NEW YORK -- Earlier this month, Mark Vientos celebrated the one-year anniversary of his Major League callup, which neatly coincided with the Mets’ charge up the National League standings. Although Vientos had spent four prior stints in the Majors, none of them proved permanent until last May, when he began establishing himself as one of the game’s better young hitters.
From that day through the end of the regular season, Vientos batted .264/.320/.510 with 26 home runs and 69 RBIs -- a rate of 39 homers and 104 RBIs over 162 games. Although far from elite defensively at third base, Vientos demonstrated to Mets officials that he could handle the position. He was even better in October, batting .327/.362/.636 with five home runs, including a grand slam in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers.
For all those reasons, Vientos entered this season as the Mets’ unquestioned Opening Day third baseman. At age 25, he appeared set to be a focal point of this Mets lineup for years to come.
All of that may still come to pass. But this year, Vientos hasn’t been the same player, which is what made his three-run homer in the Mets’ 9-4 loss to the White Sox on Wednesday so notable. The home run was his first in 46 plate appearances and his second in May. Vientos is on pace to hit 17 this season. His batting average, on-base and slugging percentages are all down significantly, as are the expected statistics that factor in his quality of contact. His bat speed has decreased, as has the amount of hard contact he’s making.
Just as notably, Vientos has regressed defensively, with seven errors and a .972 fielding percentage, which ranks 147th out of 148 qualified defensive players. Vientos sits in the very bottom percentile in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric, which -- combined with Brett Baty’s defensive breakout -- has prompted New York to stop playing him at third base most nights. He has started there just twice in New York’s last nine games.
For Vientos, none of those trends is desirable. But he and the Mets maintain hope that the breakout he enjoyed last summer will still prove real.
“Last year he came in, and we saw an explosion,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “I think he’s going to have that at some point in the year. It’s hard to maintain the pace. But I think at some point this year, you will see him elevate his game.”
The explosive nature of last season aside, one of Vientos’ strengths was his consistency. He did not produce an OPS lower than .708 in any calendar month, and he sat between .808 and .917 in all but one of them -- a rare trait for a young player in his first full tour of the league. This year, however, Vientos has posted monthly OPS figures of .691 and .668.
“I don’t know, to be honest with you,” he said when asked about his inconsistencies. “I ask myself that, too. But I can’t really feel sorry for myself. I’ve just got to keep working and keep getting a hit here and there and contributing to my team as much as possible.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza suggested that the league has adjusted to Vientos, even though pitchers are generally attacking him the same way in 2025. Vientos is simply not punishing fastballs the way he did last summer.
That’s what made Wednesday’s homer so notable: an opposite-field blast off a 94 mph Shane Smith fastball near the top of the strike zone. Much like other sluggers, when Vientos can send such pitches the other way with authority, it can signal that he’s close to unlocking more production at the plate.
“It was good to see, especially right-on-right, because we know the power to all fields,” Mendoza said. “It’s been on and off. There have been stretches where it feels like he’s going to get going, but then he loses it a little bit. And that’s part of it. It’s part of the grind.”
In the batting cage, Vientos said, he has not changed his normal routine. He’s not in imminent danger of losing playing time, despite Baty’s improvements and Ronny Mauricio’s success in the Minors. Mets officials have long believed that last season's breakout was real. They’re not going to change their opinions given two months of middling data.
Perhaps most promisingly, Vientos doesn’t appear to be losing any confidence. Asked if he expects to stay hot once that initial explosion happens, Vientos replied: “That’s usually how it goes.”
“Once I’m hot,” he added, “I’m back to being myself.”