Mark Vientos hasn’t been able to earn consistent playing time or gain much offensive traction during his two stays with the Mets this season, but manager Buck Showalter is making an attempt to keep the 23-year-old prospect involved, on defense and at the plate.
Vientos started at third base Saturday night over slumping Brett Baty in the Mets’ 11-6 loss to the Nationals at Citi Field, only his fourth appearance at the hot corner this season.
Vientos, who went 2-for-4 with a solo homer and two RBI’s in the Mets’ loss, also has played four games at first base and 15 as a designated hitter.
Outfielder Mark Canha started at first base and went 2-for-3, with Pete Alonso serving as the DH following his second two-homer game in four days Friday night.
Alonso went 0-for-5.
“Mark, I want to keep him involved defensively. I almost played him at first today, but I think our best defensive alignment was the way we went today,” Showalter said before the game. “Mark’s capable of playing first base and Brett’s actually capable. He has played a lot of different places. Not a whole lot recently, but gotta keep them in the flow.
“I gotta keep getting them reps. I think picking the spots with Brett, this is probably more than he’s played continuously in a long time.”
Vientos put up huge numbers this season for Triple-A Syracuse with 16 home runs, 50 RBIs and a 1.000 OPS in 228 at-bats. But that hasn’t translated to the major league level. He has just one homer and a .538 OPS in 68 plate appearances for the Mets.
Baty has played more frequently, especially since Eduardo Escobar was traded in June, but he began the day with 11 hits in 64 at-bats (.174) in July to drop his overall OPS to .639 this season.
“I reminded some people last year that a lot of these guys have never played in the month of September. And it’s different. … Keep that in mind and try to look at it through their eyes,” Showalter said. “But I want Mark to start thinking sometimes you can mentally make a guy think that he’s a DH. But Mark has improved [defensively].
“We’ve worked hard with him and he’s worked hard with our people in the minor leagues. [Minor-league infield coordinator] Miguel Cairo has been outstanding, and [Syracuse manager] Dickie Scott was one of the best infielders I’ve ever had.”
