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.
9 comments:
Baty had one decent year. Kelenic did, too, and it was his last good one.
Vientos, down the stretch after August, hit like a bum as the Mets barely missed the playoffs. .184/.262/.303. Will he hit OK, in 2026, gor wilt?
Stearns has to figure that out.
FWIW, Baseball Reference projects fairly similar, and mediocre, slash lines for the trio, all targeted to hit in the low .240s. Vientos with the highest slug %…a decent .444, the other two just under .400.
I have a feeling a trade will solve this question soon.
However, if there isn't any, I would do this, based on Polanco being the starter at first and Bichette the same on third:
Brett Baty - LHDH
Mark Vientos - RHDH
Ronny Mauricio - one option left... send to AAA-Syracuse
LuisAngel Acuna - UTIF
Mack, largely good, but Vientos would only get about 175-200 PAs that way. Of course, that number would increase when some offensive player gets injured.
I would farm Mauricio out at the start of the season, if not traded. He’s talented, but he’s always been an enigma to me. Hopefully, he’s taking this off season very seriously, because the kid who was signed at age 16 is now getting quite a bit older. It should be a put up or shut up year for him.
Interesting that with the exception of Alvarez, all the Baby Mets are infielders. On the other hand, with the exception of Williams, Reimer and Clifford, the nearly ready for prime time prospects are primarily outfielders. Taking a look at the ML infield now, there is no starter signed beyond 2028 and Bichette can leave as early as the end of 26. At the same time, it's a safe bet that any trade for a SP will involve some of this group of 7 mentioned above.
So in fact, until Pena, Asignal and Voit are ready, we have a limited supply of major league reader infielders that we can be confident of playing to the major league level to cover a full three year period.
The number is misleading in that it applies only to this year, like right now and not much longer beyond that.
What the team needs to decide is which of the 7 constitute a genuine alternative for 27 and 28. It does make sense to think of Mauricio as destined for Syracuse because it delays the decision on him, and may increase his value while there -- to us or to others. Vientos just has no position on this team.
I think of Reimer and Clifford as a pair -- either as 1st and 3rd bookends or as platoon 1st basemen/DH -- but perhaps not ready until 2028. Right now Williams is the only infield prospect ready for duty at middle infield positions by 2027 at the latest.
The problem of relying on Baty to be McNeil like is that he may be a better glove at 1st than Polanco and would currently be the insurance for Bichette's leaving after one year. Frankly, we know that Acuna provides, he does at an elite level: defense, speed and base running as well as high BB IQ. What he lacks is plate discipline and efficient contact. But no one of the 7, including Lindor, provides his defense. He is as important to keep as Baty is -- for this upcoming year.
But our decisions will be impacted more by what other teams want in return for quality SP and outfield help than what would be optimal for us -- acting in a vacuum.
i meant no starter other than Lindor
Jules, Mauricio is quick, but brittle. It has always been an enigma to me as to why he wasn’t movement to the outfield. If you’ve got speed and you’ve got height and you’ve got an arm, that seems like a logical conclusion. Then you have Alvarez, who is slow and brittle. BATY who is slow and kind of brittle. And Vientos , who can handily beat Vogelbach in a foot race but few others. Those factors represents significant liabilities for that quartet of players. The reality may be that only Alvarez becomes an above average player, and that would be only if he stays, reasonably healthy, which he has not been able to do so far.
Meanwhile, you could count on one hand the number of games missed by Soto and Lindor, which is incredible. Being healthy and available to play is often an underrated element of any player’s performance or projected performance. I hope we get 320 combined games out of Soto and Lindor in 2026. I think this team will sure need it. Hopefully, 150+ games out of Bichette, too.
Trade demands will clear this up before Spring. Given all of the question marks for each of these players - the receiving team will also provide input. As discussed there are roles for each of these players this year & each does provide some type of insurance for next year. Problem is, the team has been asking the same questions for all of them for two years - going on three as they enter 2026. If they are role players this year, many of these questions will remain next year too.
It’s time to move on from these questions. Once trades are made thy will evaluate the remaining players & make the calls.
If they don’t sign Bellinger, they have to trade for an OF (& probably sign Hays). They definitely have to trade for a starter.
The key is to keep both Benge & Ewing (unless they trade for Skubal or Skenes (& sign).
They are going for it this year with the Bichette signing so more to come for sure.
AJ Ewing is a very promising prospect who will become the starting second baseman after Semien.
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