Mets' Mark Vientos confident at-bats trending in ‘right direction' after deadline worry
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Mark Vientos heard the rumors and the talks involving his name ahead of the trade deadline, so he was 'worried for sure.'
The Mets slugger had started to find a sustained rhythm at the plate again. He had escaped a brutal slump, recovered from a right hamstring strain and, finally, recovered some of the consistency that shaped his 2024 campaign — even if the power was still missing.
So when 6 p.m. arrived Thursday and Vientos was still with the Mets, he felt relieved.
The outlook for his role the rest of the season remains complicated, as the third baseman and designated hitter remains stuck in a logjam of position players fighting for limited spots.
It's why he was removed for a pinch hitter in a matchup move Friday night and why — despite a 10-game hitting streak, tying his career high — he didn't play in Saturday's 12-6 win over the Giants against a right-hander.
3 Mark Vientos hits a single during the fifth inning of the Mets' 10-inning loss to the Giants on Aug. 1, 2025.
AP
But Vientos, finally, feels like his 'normal self' again at the plate — even though he's 'not extremely hot yet' and hitting just .235 with a .657 OPS for the year.
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'It feels great because I'm moving in the right direction,' Vientos told The Post prior to Saturday's game. 'I'm moving forward instead of backward, so I feel like I've been improving and that's all I can ask for.'
The lack of power, as has been the case all season, remains the most glaring omission from Vientos' ledger.
3 Mark Vientos (27) is congratulated by Brandon Nimmo (9) and Jeff McNeil (1) after hitting a grand slam during the fifth inning of the Mets' loss to the Padres on July 28, 2025.
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
3 Mets' Mark Vientos watches his forceout during the second inning of the Mets' loss to the Padres.
AP
He entered Saturday with just seven homers — two more than he collected in only the postseason last year — and just one over his past 27 games.
But around the Mets series against the Orioles in early July, everything started to change with the rest of Vientos' results. He started generating hits. Multihit games, even. And since that series began, he has hit .317 with a .795 OPS and 10 RBIs.
During his brutal slump to open the year, Vientos kept searching for adjustments to his mechanics, but he eventually realized that they were sound and the 'cleanest' they've ever been — and that he rather needed to hunt the pitch, as well as the location, he wanted.
He needed to stop stressing about structural layers of his swing, about the constant tinkering of a swing throughout the year.
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He still needs to recapture the power and pair that with the consistent hits to truly flash his full potential.
He still needs to keep producing in order to carve out at-bats while at third base, at designated hitter and against right-handed pitchers.
But after a 'perfect' 2024 season with 'no wrongs' followed by a 2025 with plenty of them so far, Vientos might've discovered a solution by stopping his search for one.
'That's where you create the slumps,' Vientos said of the mechanics. '… When guys get into slumps, they can't separate the two, and it took me a while to figure that out. But I'm glad I figured it out because better late than never, right?'
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