Francisco Lindor – SS
Juan Soto – LF
Bo Bichette – 3B
Mark Vientos – DH
Carson Benge – RF

#francisco #juan #vientos #benge

After hitting three home runs in a single game for Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday, the Mets decided Mark Vientos was ready to return from his rehab ******* ignment for their series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday.
Not only that, but interim manager Andy Green decided to ride the hot hand and slotted the slugger right into the lineup, batting cleanup as the designated hitter in his first game back. Good thing he did, too, because Vientos stayed hot and rewarded his manager with a solo home run that was the difference in New York's 3-2 win.
"It felt great," Vientos said about not only the home run, but being back with the team after a long time away. "Felt great to come back and contribute in some way and a home run is always cool so it felt great for sure."
The home run, a 418-foot blast to center field, was Vientos' 12th of the season and even though he's had a disappointing season this year, Vientos reminded everybody of the raw power he possesses.
In fact, despite playing in just 74 games, Vientos is seventh on the team in home runs and just two away from being tied for third. If he keeps up his pace over the last few days, he'll be near the leaderboard in no time.

#manager

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Robert Stock pitched shutout ball into the sixth inning for his first major league win in seven years, Mark Vientos homered in his return from the injured list and the New York Mets beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 on Monday night.
Francisco Alvarez had an RBI single and left fielder Christopher Morel made two pivotal defensive plays as the last-place Mets stopped Tampa Bay's four-game winning streak. New York, which snapped an eight-game skid at Tropicana Field, had lost six in a row and 11 of 13 to the Rays overall.
Liam Hicks and Chandler Simpson each had an RBI single with two outs in the eighth to pull the Rays to 3-2.
Kodai Senga worked a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.
Tampa Bay has the best record in the American League at 82-55 and began the day with a 4 1/2-game lead in the AL East over the New York Yankees.

#rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Mets' September shakeup is not as much about contending as it is about development and preservation.
Mets interim manager Andy Green said Monday that the club would be calling up rookie outfielder Nick Morabito and right-handed pitcher Justin Hagenman when rosters across Major League Baseball expand from 26 to 28 players on Tuesday.
Those additions come after the club's roster was restructured further on Monday, with Mark Vientos reinstated from the injured list after sustaining a fractured right hand back on July 24. The Mets also saw Luis Robert Jr. claimed off waivers by the Orioles.
The Oriolies will close out $3 million on his deal for the season. They will also control the decision on his $20 million club option and potential $2 million buyout. Robert's exit opened the door for Vientos to return and an outfield ****** e to be be vacated for Morabito.
With a transformative few days for the Mets roster in the Sunshine State, here is how the Mets plan to use Morabito and Vientos, plus what Hagenman's call-up means for the Mets' rotation:

#vientos

TAMPA, Fla. — As September call-ups lurk, the Mets had a pair of major moves on Monday afternoon.
They reinstated Mark Vientos from the injured list after he missed a month with a fractured right wrist. Luis Robert Jr. also went out the door after being claimed by the Orioles off waivers.
Vientos returned to the lineup as the Mets' designated hitter for their Monday series opener against the Rays at 6:40 p.m. at Tropicana Field in Tampa, Fla.
Juan Soto will get the night off while Christopher Morel is lined up for a start in left field.
The Mets are coming off their second straight series loss after the Astros took their second of three games in a 6-3 result on Sunday afternoon.

#tampa #series

Mark Vientos continued his rehab stint with Triple-A Syracuse on Wednesday and had his best game with the club.
The young Mets slugger went 2-for-5 and drove in two runs. He also hit a home run against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
Vientos' first hit came in the first, smashing a single to score Emilien Pitre from second and give Syracuse an early 1-0 lead. His longball came in the fifth with the bases empty. He smashed a changeup in the middle of the plate 409 feet to give Syracuse a 6-1 lead at the time.
It was a great offensive day for Vientos, who started at DH, and he needed it. He was hitless over his first three minor league games in his current rehab ******* ignment and Mets interim manager Andy Green had some pointed things to say about the slugger and his future role on the team.
"I was very forthright with him when he started the rehab ******* ignment that a lot of that will be dictated by how others perform and also by how he performs," Green said Wednesday. "Still think there's a very bright future for him out there if he wants to grab a hold of it. That's on him."

#first #give

As Mark Vientos nears a return from his rehab **** ignment, the question of how the slugging right-hander fits into this version of the Mets was raised to interim manager Andy Green, and the skipper did not mince words.
"I don't know," Green said prior to Wednesday's game with the Brewers. "I was very forthright with him when he started the rehab **** ignment that a lot of that will be dictated by how others perform and also by how he performs. Still think there's a very bright future for him out there if he wants to grab a hold of it. That's on him."
The current construction of the Mets roster doesn't lend itself to a lot of at-bats for Vientos to start with. Even with the added roster spot on Sept. 1, the team has to use the DH spot to give time to other players, including Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez and Luis Robert Jr., as well as the eventual return of Juan Soto, who could see time as DH.
Vientos, who was placed on the IL back on July 10 with a fractured hand, has played three minor league games between Double-A and Triple-A. In that span, he's 0-for-9 with a walk and five strikeouts.
With no remaining options, Vientos will rejoin the team, but as Green put it Wednesday, it'll be a proving ground for the young slugger.

#green #METS

The Milwaukee Brewers are set to face the Mets in New York this week, as the Crew looks to continue their winning ways. The Brewers, at 81-50 this season, sit firmly atop the NL Central after winning each of their last three series against the Dodgers, Mariners, and Braves. The Mets, at 59-72, sit at the bottom of the NL East with the sixth-worst record in baseball. They've actually been a bit better the last couple of weeks, with a 6-3 record against the Nationals, Padres, and White Sox.
Milwaukee's lone position player on the IL is outfielder Sal Frelick, who is expected to return for this road trip. However, the team suffered a pair of injuries in Sunday's Little League Classic, as outfielder Garrett Mitchell exited after being hit by a pitch with what was categorized as a right forearm contusion, and first baseman Jake Bauers, who has been playing with a toe fracture this season, fouled a ball off his leg/foot, though he remained in the game. It's unclear if either player will miss more time, but overall, not the worst news on that front. On the mound, the Brewers are without Brandon Woodruff (potentially back before the end of the year after not needing surgery), JoJo Romero (late August), Abner Uribe (could be activated on Wednesday), Rob Zastryzny (TBD), Joel Kuhnel (late August), Brian Fitzpatrick (out for season), Quinn Priester (out for season), and Angel Zerpa (out for season).
The Mets are without first baseman Mark Vientos (on rehab ******* ignment), outfielder Juan Soto (September), and infielder Jorge Polanco (out for season). Old friend Devin Williams is on the injured list with a shoulder strain that will keep him out until at least September. Fellow pitchers Cionel Pérez (September), Justin Hagenman (TBD), Tylor Megill (out for season), and Reed Garrett (out for season) are also out.
Jake Bauers leads the Brewer offense with 23 homers, 19 doubles, and 75 RBIs this season, as he's slashing .273/.382/.503 in the best season of his career. Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, William Contreras, Joey Ortiz, and Andrew Vaughn are among the other key contributors in recent weeks, while veteran Christian Yelich continues to suffer from the bad-luck bug. Gary Sánchez, Garrett Mitchell, David Hamilton, Cooper Pratt, and Luis Lara are also in the regular mix, with Jonathan Ornelas serving as some infield depth. As a team, the Brewers are hitting .254/.337/.396 (.733 OPS ranks seventh), with 120 homers (last), 650 runs scored (fifth), and 129 steals (third).
With Soto out, Carson Benge, Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, Francisco Lindor, and Francisco Alvarez lead New York's offense. Benge has 16 homers, 17 doubles, 53 RBIs, and 19 steals in what has been a solid season overall, while Bichette, Semien, and Lindor are all have down years by their standards. Jared Young, A.J. Ewing, Luis Robert Jr., and Brett Baty are also in the regular mix, with Christopher Morel, Luis Torrens, Eric Wagaman, and Cristian Pache rounding things out. As a team, the M

The New York Mets aren't going to have a key cog in the middle of the lineup for the foreseeable future.
On Thursday, Mets slugger Mark Vientos was hit by a pitch on his hand and suffered a bone fracture, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
"News: Mark Vientos suffered a bone fracture on that HBP. The Mets aren't offering more details at the moment, but he's obviously going to miss weeks," DiComo wrote.
Simply put, this is a brutal blow. Vientos is landing on the Injured List.
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Of course the New York Mets lost another player. That's just how the season is going in Queens.
Mark Vientos fractured his right hand Thursday, July 9 when a pitch from Kansas City's Michael Wacha ran inside and caught him on a checked swing in the second inning. He stayed in to run, came out an inning later and will land on the injured list, interim manager Andy Green confirmed after the Mets' 7-3 win over the Royals at Citi Field.
Green did not indicate a timeline for Vientos' return, but broken bones traditionally take six to eight weeks.
The injury is one more thing that has gone wrong for the Mets in a season where everything is going wrong.
The Mets opened the year with baseball's highest payroll at $358 million, then lost 12 consecutive games in April. They fired manager Carlos Mendoza in late June – the franchise's first in-season managerial change since they axed Willie Randolph in 2008 – days after a six-error game against the Cubs.

The Mets lost for the sixth straight game on Thursday night, losing 4-3 in extra innings to get swept by the Chicago Cubs in a four-game series at Citi Field.
-- The Mets and Cubs were locked in a stalemate through five innings as Freddy Peralta and Matthew Boyd held their opponent scoreless for the first half of the game. Of the two pitchers, Peralta, following his worst start of the season and unveiling a new windup, looked the best and allowed just two hits while throwing 68 pitches over five innings.
-- On the other side, Boyd, making his first start in nearly two months, managed to get in and out of trouble despite four walks. The left-hander loaded the bases with two outs in the third inning but escaped unscathed following a Mark Vientos popout. He exited after 4.2 innings.
-- After five terrific innings, the sixth inning was not kind to Peralta, starting with shortstop Ronny Mauricio's throwing error to lead things off. Mauricio was activated off the IL on Wednesday and called up earlier in the day after Marcus Semienlanded on the IL.
-- The Cubs scored the game's first run two batters later on Michael Conforto's RBI single to right field. Carson Benge had a chance to throw out the runner at home plate but he got little on the throw and the runner scored easily.

You don’t owe the Mets anything, and the way they’re playing, they clearly don’t feel that they owe you a professional performance. Mets infielders combined to commit a staggering six errors in a game that saw their team lose to the Cubs for the second time today and the third time in as many games by the Cubs.
Even when the score was closer in this game, it never really felt like the Mets had a chance. They’re playing a brand of baseball that makes you wonder if they ever practice. And in the end, the final score—Cubs 10, Mets 5—was a fairer representation of the way the game went.
If you want the play-by-play of this one for some reason, the play log FanGraphs has you covered. There’s not much of a reason to pay attention to these Mets that thoroughly, though, and the defensive efforts of Brett Baty in right field, Marcus Semien at second, and Mark Vientos at first make you long for players who have enough experience at a position to play it properly without having so much experience that they’re on their way out of the league.
How the organization has had the patience to leader all of its under-performers on the active roster, its manager in place, and its president of baseball operations in charge of baseball operations is beyond me at this point. It’s not that everyone must go, but right now, it looks like there are simply no consequences within the org.
Find better things to do with your time than watch the 2026 Mets until they earn it. The fact that another year of Francisco Lindor’s prime, injury-interrupted as it may be, is set to go to waste is particularly frustrating on the night that he returned from a two-month stint on the injured list.

NEW YORK — Mets slugger Juan Soto was removed from the game against the Chicago Cubs because of back tightness.
Soto appeared to grimace when he flied out in the first inning. He flied out again in the third and was replaced in left field in the top of the fifth with New York trailing 7-2. Jared Young moved from first base to left field, and Mark Vientos entered at first in Soto's third spot in the batting order.
In the bottom of the sixth, the last-place Mets announced Soto left with tightness on the left side of his back.
"Back locked up there. So, he's day-to-day. We'll see where we're at. He got treatment during the game, but he got to a point there, you could tell something was off," manager Carlos Mendoza said after his team's 9-6 defeat.
"He was making some faces there and obviously I checked with him and he got to a point where it was like, it was bothering him to throw and then to just get his A swing on it. So at that point, I thought it was just best to get him out of the game and have the trainers look at him."

Mets' Freddy Peralta leads eight projected trade chips with 50% problem originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The New York Mets are looking more and more likely to act as trade deadline sellers this season, as they've fallen well behind the pack in the NL East and the Wild Card.
If they do sell, it will be interesting to see who's actually on the move. Freddy Peralta is an obvious trade candidate, but who else could move?
Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report revealed seven other trade candidates for the Mets, but there is one problem. Of these eight total trade chips, only 50% are likely to be desirable ******* ets this summer.
The eight players Rymer named as trade chips include their "best" trade chips in Peralta and Bo Bichette, and the rest, which include A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley, Kodai Senga, Mark Vientos, David Peterson, and MJ Melendez.

Colombia seized the moment in their first World Cup appearance since 2018, taking down Uzbekistan, 3-1. Midfielder Luis Díaz was the star of the show, recording an ****** ist along with the tie-breaking goal during the 65th minute.
On the other hand, Congo broke an even longer drought last night--one that stretched as far back as 1974. While they did not come out win a win, Congo tied Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal, 1-1, as Yoane Wissa banked in the equalizer during stoppage time after the first half.
Meanwhile in MLB, the New York Mets warded off a sweep by the Cincinnati Reds with a commanding 9-1 win in the rubber matchup as the offense erupted for four runs in the fifth inning when a sacrifice fly by Mark Vientos drove in Bo Bichette, followed by a string of RBIs from Francisco Álvarez and A.J. Ewing.
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The Mets dropped a tough one on Saturday night, falling to the Padres on a Freddy Fermin homer in the late innings, despite receiving an encouraging outing from Nolan McLean.
Austin Warren allowed a go-ahead blast in a rare hiccup thus far this season, then Mark Vientos' struggles continued as he went down easily on three pitches to end the game with the tying-run on-base.
Instead of sitting and sulking in the finale on Sunday, though, the Mets were able to come back and put together a complete effort from top-to-bottom to secure the series victory.
“It was a really good team win,” Carlos Mendoza said.
The offense was terrific after being held in check on Saturday, putting men on-base in all nine innings as they broke through for seven runs on 13 hits and four walks.

The Mets were quiet offensively again tonight in a game where the top of the lineup did not hit much and lost 3-2 to the Padres. Nolan McLean struggled with walks but only allowed one run again.
In the second inning, Marcus Semien walked, and A.J. Ewing hit a single into right field, bouncing it off of first base. Brett Baty followed up two batters later by smacking an RBI single past second base into center field, allowing Semien to score. In the bottom of the second, Nolan McLean allowed a two-out walk to Xander Bogaerts after retiring the first five batters he saw. However, McLean **** isted Jared Young in ending the inning when Miguel Andujar grounded out during the next at-bat.
In the third inning, McLean walked the leadoff hitter, Sung-Mun Song, who promptly stole second base. After Freddy Fermin bunted for a pop out, McLean threw a pitch to Fernando Tatis, Jr and stumbled, landing awkwardly. Thankfully, he was okay, but Tatis then tapped a single that bounced off of second base and angled into right field, scoring Song and tying the game. McLean allowed another two-out walk, this time to Ty France. McLean stranded both runners in the end, but his pitch count soared during the third inning.
Semien hit a ground ball to left field for a single in the fourth inning, only to be caught stealing during the next at-bat. Ewing walked and tried to steal, but Mark Vientos struck out, ending the inning, which was made confusing when Fermin threw to second base anyway.
In the fifth inning, McLean allowed a single from Song, and then a sacrifice bunt from Fermin moved Song to second base. Tatis smacked a single on a ground ball that Bo Bichette stopped from turning into an RBI, to the detriment of his left shoulder. After an injury delay and despite his obvious pain, Bichette stayed in the game. Song stayed at second base until Jackson Merrill flied out and Song moved to third. Tatis tried to steal second base, and Luis Torrens faked a throw. Song tried to steal home, as he realized what was happening too late. He turned around, but was ultimately caught stealing in a rundown with throws from Torrens to Baty to McLean. Bichette ultimately led off the top of the sixth inning with a groundout.

Mark Vientos has had a rough go of it as of late for the New York Mets. In his last 10 games, he is hitting .179 with one home run and three RBI. He has simply been very inconsistent this season, starting as far back as spring training. He will have his flashes and then have droughts like this one right now. Between his non-existent bat, his poor defensive play, and the return of Jorge Polanco, as well as Jared Young‘s red-hot bat, it might be time to say goodbye to Vientos.
In 53 games this season, Vientos has seven homers, 26 RBI, and a slash line of .219/.254/.380. His play has been very poor recently, and he doesn’t seem to show any signs of breaking out. As stated earlier, the bat is not there, and the defense is really making a case to keep him off the field altogether.
Vientos made an error in Tuesday night’s loss to the Seattle Mariners that got a very negative reaction from Mets fans on social media. What he had to say after the game just made it worse. When asked about his defense, Vientos responded, “Feel like I’ve done a pretty good job over there,” he said Tuesday. “Been working. Feel like I’ve been doing pretty good. I have to give myself a little bit of props.” Sadly, the words do not back up the product that Vientos has shown on the field.
The Mets have stated that Polanco will be returning as early as their weekend trip to San Diego to face the Padres. With that being said, it seems as if this will take away plenty of playing time from Vientos. The plan for Polanco is for him to return and be the full-time DH.
So instead of experimenting and splitting time between guys like Vientos and Brett Baty, the Mets are ensuring that they have a permanent DH for the foreseeable future. The only chance Vientos has to play then would be at first base. However, there is another factor that would eliminate him from playing there. That factor is Jared Young’s hot bat since coming back from the injured list.

Mets at Cardinals: Lineups, broadcast info, and open thread, 3/31/26

Francisco Lindor – SS
Juan Soto – LF
Bo Bichette – 3B
Luis Robert – CF
Jared Young – 1B
Mark Vientos – DH
Marcus Semien – 2B
Carson Benge – RF
Luis Torrens – C
Kodai Senga – RHP
JJ Wetherholt – 2B
Ivan Herrera – C
Alec Burleson – 1B
Masyn Winn – SS
Nolan Gorman – DH
Jordan Walker – RF
Nathan Church – LF
Ramon Urias – 3B
Victor Scott – CF
Andre Pallante – RHP
First pitch: 7:45 PM EDT
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2

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