Inside The Mets

Expert assesses Mark Vientos 'panic meter' after slow start for Mets

Should New York Mets fans be worried about Mark Vientos' offensive struggles?

Grant Young

Jun 5, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; New York Mets third baseman Mark Vientos (27) tosses his bat in frustration after striking out to end the seventh inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Jun 5, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; New York Mets third baseman Mark Vientos (27) tosses his bat in frustration after striking out to end the seventh inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
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The New York Mets have gotten off to a solid 9-4 record in the regular season without much production from star third baseman Mark Vientos.

Entering New York's April 12 game against the Athletics, Vientos is hitting .109 with a .393 OPS, 0 home runs, and just 1 RBI.

Given the 25-year-old's breakout 2024 postseason, there were extremely high expectations for his 2025 campaign. However, recent struggles aside, Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller only rated him as a 1.2 out of 10 on his 'MLB Panic Meter' in an April 12 article, and stated a clear case for why.

"Though his hard-hit percentage isn't worth writing home about, he's boasting the highest line-drive rate of his career and has an expected weighted on-base average on par with his norm and slightly better than the league average," Miller wrote of Vientos.

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"He's just having some horrific luck thus far, with a BABIP 172 points below where he finished last season, and with four of his five balls with at least a 102 MPH exit velocity going for an out (including one smoked GIDP.)

"Last year, he had 85 balls with at least a 102 MPH exit velocity, 57 of which (67 percent) went for hits. To be 1-for-5 to this point is a tough sample size," he continued.

"But it shouldn't be long before the third baseman who had a .998 OPS in 13 postseason games starts avoiding gloves and gets back into a groove. Though, if you're worried about a 'sophomore' slump from a player who had a negative bWAR in each of 2022 and 2023 before finally breaking through last year, that's understandable."

In other words, Miller expects Vientos to bounce back. But if he doesn't catch fire in the next couple of weeks, expect concern to increase.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Mets and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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