At The Trade Deadline, Intrigue And Uncertainty Remain For Mets Infielders Young And Old

These are not the Mets of yesteryear, when the team was run in impulsive and impetuous fashion. So the smallest of sample sizes in the days leading up to the trade deadline are not likely to impact additional moves the team does or does not make today.

But big games by Ronny Mauricio and Mark Vientos this week underlined the difficult choices ahead of David Stearns and how some of the largest sample sizes produced by Mets prospects this century still hasn’t made it any easier to figure out how they fit into the team’s long-term plans.

Mauricio, Vientos, Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty accounted for 36.1 percent of the plate appearances collected by the Mets over the last four games, continuing a trend in which top prospects are afforded time because the Mets want to have as much information as possible before determining a player’s fate.

Alvarez, Baty and Vientos are the first position players listed among Baseball America’s top 10 Mets prospects to reach at least 800 plate appearances with the big league club since Steve Cohen purchased the club in 2020.

Just 13 top 10 position player prospects collected at least 800 plate appearances for the Mets from 2000 through 2019 — and 11 of those did so during the back end of the Wilpon era, when the Mets had to give homegrown players plenty of opportunity because they couldn’t afford to sign anyone else.

Only Pete Alonso was a true star, though Michael Conforto, Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and Dominic Smith all showed glimpses of cornerstone talent. (Travis d’Arnaud and Wilmer Flores were starters on a World Series team and Amed Rosario helped the Mets land Francisco Lindor while Kevin Plawecki, Ruben Tejada and Josh Thole…well, they combined for 4,015 plate appearances and one no-hitter caught).

Of course, that approach still beat the approach utilized by the Mets throughout the first half of the Wilpon era, when only the most can’t-miss of can’t-miss prospects were afforded any sort of runway as the Mets traded prospects for immediate help and/or gave up on them at the first sign of trouble.

David Wright (6,872 plate appearances) and Jose Reyes (4,840 plate appearances before he exited as a free agent for the Marlins) were the lone top 10 position player prospects to get at least 800 plate appearances for the Mets, and even Reyes had to change positions to make room for Kaz Matsui in 2004.

So patience is most certainly a virtue. But prospect development being what it is for everyone this side of the Mike Trouts and Bryce Harpers of the world (that was some 2012 rookie class), the Mets can’t feel certain today, even after watching all of their 3,297 plate appearances as big leaguers, what they really have in Alvarez, Baty, Mauricio, Vientos and Luisangel Acuna.

“I don’t think there’s a firm goal there,” Stearns said last month. “I think it’s a combination of amount of experience at the big leagues, what that individual player is working on, the player’s ability to adjust, willingness to adjust, the feedback our coaches are giving us. These are all individuals and they go through growth and development at different paces and so it’s very difficult to put a specific number on that.”

Given his youth and track record as the Mets’ no. 1 catcher most of the last three seasons, Alvarez is not a real candidate to be traded. But who is he long-term? Is he going to be the Mets’ first homegrown star behind the plate since Todd Hundley? Or will the 23-year-old with 41 big league homers and a recent demotion to Triple-A forever mix promise with frustration?

The real dilemma is presented by Acuna, Baty, Mauricio and Vientos, who symbolize the glut of infielders the Mets have at and bubbling just below the majors. Unless Stearns wants to mimic Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias and hoard his prospects until they’re eligible for AARP membership, he’s running out of time to swap one or more of them for more immediate big league help.

But the task is made tougher by the wide variety of potential outcomes for the players. Baty is a career .219 hitter with an OPS+ of 79, which means he’s 21 percent below the league average hitter. But he’s played impressive defense at second and third this season while posting an OPS+ of 97, which gives him the look of an offensive version of David Peterson — a late developing, former first-round pick for whom the eye test and overall body of work suggests a much better player than the advanced metrics indicate.

Vientos, who has accumulated negative-2.0 WAR on defense in his four-year career, is probably going to be a designated hitter sooner than later. But his raw power — he hit 27 homers last season and five more in the playoffs — is always going to be valuable, as he proved by hitting the tie-breaking grand slam Monday night. Plus, he already sort of pulled the Wilmer Flores by hitting a walk-off homer in his first game after being recalled from Triple-A last season.

After missing more than a season due to a knee injury, Mauricio’s development is still nowhere near complete. But as evidenced by his four-hit game and McCovey Bay homer in San Francisco over the weekend, Mauricio could be the next great power-hitting switch-hitter with the added bonus of playing a premium position such as second base or third base. Or he could forever remain a lanky tease, someone who never fully masters the strike zone.

Acuna, who has just 96 plate appearances since he won NL Rookie of the Month in March/April, probably has the lowest ceiling of the Mets’ prospects. But versatile players — he’s appeared at second, third, short and centerfield this season — with plenty of speed and a big stage pedigree (Acuna, the younger brother of former NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr., hit three homers in 39 late-season at-bats last year) will always have a role in the modern game.

The most interesting ripple effect for this week might be how it impacts the future of Alonso — who, for the record, has 4,074 plate appearances with the Mets, the third-most of any Mets position player who appeared on the club’s top 10 Baseball America list this century.

Alonso, who famously remained on the free agent market until February last winter, seemed as if he was giving Stearns no choice but to re-sign him long-term when he hit .302 with 17 homers, 63 RBIs and a .991 OPS through June 11.

But Alonso is batting just .187 with five homers, 18 RBIs and a .586 OPS in the last 41 games — a quarter of the season. Alonso as is is a pretty good hitter, but it no longer seems very possible be turned himself into a complete hitter last winter, which further complicates his future under an executive who has no shortage of corner infielder prospects and a reluctance to offer long-term contracts to sluggers on the wrong side of 30. As the hours tick down to the trade deadline, perhaps the Mets knowing what they have in Alonso will impact how they best try to figure out what they have in their younger prospects.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrybeach/2025/07/31/at-the-trade-deadline-intrigue-and-uncertainty-remain-for-mets-infielders-young-and-old/