3 Mets who are playing their way out of the team's 2024 plans

3) Mark Vientos is playing his way out of the NY Mets 2024 plans

Premature? Maybe. I'd love to be proven wrong about this. Unfortunately, with the way he's played, Mark Vientos has done nothing to show that he should be a part of any Mets 2024 plans.

Let me get one thing straight. Daniel Vogelbach is not the answer at DH. He's had a miserable year, and Vientos should've gotten his shot at the DH spot much earlier. What's becoming clear to me is that Vientos is also not the answer, at least for 2024 as of this very moment.

Vientos has crushed minor league pitching each of the last two seasons in Syracuse and had been rewarded with frustratingly limited amounts of playing time. Vientos spent weeks barely playing during his first stint of this season.

He was brought back in late July and with the Mets punting on 2023, he's played virtually every day leading up to and after the trade deadline. He's slashed .224/.254/.343 with one home run and five RBI in his 67 at-bat stint.

Vientos is never going to do much defensively. He's playing a lot of third base now with Brett Baty in the minors, but it's pretty clear that his future, if he has one in the majors, is at the DH spot. That spot is wide open for the Mets, but a .597 OPS isn't going to cut it. To make matters worse, since the deadline passed, Vientos has a .427 OPS without a home run in 12 games and 46 at-bats.

When Vientos struggled in his first couple of MLB stints, he had the excuse of getting limited at-bats. Now, there're no excuses with him playing every day. He's struck out at a 30% clip this season, and that's only increased with his added playing time. He also only has six extra-base hits since his recent recall.

A sample this short isn't fair to completely judge a player. Vientos could easily go on a tear and look like the future DH. Until he starts to swing a good bat, assuming the Mets do want to be semi-competitive in 2024, Vientos can't be part of any plans.