Mark Vientos Continues To Get Better At The Right Time
A Blog By Tobey
2024 was everything Mark Vientos could’ve dreamed of for his baseball career. He finally broke out in the Mets big league roster and solidified his part of this core in Queens. Heading into the 2025 season, there were high expectations for Vientos to keep the production up. In what has unfortunately been a rather underwhelming season, Vientos is hitting well again, and here is what’s been going good for him as we head into the tail end of the season.
When you look at his 89 games this season, you can see the bat just hasn’t been where lot thought it would be this year:
345 PA
.238 AVG
.284 OBP
.412 SLG
.696 OPS
12 HR
31 R
43 RBI
.297 wOBA
92 wRC+
0.0 fWAR
Not good production, but also not the absolute worst. While his SLG has dipped from .516 in ‘24 to .412 now, it still eclipses over that .400 mark. He managed to lower the K% from nearly 30% in ‘24 to nearly 23% in ‘25 (albeit less games). Yet the BB% has gone down causing that OBP to dip below .300, and the OPS under .700. Vientos has gone from a near 3-win player to now having 0 fWAR in 2025.
When we look at his advanced profile, we’ve seen metrics like AvgEV and Hard-Hit% go up or be around the same number, while Barrel% has dropped, and so has the xSLG.
Profile: Baseball Savant
His 100 PAs Rolling xwOBA chart is worth taking a closer look at as well. We can see Vientos started the year incredibly cold, but as time has gone on, he’s been much better and is playing some of his best baseball as of late!
Chart: Baseball Savant
In August especially we’ve seen that production sky-rocket. He’s found the power back as of late as well:
58 PA
.259 AVG
.276 OBP
.611 SLG
.887 OPS
5 HR
4 2B
8 R
12 RBI
Data: Baseball Savant
While the OBP still has been under .300 in that stretch, the SLG has been much better and that’s more important for a hitter like Vientos. Since July 6th, he’s been slugging above a .500 clip. Three homers in his last two games is also very nice.
Now let’s look at some more rolling charts. This Statcast graphic (created by @OPS_Baseball) shows that while the Hard-Hit numbers have dipped slightly, they’re still at a solid number. His recent dip in EV still has him at an AvgEV higher than his season average. All while his Barrel numbers have gone up immensely as well.
When we look at his Rolling Plate Discipline charts, it looks promising. His overall Contact% went up, while he’s swinging and making more contact in the zone. While the O-Swing% has slightly gone up, the SwStr% has taken a dip.
Let’s take a look at how he’s performed against all pitches now. Vientos sees mostly 4-Seamers, Sliders, Sinkers, and Sweepers, with his best production coming against the 4-Seamer on pitches seen above 10% of the time.
Data: Baseball Savant
When going back to that July 6th date, where as previously mentioned since he’s been slugging over .500, Vientos has crushed the Fastball. He has a .708 SLG and 1.000 OPS since then. He’s elevated both his AVG and his SLG vs. the Sinker since July 6th as well compared to his season average.
He’s had great numbers vs. the Curveball in 2025, and while he sees it only 8.5% of the time, he hits .435 against it with a .652 SLG. Since July 6th vs. the Curveball:
33 Pitches
.375 AVG
.444 OBP
.875 SLG
1.319 OPS
1 HR
1 2B
.500 ISO
.541 wOBA
267 wRC+
Vientos has also seen his numbers against the Changeup improve since that July 6th date we keep going back to. In 42 pitches since then he’s hitting .308 with a .385 SLG. Not great power but he’s hitting for average against a pitch he doesn’t see often.
The last pitch I saw improved production against during that stretch was the Cutter. In 36 pitches against the Cutter, he’s hitting .364 with an .818 OPS. The AVG up on his season AVG by over 100 points.
*Pitch type statistics entering 8/24 game vs. Atlanta (Data: FanGraphs)
Vientos playing like this down the stretch of the season is so important for the Mets success. It gives them another strong right handed power threat around the postseason. For a Mets team battling with the Reds for their playoff lives, Vientos will be a key piece to make sure they return to October baseball. If he can keep this up, they are a scary offense to face in the postseason.