Reese Kaplan -- How To Address the Sudden Infielder Surplus

With the arrival of Bo Bichette it opens up a great many questions about what the Mets are planning to do with the rest of the roster.  If we assume they are serious about Jorge Polanco being a brand new first baseman and Bichette being a brand new third baseman it leaves the Mets with quite a few decisions to make regarding Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuna. 

The relatively easy decisions regard the latter pair as neither Mauricio nor Acuna have done enough in their limited major league tenure to suggest that they are starting quality players despite having surprising speed and power.  What is interesting about Acuna is that he was asked to play a lot of outfield in the winter league where he did very little for the big club.  Mauricio was asked to play 3B where he had less experience than he did at shortstop but with Bichette and Francisco Lindor occupying those places it might instead be to groom him as a more versatile piece of trade bait. 

Where it gets much more difficult to ascertain is what to do with Brett Baty and Mark Vientos.  Baty has had his chances on the big club since first appearing in 2023 and failing to deliver through 2022 and failing to deliver despite numerous opportunities up through 2024.  His numbers for that period include a .215 batting average, 15 HRs and 55 RBIs over an aggregate of about a full season’s worth of plate appearances.  He struck out in nearly 29% of his ABs.

Then came 2025 when Mark Vientos’ bat nearly vanished and Brett Baty out of necessity became the almost every day third baseman.  For this past season he hit .254 (a jump of 39 points including a second half .291 AVG that greatly raised this number), with 18 HRs and 50 RBIs over 393 ABs.  This time around the swing and miss issue remained but tempered down a bit to about 27%. 

The real issue for the Mets front office, Carlos Mendoza and the fans’ perception is which Brett Baty is for real.  Will you see continued improvement which would make him a solid if unspectacular starting ballplayer or will you see a reversion to mean and see him again struggling to hit well above the Mendoza line? 

That issue brings us to Mark Vientos whose 2024 season was even better than what Baty did in 2025.  That year he hit .266 with 27 HRs and 71 RBIs in a tad over 400 ABs.  His strikeout numbers were worse, however, at over 32%.  Still, the run production numbers had people excited enough about his bat to forgive his highly questionable glove.

2025 for Vientos was a huge step backwards.  His batting average dropped to just .233 which is still far better than Baty’s career numbers to go along with 17 HRs and 61 RBIs in about the same number of ABs.  The strikeout percentage dipped to 27%. 

So here’s the big question.  If Baty is part of the future at what position will that be?  Some advocate making him take over the former Jeff McNeil role, available to play all over the diamond including one of the two vacant outfield positions where he had a lot of minor league experience.  Does he learn first base?  If so, what happens to Jorge Polanco and his much bigger paycheck? 

Then you have the same question about Mark Vientos.  His future if he remains a Met may be as a DH since again first base is not open and third base is already overcrowded.  Some advocated a platoon between Polanco and Vientos at 1B but Polanco is a switch hitter and is earning $17 million for the 2026 season.  As of now there is no clear DH unless perhaps that is where they envision Polanco playing, but given his superior infield defensive skills it’s a reasonable assumption that he would be able to provide Alonso or better defense at first.  Vientos, conversely, is a fielder much better known for his bat.  Consequently DH would seem to make sense.

Of course, with two outfield vacancies, nothing done to improve the starting rotation and another arm needed in the bullpen it’s entirely possible that one or both of these young veterans could be on the trading block to address other needs.  With three weeks remaining until Spring Training begins some additional changes are in the cards that apparently David Stearns holds very close to his chest.