Mark Vientos is on the mend.
The Mets third baseman who strained his right hamstring last Monday in Los Angeles is ahead of schedule in his recovery and has started baseball activities. Initially, Vientos was expected to be down 10-14 days with a low-grade strain, but after only a week, the inflammation is gone, allowing him to run, hit and take ground balls.
“He’s already hitting in the cages, light jogging, and he’s going to take some ground balls right at him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday at Citi Field. “Wo we’ll start building him back up with some baseball activities and progress him.”
Vientos was placed on the 10-day injured list June 3, but likely won’t come off of it later this week when he’s eligible. The Mets would like to send Vientos out on a rehab assignment before activating him. The decision isn’t final yet, but the Mets would probably want to see him get back to game speed.
The Mets are continuing to move their infielders around in the absence of Vientos, with Ronny Mauricio getting the start at third base Tuesday in the first game of a three-game series against the Washington Nationals. This left Brett Baty and Luisangel Acuña on the bench, but with Jeff McNeil riding a 12-game on-base streak and the Mets facing three right-handers this week, Mendoza opted to keep McNeil’s bat in the lineup.
The former batting champ is hitting .302 with six runs, four doubles, four home runs, seven RBI, four walks and a stolen base over that 12-game span, and hit two home runs at Coors Field on Sunday. The Mets hit him eighth, right ahead of Mauricio, and used him at second base, and Mauricio at third.
McNeil also has a career average of .700 against Tuesday’s Nats starter, MacKenzie Gore.
“It’s hard to take him out of the lineup,” Mendoza said of McNeil. “That’s the balance that we’re dealing with here. It’s a good problem to have. Wth Mauricio, he’s part of that rotation too and he just continues to provide versatility. McNeil — that’s the good thing here, that I could move him. I could go a lot of different ways when I make another lineup.”
Mauricio went 0-for-8 in his first two games, then 5-for-11 with a double, a home run, two walks and two stolen bases over his last three games.
The Mets will have another difficult decision to make when Vientos returns, but a rehab assignment will give Mauricio and Acuña some runway for the next week or two.
ROSTER MOVES
Catcher Francisco Alvarez was placed on the paternity list Tuesday afternoon, and catcher Hayden Senger was promoted from Triple-A Syracuse to take his place on the roster. Senger was with the Mets in Denver over the weekend for a series against the Rockies, but was not active. Alvarez and his partner are expecting their first child, a girl.
The Mets signed outfielder Travis Jankowski to a minor league contract. A veteran outfielder who spent 43 games with the Mets in 2022, Jankowski was waived by the Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the month and elected free agency instead of a minor league assignment, which is his right as a player with more than three years of service. He is expected to report to Triple-A Syracuse.