Reese Kaplan -- Why Dismiss a Young RH Power Hitter?

For a game filled with long ball threats, 100 MPH fastballs exploding across the plate, stolen bases throwing other team's pitchers and catchers into Jello, and drag bunts pulling infielders and pitchers out of position attempting to handle a 5 MPH slow roller off the bat, nothing seems to incense fans, teammates and front offices more than poor defense.

Think back about various players you have barely tolerated as hitters, runners or mound magicians...how charitable were you to the clumsy, awkward and amateurish handling of batted balls? Not everyone can hit like Mike Piazza, yet more ink and fan wrath was directed at how he performed behind the plate than he did when standing at it with a bat in his hands.

Now great fielders who can't hit their weight are not exactly fan favorites either, but a diving stop, a fly ball caught while running at full speed or a laser beam throw that nails a would-be advancing baserunner by just a half step can draw as many cheers as a game winning home run. So why is it that the man who actually hits one doesn't get any empathy for his struggles in the field?

Even now when people are often referring to Francisco Alvarez as the number one prospect in all of baseball, more folks focus on his inability to call a game and handle other aspects of defense behind the dish than they do about his prodigious home run power.

Brett Baty is another hot young player who is being chided for his lack of Brooks Robinson-like defense at third base rather than praised for his high batting average and his home run swat.

All of this analysis brings us to the third member of the hot hopeful trio who barely gets acknowledged as having any potential at all, Mark Vientos. All anyone says about Vientos is how poor a fielder he is and then in the next breath you hear how they club won't consider using a young 20-something player as a designated hitter.

Whoa, wait a minute...if you are acknowledging that the man can indeed hit the ball but is not good in the field and then you factor in the National League's newly adopted role of DH, how does that conclusion make sense at all?

Granted, the majority of DH candidates throughout the years in the American League were older players who either didn't field particularly well or who were blocked at their natural position by someone more skilled when his team was on the field. There were exceptions like Edgar Martinez, who pretty much spent his whole career in the DH role, but it was a fairly common practice to exclude rookies and younger players from squandering their abilities by just coming to the plate 4+ times per game while never taking the field.

So if that mistake was made again and again by the AL, why should the NL necessarily follow suit? It would seem instead to make sense to take a player with high potential to produce runs and low potential to prevent them from scoring while wearing a glove on his hand to take on a position most beneficial to his home club by concentrating on what he does best -- swinging the bat.

Towards that end, let's take a look at what Vientos has done during his ascent to the majors late last year after beginning as a 17 year old back in 2017. The first few years in pro ball were showing some competence but not much flare as he was hitting in the mid .260s without any significant power.

In 2018 and 2019 he reached double digits in home runs each season with 11 and 12 dingers respectively. There was no 2020 season which surely must have stunted his development a bit as COVID shut down minor league ball. Yet what happened in 2021 was somewhat stunning. He hit 25 home runs with that full year off and hit .281. Those kinds of numbers of a season with just 310 ABs are the performance level that starts to draw attention.

In 2022 he started the season in AAA and responded well after a bit of a slow start. He was up 427 times and hit 24 HRs while mirroring the batting average with a .280 output. It suggested that he was a formidable bat almost more renown for his average than for his respectable power. When the Mets struggled in September in their quest to maintain a post-season chase, he got the call and hit his first major league home run.

So while everyone extols on and on about the future for Alvarez and Baty, almost nothing is written about the potential for Vientos to succeed in the majors. He can't switch to first base with Pete Alonso firmly entrenched there. Third base belongs this year to Eduardo Escobar and in the future perhaps to Ronny Mauricio or Brett Baty. A guy like Vientos with only 10 SBs in five minor league seasons is not likely going to be made into much of an outfielder. Consequently, he's already written off before he even gets started.

As bad as his 36 AB debut in 2022 was for Vientos, he was actually a superior hitter to the poorest trade made by Billy Eppler for an over-the-hill Darin Ruf. Yet Ruf keeps getting positioned as the RH half of the DH platoon with Daniel Vogelbach while no one gives Vientos a mention as a possibility to ascend into that role to start his big league career.

Why not?

Does the team really feel his greatest potential is as a moderately attractive piece of trade bait rather than allowing him the opportunity to showcase what he is capable of doing with his bat alone? Is the meager veteran salary of Darin Ruf so important that he must be positioned as the starter against all southpaws? Or is the club falling into the typical "No youngsters!" delusion that affected so many AL clubs during the past 50 years of gray bearded DHs?

Maybe he needs to learn how to pitch. Darin Ruf did and he still has a pro career. Of course, that is just as ludicrous as is sweeping him under the rug before he gets to prove what he can do. Here's hoping he's so absolutely on fire in Port St. Lucie that the club needs to figure out how to give him an opportunity for a future.