PHOENIX — On a team littered with superstars, fat bank accounts and glossy resumes, there is first baseman Mark Vientos.
The New York Mets, with a payroll of $352 million, are led by Juan Soto’s MLB-high $61.9 million salary this year.
They have seven All-Stars.
And, here they are, heavily relying on their 20th-highest-paid player, earning only $33,750 more than the MLB minimum, to help lead them through these troubled times.
Vientos, the cleanup hitter out of necessity, almost singlehandedly won the game for the Mets on Friday night, a 3-1, 10-inning victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
It was Vientos’ leadoff homer in the second inning homer that not only produced the Mets’ lone run through the first nine innings – but half of their two hits.
And it was Vientos who hit the go-ahead, run-scoring double in the 10th inning for the game-winner, giving the Mets their fifth victory in seven games on this three-city, West Coast road trip.
“The cleanup spot, I love it,” Vientos said. “It feels pretty good. I feel like I’ve been doing it for a while now.’’
The Mets, of course, still are in a world of hurt, thanks to a brutal 3-17 stretch that has them with a 15-23 record.
But, perhaps, they still have a pulse.
If they’re miraculously going to get back in the race, they badly need the 2024 version of Vientos, who hit 27 homers with 71 RBIs and an .837 OPS. He struggled last season, hitting .233 with 17 homers and 61 RBIs with a .702 OPS, and looked even worse this spring and in the WBC, playing for Nicaragua.
He came out of the gate hot hitting .476 in the first seven games of the season but when the Mets went into a tailspin after the 11th game of the season, Vientos went down too, hitting just .160.
Now, after hitting two, two-run homers on their trip against the Angels, and hitting the ball hard but little luck in Colorado, Vientos came to the rescue in the desert.
While the Mets’ top of the order with Soto, Bo Bichette and Brett Baty went 0-for-12 without drawing a walk, and the entire lineup producing just two hits and one walk in nine innings, Vientos stood tall.
And, suddenly, that confidence is surging.
“I feel good right now for sure.” Vientos said. “I’ve just got to be stacking the days, and continue to be consistent.”
Said Mendoza: “This is a guy that when he gets going, he gets locked in mentally, and it helps him big time. He’s a very good hitter, and it’s just good to see him continue to have good results.”
The biggest difference, Mendoza says, is that when Vientos gets balls in the strike zone, he’s not missing them. He has struck out just five times in the last seven games, and drove the ball to the outfield in each of his four at-bats Friday.
“He’s not missing good pitches to hit,” Mendoza siad. “When he’s getting pitches in the zone, he’s doing damage, and that’s what he does best. He’s driving the ball the other way, but staying in the gaps, staying short at times, and just controlling the strike zone.
“He’s pretty dangerous, and we’ve seen the power over the years.”
Certainly, the Mets are going to need him and all their mega-stars to perform if they’re going to be relevant later in the season. Soto, their $765 million man who missed two weeks with a calf strain, has just four homers and 10 RBIs. He’s hitting .148 in the first seven games of this road trip with only two RBIs.
Bichette, who signed a three-year, $126 million contract, has just two homers and 16 RBIs. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit on this trip.
Francisco Lindor, the $341 million shortstop, was hitting just .226 with two homers and five RBIs when he injured his calf. He’s expected to be out at least another month.
Jorge Polanco, who signed a two-year, $40 million contract to replace Pete Alonso at first base, isn’t close to starting a rehab assignment with his right wrist contusion. He was hitting just .179 in 14 games until his injury.
And you wonder why the Mets have scored the second-fewest runs in baseball.
They’ll also need more pitching performances like the one Nolan McLean delivereed giving up just three hits and one run in six innings, with four different relievers pitching four shutout innings, yielding just two hits.
“Hopefully,” Mendoza said, “we can get things going here.”
Considering their dreadful start, they’ve got no choice.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mets’ Mark Vientos will decide if NY can get back into MLB playof race