Reese Kaplan -- Is a Last Minute Trade Available For Mark Vientos?

Sometimes at the eleventh hour things occur that shed new light on otherwise seemingly unanswerable and hopeless situations. 

During the WBC the Cubs lost outfielder Seiya Suzuki to a knee injury that all of the sudden appears to be a lot more severe than originally feared.  The Japanese import has been successful in Chicago, going from a 14 HR and 46 RBI rookie during this American debut in 2022 to a stellar 32 HR and 103 RBI during this past season.  All of the sudden the Cubbies find themselves without a middle of the order bat for an extended period of time.

Right now the immediate substitution for them is former long time Met Michael Conforto who had joined Chicago on a minor league free agent deal in February after he was found still looking for a new job.  After having been named one of baseball’s most overpaid players it was a mighty fall and in 2025 he was miserable, hitting just .199 with 12 HRs and 36 RBIs.   

Going into 2026 for his age 33 season it’s unlikely he’s going to rebound in a big way.  When you consider what the Cubs lost from Suzuki, turning to Conforto for left handed power replacing their former outfielder’s right handed stick doesn’t seem to add up.

Here’s where things get truly interesting.  Sitting on the Mets bench right now is young right handed power hitter Mark Vientos whose third base job was taken away by Bo Bichette, whose first base job was taken away by Jorge Polanco and whose DH job was taken away by Brett Baty.  That leaves the poor fielding and poor running Vientos as a distant replacement option either against a particularly tough southpaw pitching or as a pinch hitter.  Neither role is going to give him the playing time necessary to ramp up to the kind of numbers he posted in 2024 nor even what he did in 2025. 

The question that arises is if the Cubbies would be interested in replacing missing right handed power from Suzuki with right handed power from Vientos?  If so, the return in the deal would not necessarily be huge but another outfielder or some prospects previously not seemingly within probability of happening might now be on the table.

One article even proposed sending a combination of Vientos and demoted infielder Ronny Mauricio to Chicago for starting pitcher Jameson Taillon.  The turning 34 year old right hander earns $18 million in this final year of his current deal and would become the Mets’ seventh starting pitcher (or sixth if you now classify Sean Manaea as a reliever).  He’s not a bad return but doesn’t seem to be a particularly good fit for the team’s needs. 

Instead the team might instead look to obtain one of the pair of young Cub outfielders Matt Shaw or Kevin Alcantara.  Shaw has just over 1 year’s aggregate of minor league ball with 35 HRs and 113 RBIs to accompany a .301 batting average.  Alcantara has been farmed out to AAA but has shown both power and speed with 65 HRs and 63 SBs over about 4 full seasons worth of minor league ball while hitting .278.  At 6’6” he’s got the size that appeals to many baseball savants though Shaw has accomplished more.