Mark Vientos, Photos by Peter McClelland
Mark Vientos, the Mets number six prospect according to Baseball America, has been trending in the right direction for the organization this month. Vientos was having a rough go at it to start the season, going .231/.279/.410 with an OPS of .689 and 31 strikeouts, not exactly lighting the world on fire.
With fans and scouts starting to get concerned with his level of play, Vientos stepped it up big time. Over his past 28 days, Mark is hitting .273/.344/.673 with an OPS of 1.017 and limited his strikeouts to seventeen. With Vientos getting more selective at the plate and waiting for his pitch, his productivity has ramped up as well, slamming six homers and driving in thirteen RBIs
Mark Vientos hit his 6th home run of the year for @RumblePoniesBB. He took RHP Josh Winckowski deep. Winckowski is one of the prospects the #Mets got for Steven Matz, then was traded to the #RedSox in the Khalil Lee deal pic.twitter.com/0L6CJuLavW
— Joe DeMayo (@PSLToFlushing) June 16, 2021
If those numbers weren’t promising enough for fans, his numbers over the past seven days have been eye-popping. Going .385/.429/1.077 with three home runs and only two strikeouts. Over his fantastic stretch, Vientos boosted his season numbers to a respectable .246/.306/.515 with an OPS of .821 and nine-round trippers.
Mets prospect Mark Vientos now leads their minor leagues with 9 home runs for the season.
He has a .698 SLG over his last 16 games for Double-A Binghamton.
— Michael Mayer (@mikemayer22) June 24, 2021
The biggest thing for Vientos’s development is to limit his 31.9 strikeout percentage and increase his 8.3 walk percentage, a trend he’s been trying to change since he started in the minors. Mark finally seems to be tapping into his true power potential as he leads all of the Mets minor leaguers in homers and has his highest ISO percentage ever at .269.
The third base prospect still has work to do on his defense –and has even played six games at first base this season– but the type of power he’s showing will give him offensive value no matter what position he ends up playing.
Hopefully, Vientos can continue trending upward for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and create good competition between him and his prospect counterpart, Brett Baty. The 21-year-old has some serious power and could potentially be an impactful player at the major league level if he can continue to be a patient hitter.
