In Mark Vientos, I Saw a Budding Star in 2022
Back when most pundits felt Mark Vientos was a flawed and probably marginal prospect, here’s what I wrote to the contrary about Mark on July 5, 2022, 28 months ago:
“…the short answer to "Is Mark Vientos Ready?" is:
Almost Yes...
With the Bat, Anyway.
It is a big bat, a beautiful bat, a strong bat.
He has, as I see it, 4 tasks in his remaining days in the minors:
1) Stay healthy, play more. Make your at-bat and offensive numbers huge. Only 138 games in the last season and a half. Far too many games missed. (More on the numbers, below).
2) Hit a lot better in the first month. Exclude the first month of 2021 and 2022 and the power #’s are prodigious - but all regular season months matter.
3) Continue to work on the fielding. Just 1B (16 games, 3 errors) and 3B (37 games, 9 errors) in 2022. He had 13 errorless games in the outfield last year, but none this year. Mark is clearly not a speedster, with just two career steals in close to 1,500 PAs, so that could explain the infield-only approach for Mark defensively in 2022. (He does, by the way, have a 60 rated arm, according to the Mets' prospect page).
4) Perhaps the biggest task, reducing the Ks. 70 in his first 55 games this year, 100 in 83 AA/AAA games last year. That's too high.
In Mark‘s last 200 official bats of 2021, he crushed 21 home runs; this year in 194 at bats through Friday, July 1, he crushed 14 more home runs. If you do the math, you’ll see that over that span, in just under 400 of bats, Mark has hit a remarkable 35 home runs.
That is a stunning number.
A number that just cannot be overlooked for someone who is just 22 years old. To me, that’s the kind of guy I don’t trade, but rather keep.
How many home runs Mark will launch in his major league career, only time will tell.
My early guess is 400 is possible.
He hits home runs with authority and has home runs to all fields.
Just look up his MILB page and watch his highlight videos. Go ahead - I dare ya. What you'll see, you'll like.
I think that Vientos is a future lethal long ball threat, possibly on the level of Pete Alonso, if he cuts the Ks. Keep in mind that Pete, at Vientos' current age, was far behind Mark in climbing the ranks, still in A ball.
Part of the problem with Mr. Vientos is he has just been missing too many games for various reasons. He needs to be on the field for virtually every game, just like Pete did in the minors (once Pete got past his 2 broken hand injuries early on, anyway) in order for Mark to make an irrefutable case that he is in fact a Mets keeper.
Since the start of May, 36 games, 13 HRs, 27 RBIs, .292…multiple that by 4 and you get 144 games, 52 HRs, 108 RBIs...Dag nab, bro.
But 49 Ks in 36 games. Too many Ks.
And too few games…just 55 of Syracuse’s 75 games this year.
But even including his bad-hitting first month of both 2021 and 2022, he has in 138 games had 508 at bats, 25 doubles, a triple, 39 HRs, 100 RBIs, and (yes) 170 Ks vs. 61 walks. As a 21-22 year old in the high minors, he has those power numbers.
And he is annihilating lefties this year: .300, with a .783 slug %, 9 HRs and 22 RBIs in 60 ABs. Lethal. Oddly, in 2021, he hit much better vs. righties than lefties, so 2022 is not necessarily a pattern. Anyway...
Time for him to step it up another notch and start totally destroying AAA. Hit like the last two months, but even better, and with fewer Ks. He does Alvarez in the line up with him now, which ought to help.
I'm thinking of a similar player, size and speed-wise, Wilmer Flores, who had less power but made better contact. Wilmer was an absolute RBI machine over a long stretch of AAA games. Of course, part of that huge output was playing in hitter-joyful Las Vegas, but Willie Flo struck out only half as much as Mark. Less homers, tons of doubles. Mark needs a bit more Flores in his diet, and to cut back on Vitamin K.
Well…Mark even surpassed my expectations this year. Through Monday, in 152 Mets regular and post season games and AAA games in 2024, he had 30 doubles/triples, 36 HRs, and 112 RBIs while hitting .278. Those are pretty good numbers, huh? If you asked me if he could put up 2024 numbers like that, when I wrote my July 2022 article, I would have said:
”UHH, YEAH”.
INTERESTING QUOTE IN A HEYMAN ARTICLE:
“This [bleeping] team comes back from the dead like no team I’ve ever seen,” one NL scout said.
- Sounds about right to me.
NIMMO PLANTAR FASCIATIS
Read it has been bothering him since May, and it got significantly worse in the NLDS. Me? I'd play Winker out there. Brandon, why push it, when you can DH? At least LAD has its own gimpy lefty hitter in Freddie Friggin' Freeman, so we're even on that score.
Brandon, next time, stick to Planter's Peanuts.
WEDNESDAY'S NLCS GAME 3:
Great first inning, and Lindor almost homered. A second inning fielding multi-nightmare, leading to 2 unnecessary Dodger runs. But it could have been worse, if not for a truly great catch by Tyrone Taylor that robbed Edman of a 2 bagger.
Alvarez up in the second, bags full and 1 for 21 lifetime with the bags full. First pitch, his bat flew 100 feet. He fanned looking on a 3-2 fastball. 1 for 22. Then fanned to end the 4th. He needs to learn to hit all over again. He has literally morphed into Tomas Nido.
JD Martinez fanned like he usually does, on that Buehler breaking ball low and outside. He has retired but hasn’t told anyone yet. Why on earth wasn’t either the HOT Jesse Winker, and/or Jeff McNeil, in the line up instead? THAT was a royal brain fart. McNeil did fly out for Taylor in the 7th.
Also, 2 times, Pete took a Buehler FB with plenty of plate for strike one, and then fanned on breaking balls. Bad habit. When a guy is pitching tough, don’t let that hittable first strike FB sail by.
Buehler, who has been awful this year, another Adrian Houser, looked quite sharp tonight. Very sharp. Figures. 4 very strong shutout innings.
Tough fifth for Sevy, but Garrett fanned Kike H to keep it 2-0.
New Dodger pitcher in the 5th.
Top 6, Kike somehow fouled off an eye-high 98 MPH Garrett FB, then launched a 2 run shot just over Nimmo’s leap on a hanging breaking ball.
Rusty Megill gave up a 3 run bomb to the Show Hey Kid, and it was 7-0 going into the 9th.
Check the box scores for the final score tomorrow. It is a formality, the loss, that is. Mets down 2 games to 1. Looked fatigued. But I think Winker and McNeil instead of Martinez and Taylor might have jolted the offense.
