The Mets are officially at the one-third mark of the 2025 season, and Tuesday night’s matchup with the Chicago White Sox will be the official start of the “middle” of the team’s regular season.
Prior to Tuesday’s first pitch, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza discussed some of his recent lineup decisions, as well as what makes Luisangel Acuña so valuable even on days when he’s not part of the starting nine.
Here’s what Mendoza had to say…
OnJared Young starting again at DH
Called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Saturday, Young will be making his fourth start as the Mets’ designated hitter on Tuesday night, hitting sixth against Chicago righty Jonathan Cannon.
Asked about Young, Mendoza cited the 29-year-old’s ability to put himself in good hitter’s counts, with the Mets hoping to see him capitalize on those opportunities as he gets more chances.
“We’ve seen it these past couple of days,” Mendoza said. “He’s got the ability to put himself in a good hitter’s count and that’s his calling card. He hit a 107 (MPH) to dead center the other day and I feel like he’s usually 2-0, 3-1. Now he’s just got to get into the rhythm and do some damage on some pitches.”
Young is 0-for-5 with a hit-by-pitch and a run scored in three games since his call-up.
Acuña’s veteran mindset paying dividends
Acuña is not in Tuesday’s lineup, as Brett Baty gets the start at second with Mark Vientos at third.
But the youngster has proven that he doesn’t need to start a game to have an impact, as evidenced by his last three games, entering the game in the seventh inning or later each time while stealing a bag on Sunday and scoring the tying run on Monday as a pinch-runner.
“This is a guy that doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low,” Mendoza said. “Pretty mature for his age and he has a really good understanding of his role right now and the impact that he brings to the team. He knows that even though he’s not in the lineup, there’s going to be an opportunity for him to come in and impact it in a good game, whether it’s by making a defensive play, by stealing a base, by scoring from first base on a ball in the gap, or by giving us a good at-bat, putting the ball in play. I think he obviously continues to develop. There’s a lot of tools there, but I like how he’s handled it so far mentally.”
On giving Mark Vientos more opportunities at third base
It’s undoubtedly been a rough start to the season for Vientos, who is hitting just .234 and has also struggled defensively, committing seven errors in 39 games at the hot corner, including four errors since the calendar flipped to May.
Since being called back up, Brett Baty has gotten the majority of the playing time at third base, with Vientos serving as the DH in eight of his last 14 appearances.
But Vientos will be at third on Tuesday night, and according to Mendoza, giving the 25-year-old more reps there is the only way to help him out of his defensive funk.
“For me, he’s just going through it right now,” Mendoza said. “It was really good to see him yesterday continue to put in the work. That’s how you’re going to get out of it. It’s like when you’re going through struggles offensively. You go out there and continue to work until you get the feeling back. Same thing.
“This is a guy that in the offseason worked really, really hard [on] his first step. And now he’s going through a stretch where it happens. But continue to work, continue to believe in yourself. We’re going to continue to give him chances. Here he is playing third base again. He’ll get through it, he’ll be fine, he’s a really good third baseman.”
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