Reese Kaplan -- Who Saw the Mets Sweep of the Giants Happening?

So over the weekend sweep in San Francisco the Mets rediscovered the 2024 version of a slugger.  Actually, the Mark Vientos in the city by the bay is quite a bit more lethal.  He’s hitting to right field when necessary, driving in runs and even played an acceptable trial at first base in place of the still injured Jorge Polanco, Brett Baty and Jared Young. 

For quite awhile I had been advocating using Mark Vientos as DH given his limited defensive skills which would in turn allow him to deliver what he does best.  He has owned this role a few times already and it would appear that the 26th man on the roster all of the sudden may be considered one of the starting 9 until he cools off.  Given the injuries to Polanco and Juan Soto the Mets need this offensive explosion more than ever.

Going forward no one is clear how long Juan Soto will need to rest and recover.  It has  been classified as a low grade strain in his calf.  It is therefore possible a short 10-day IL stint backdated to the actual timing of his game removal might be sufficient.

Down in Syracuse there are a couple of outfielders readily available to be temporary replacements.  Both MJ Melendez and Nick Morabito are on the 40-man roster.  Neither would require major roster manipulations to make themselves available for a 7-10 day stint in the majors.  With Melendez on a split contract he would cost a bit more to promote than would Morabito, but selecting Morabito would waste an option for about a week’s worth of sitting on a major league bench.  Consequently I’d expect that Melendez will be their selection as he’s an experienced major league player. 

For now the combination of Jared Young, Mark Vientos and some role of the day for Brett Baty has been offensively sufficient.  Even Tyrone Taylor had a noteworthy game.  Consequently it would be a bench warmer role that the club needs to fulfill until Soto and Polanco are both ready for full time action.  Tommy Pham’s late start to his 2026 season has him in Florida doing a late version of Spring Training so he’s not even in the mix right now.

Another player opening a few eyes recently is backup catcher Luis Torrens.  Everyone knew he was a premier defensive player who actually led the majors in gunning down runners in 2025 and on Sunday he demonstrated to Giant’s clueless Matt Chapman why you shouldn’t run on him (particularly when down by three runs and make the first out in the 9th inning).  Torrens has also surprisingly swung his bat better than anyone expected.  In his dozen ABs he’s hitting .333 with 4 hits.  Maybe it’s not time to whine when Francisco Alvarez gets a day off.

What folks are now seeing is the type of offense that was envisioned when this brand new roster was assembled during the off season even without much coming from Bo Bichette, Jorge Polanco and others.  Imagine now how productive they could be at scoring runs when everyone fires on all cylinders.