For Mark Vientos, the feeling started back in December, watching games from the Dominican Winter League with his father.
“Watching baseball is not fun for me,” Vientos told The Athletic over the phone last week, “because I’m sitting down wanting to be playing instead of watching … I was watching winter ball like, ‘I want to go play.’ I’m itching to get out there already.”
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Vientos has been on the radar as the next big Mets prospect for years, the vanguard of a wave of position player talent that, at long last, is cresting near the shore. That group of Vientos, Ronny Mauricio, Brett Baty and Francisco Álvarez is getting close enough to matter in the big-league planning; there’s a reason the Mets have so far handed out short-term deals to veterans in their 30s this winter.
And yet right now, in the second week of March when Vientos should be getting a bunch of intriguing reps in Grapefruit League games, when he could be staking a claim to a major-league roster spot as soon as possible, he’s waiting. Protracted anticipation has been a theme of the last few years — for Vientos, for the Mets, for all of us.
“I feel like I’m repeating 2020 in a way,” said Vientos, somehow without terror in his voice. “A lot of us baseball players right now, the guys on the 40-man major-league rosters, are losing their minds ready to get out there and go play. … You’ve just got to deal with it.”
As he suggested, Vientos in particular is in an awkward spot because of the lockout: Promoted to the 40-man roster last November, he’s now a part of the union, which means he can’t work out at team facilities or play in minor-league games while the lockout is ongoing. So while players like Álvarez and Baty have been at a minor-league camp in Port St. Lucie, Fla., preparing for the start of a minor-league season come the second week of April, Vientos is on his own.
He’s been working out in Miami, spending time at the same facility as Giancarlo Stanton, J.D. Martinez and Miguel Cabrera.
“What makes you great is how you deal with certain situations that aren’t toward your benefit,” he said. “I’ll be ready whenever the call comes.”
That well-earned sense of calm is in larger supply for Vientos after a 2021 season in which everything came together for the third baseman. He showed off his prodigious power with 25 homers in 310 at-bats — a home-run rate that tied for ninth-best in all the minor leagues. His brief cameo at Triple-A Syracuse in September was the whipped cream on top of a season-long sundae. He got on base at a .395 clip and hit three homers in 11 games. Previously, Vientos had struggled initially upon a change in levels. He feels like he’s ironing out those adjustments more swiftly now.
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For Vientos, last season was less about anything physical than about maturing mentally. His 2019 season in Columbia had been derailed early by his frustration with the dimensions of his home ballpark; he didn’t feel like himself until July. A slow start in 2021 could have snowballed the same way. Instead, one bad month was rebutted by four sparkling ones, his OPS over 1.000 after the first month of the season.
“I think I’ve always had the ability. I’ve always been talented,” Vientos said. “Now, mentally I’m getting to the same level as physically. And I think that’s honestly the most important part of the game … You’re fighting with yourself throughout the season, just trying to push through it. I feel like as I mature and get older, I’m learning myself more and more. And that helps me out as a player, for sure.”
Part of that was the gratitude to be back playing the game he loved after a year spent working out on empty fields or in empty stadiums. He acquired a deeper appreciation for fan support in 2021. Another part was establishing a routine that didn’t waver, even incorporating into it a habit he’d long contemplated.
“I have my own journal and I just write down my thoughts — what’s been working for me and what’s not been working for me. I go back when I’m struggling and trying to figure it out, to what was working for me,” said Vientos, who added that he’d been too lazy in earlier seasons to carry through with the idea. “It’s helped me out a ton for sure. And I’ve been sticking to it this offseason, and I’m going to bring it to this season for sure.”
A power hitter keeping a journal isn’t novel, not in this organization. What was interesting was that Vientos mentioned the journal when discussing his defense, not his at-bats against specific pitchers the way Pete Alonso or Carlos Delgado would.
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Because it’s that side of the game where questions linger for Vientos. He’s a third baseman, just like Baty right behind him in the system; the consensus in the industry, though, is that Baty has the better shot at sticking at the hot corner in the majors. Last year, the Mets got both Vientos and Baty looks at other positions, and they plan to continue doing that this year.
Vientos acknowledged making his outfield debut in Double-A games was like being thrown into the deep end. He’s confident that additional reps, following an offseason with some more conditioning work, will help him swim there.
“My start in the outfield was a little bit iffy because I wasn’t comfortable out there,” he said. “But as I started getting more reps and playing more games out there, I was comfortable and it was easy for me. I don’t see it as a big adjustment at all.”
Vientos said he’d be willing to play wherever. He did issue one important caveat as part of that declaration, though.
“Honestly, wherever they put me in the lineup — in the major-league lineup — I’m completely fine,” he said.
And so for now he remains in Miami, following through with his everyday routine, waiting still for the spring training he’s been waiting for all his professional life, the one where he gets a chance to show he’s a major leaguer.
“Personally, I feel ready,” he said. “That decision is not in my hands. The only thing I can control right now is just working hard and giving it my all on that field and proving that I’m ready.”
(Photo: Mike Janes / Four Seam Images via Associated Press)
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