3 Mets players who proved their spring training was a fluke

Putting weight on spring training numbers tends to be a mistake. Good players will sometimes struggle for no reason at all only to perform well as soon as the season starts. Others will outperform expectations in an attempt to make their way onto the Opening Day roster. This past spring, we saw plenty of unexpected performances from New York Mets players.

Looking back at this past spring, these three players have already proved their St. Lucie performances were a fluke.

1) Mark Vientos

Nobody hit more home runs for the Mets this spring than Mark Vientos. His 5 dingers led the ball club. However, it did come with an underwhelming .232/.259/.536 slash line. He struck out 19 times in 56 at-bats. The pace of K’ing along with doubts about his defense had the Mets second-guessing any thoughts of him being on the Opening Day roster.

Apparently, Vientos took the demotion personally. He smashed his way back into the conversation as a candidate to play third base for the Mets. Once again proving he is better than your average Triple-A player, the Mets had no choice but to promote him despite the presence of J.D. Martinez on the roster. He has rewarded them with some big time hitting.

Vientos already has 6 home runs and 17 RBI and is slashing .305/.362/.533. He has cut down on the strikeouts, too. With 25 of them through his first 105 at-bats, it’s a more than acceptable rate for a slugger.

We knew Vientos could hit homers, but who’d expect after more than 100 trips to the plate he’d own a batting average above .300? It might not stick. However, Vientos has more than proven he is a big league hitter already and that spring training numbers are just a hint and no guarantee of what’s to come.