What did you think was going to happen?! For as great of a season as the New York Mets have been having, the Mark Vientos problem continues to fester. He may have several more years of control by the Mets, but his glove is about as useless as Jose Canseco's or Chuck Knoblauch's used to be back in the day. This defensive liability over at third not only struggles at the plate, but he is worse at first.
Making his second appearance playing first base with Pete Alonso serving as the designated hitter in Monday night's one-run loss to the Cleveland Guardians, Vientos looked like a something you would see out of rec league baseball. He somehow found a way to overrun this lazy pop-up in foul territory. Mets color commentator Ron Darling just about lost it in the booth watching this madness unfold.
Even the biggest tub of goo you knew growing up would have waddled under that baseball in your rec league of choice. The Mets have now lost six of their last seven games to fall 1.5 games back of the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East race. Every game is precious the rest of the way in this divisional race between two rivals. The Mets cannot afford to let Vientos try to figure out first base on the fly.
If first base was the moon to Scott Hatteberg back in the day, then what could it even be for Vientos?
"I don't know what to say. I mean, c'mon. It's a pop-up. Let's go!" - Ron Darling, critical of Mark Vientos, who is playing just his second game at first base this season. pic.twitter.com/nj9bNECLsI
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 4, 2025
All I know is Vientos' defensive issues are going to cost Steve Cohen more money to pay Pete Alonso.
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Mark Vientos' below replacement level value will cost the Mets millions
With an -0.6 WAR on the season, what is the point of Vientos and all of this, honestly? I rarely have anything positive to say about the Mets, but I will try to look at this from the perspective of a pitcher, a first baseman and a team that needs to operate with a crashing sense of urgency to win their division. Again, Vientos overrunning a pop-up in foul ground is the stuff that drove me crazy in youth baseball.
As a former pitcher, Darling knows every out you can record is precious. These are major-league rosters, meaning not only can they take advantage of an error put forth in the field by the opposition, but they most certainly will. As a former first baseman, how do you think a slick fielder like Keith Hernandez is going to feel about this? If Darling was noticeably perplexed, what about Hernandez?
And finally, these are the instances where you can look back on a season lost and know exactly where it all went wrong. Again, the Mets are a very good team. They should make the postseason and may win a series or two. However, it will always be hard for me to get behind a team winning a pennant, or a World Series, for that matter if they are not sound defensively. That and a leaky bullpen are so painful.
As far as what this means for Cohen and the Mets when it comes to Alonso, they have to pay the man! To me, a star player like Alonso should never play for another franchise in his illustrious career. He has been a huge part in the Mets' big turnaround in recent years. Letting him walk in free agency would open up another can of worms. All I know is Vientos is not going to learn how to play first base.
The Mets need to get it together to work their way out of what is their third big dry spell of the year.