Mark Vientos is 1-for-25 this spring, but Carlos Mendoza still believes

Mark Vientos is 1-for-25 this spring, and the manager of the New York Mets just went on record calling him a future “big player.” That gap between what Mendoza is saying and what the stat sheet is showing is worth sitting with for a minute.

Carlos Mendoza addressed Vientos publicly on Monday, telling reporters he’s “pretty confident that we’re going to get a really good version from Mark Vientos” in 2026. Managers say things like that. It’s part of the job. But Mendoza wasn’t hedging or giving a non-answer, he was emphatic, and that carries a little more weight than the standard spring training boilerplate. It also puts Vientos in a spotlight he hasn’t done anything yet to earn.

The problem is the spring numbers have been genuinely bad, and not in a way that’s easy to wave off.

What Mark Vientos Is Doing Wrong Right Now

Through 8 spring games, Vientos is slashing .040/.077/.080 across 26 plate appearances. The .157 OPS isn’t a product of 3 or 4 rough at-bats, it’s a sustained cold stretch that includes Monday’s 0-for-4. His BABIP sits at .050, which means the balls he is putting in play aren’t finding grass. That’s partly luck, sure, but 26 plate appearances is enough of a sample to know something isn’t clicking.

The strikeout rate isn’t helping either. Vientos has punched out 5 times in 26 trips, and the plate discipline numbers are trending in the wrong direction. His P/PA this spring is 3.423, down from 4.109 in 2025, which means he’s not working counts the way he was a year ago. Pitchers are getting him early, getting him on weak contact, and getting him often. That’s a bad combination for a hitter whose entire value proposition is built around making hard contact when pitchers make mistakes.

What makes this stretch harder to explain away is that Vientos has seen big league pitching before. He’s 24, not a teenager getting his first look at a major league breaking ball. He had 55 plate appearances in 2025 and enough stretches in 2023 and 2024 to confirm that the power is real when the swing is right. Right now the swing doesn’t look right, and nothing in the spring line suggests otherwise.

What Carlos Mendoza Sees That the Box Score Doesn’t

Here’s where it gets more complicated. Mendoza watches Vientos every single day in camp. He sees the batting practice sessions, the work in the cage, the swing decisions that never show up in a box score. If he’s going out publicly and calling Vientos a big player for this team, there’s something behind that beyond blind loyalty to a guy who went 0-for-4 the same afternoon.

Spring training numbers have always been a flawed measuring stick. Sample sizes are small, pitchers are working on their arsenal rather than attacking hitters, and March results have little to no correlation with what happens once the games count in April. There are plenty of guys who looked completely lost during Grapefruit League play and turned into productive contributors by May. Vientos could be one of those guys.

But here’s the thing, confidence from a manager and 1 hit in 25 at-bats are 2 things that don’t reconcile easily, no matter how generous the interpretation. Mendoza isn’t wrong to believe in Vientos. The talent is legitimate, the power ceiling is real, and the Mets clearly see him as more than a depth piece. What nobody can afford right now, including Mendoza, is letting that belief become a reason to stop asking hard questions about a player who has yet to put together a sustained run of production at the big league level.

April is 2 weeks away. Vientos needs to give this team something to work with, and he’s running out of spring to find it.