final 12 months’s 101-win season and an low season spending spree wherein Steven A. Cohen, the group’s billionaire proprietor, allowed for the payroll to surge to just about $350 million, which can balloon much more down the street due to Major League Baseball’s multi-tier luxurious tax system.
Thus far nearly nothing has gone proper. The group misplaced to the Tampa Bay Rays, 8-5, on Tuesday, dropping their document to 20-23 — six and a half video games behind Atlanta within the National League East. They are additionally a sport and a half behind the Miami Marlins for the N.L.’s third wild-card spot.
While the Mets’ greatest downside has been pitching, with their starters combining for a 5.46 E.R.A., offense additionally has been a difficulty. The group is ranked nineteenth in O.P.S. — a measurement that displays each the group’s skill to get on base (on-base share) and to hit for energy (slugging share) — twenty first in runs and is tied for twentieth in dwelling runs.
The group’s most precious batters this season have been first baseman Pete Alonso (13 dwelling runs) and heart fielder Brandon Nimmo (.830 O.P.S.) however even they’ve performed considerably under expectations. Vientos might theoretically present a spark, significantly in comparison with the group’s most incessantly used possibility amongst its reserves, outfielder Tommy Pham, who has hit .188 in 81 plate appearances.
Going Forward
Vientos was solely 17 in 2017 when the Mets made him a second-round select of American Heritage High School in Plantation, Fla. He had a 16-game call-up to the majors final season, and upset by going 6 for 36 with one dwelling run and 12 strikeouts. But he has completely crushed the ball within the excessive minors. In 150 video games at Class AAA over elements of the final three seasons, he has hit .294 with 40 dwelling runs and a .566 slugging share.
A below-average runner, he has not displayed quite a lot of promise defensively, which limits his general worth, and his finest place will most certainly be first base, which the Mets hope will likely be occupied by Alonso for years to come back.
Vientos, no less than on a short-term foundation, has the potential to carve out common enjoying time at D.H. or within the outfield, which might imply the Mets are counting on three minimum-salary rookies regardless of having the best payroll in M.L.B. historical past.
Neither Baty, who was known as up in a similar way to Vientos final season solely to maintain a season-ending damage, nor Álvarez has been significantly spectacular with their bats, however each have held their very own defensively at troublesome positions, which has helped hold them within the lineup. Vientos might want to justify his roster spot together with his bat.
Outside of Vientos, the highest prospect within the Mets system, by way of main league readiness, is Ronny Mauricio, a shortstop who’s hitting .354 with seven dwelling runs for Syracuse.
