Mets' Mark Vientos demoted to minors as Opening Day roster takes shape

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Mark Vientos is a major league-caliber player and will contribute to the Mets this season, president of baseball operations David Stearns said on Sunday.

Just not right now.

On the penultimate day of camp, the Mets informed Vientos that he did not make the Opening Day roster. They demoted him to Triple-A Syracuse, the latest in a series of unfortunate developments for the 24-year-old, who spent most of spring training looking like the primary DH.

After signing J.D. Martinez last week, the Mets decided they didn’t want to carry Vientos even for the first week and a half or so until Martinez is in proper game shape. Stearns said they would rather keep Vientos in the minors, where he can hit regularly and try to improve at third base.

“He’s frustrated, but he’s a professional,” Stearns said. “I would expect frustration, and now his challenge is to turn that into motivation to do everything he can to get back. And I think he will do that.”

Manager Carlos Mendoza said: “Obviously, he wasn’t happy. We expected that . . . But it’s one of those where he now has the opportunity to go down there and continue to work on some of the things he needs to work on and he’ll get an opportunity.”

Mendoza mentioned “his pre-pitch ready position so he can have a better first step to the ball” as a specific area in which Vientos can improve.

“Just continue with [his] overall game,” Mendoza said. “Offensively, specifically against righties, controlling the strike zone. There’s a lot of talent there. It’s coming down to him getting everyday reps. He is going to get that in Triple-A.”

Other roster machinations from Stearns included formally acknowledging Brett Baty as the primary third baseman, which appeared very likely all along, and revealing that Zack Short made the team as a backup infielder. Jiman Choi was a late cut and will head to Triple-A Syracuse.

That leaves one position-player spot open — and just one additional position player in camp: DJ Stewart.

The Mets have not chosen him yet, though. Stearns said they are keeping their options open and might add a hitter from outside the organization, someone who spent camp with another club but suddenly becomes available in the last days before the season. If they don’t, they’ll keep Stewart in the majors.

Either way, the Mets are likely to rotate DH at-bats among their main hitters until Martinez is ready, according to Mendoza.

“We have to wait and see what happens the next couple of days,” Mendoza said. “[Stewart has] put himself in a really good position. We are telling a lot of people they are not making the team today, and he is not one of them. This is where we are at right now.”

On the pitching front, the Mets still have three righthanders for two bullpen spots: Michael Tonkin, Sean Reid-Foley and Yohan Ramirez. All three will travel with the Mets to New York on Monday night and the team will wait until Wednesday to decide, Stearns said.

None of those pitchers have minor-league options, so the Mets risk losing their odd man out to another organization on waivers.

The Mets’ eight-man bullpen will feature zero relievers who can be freely sent to the minors. That sets up more potentially difficult roster moves when they, say, need a rested arm or call up a sixth starter (which they plan to do for at least one turn two weeks into the season).

“I’m less concerned about going into a season with a frozen pen, because I know at some point it’s going to unfreeze,” Stearns said. “Either there’s going to be a decision that’s made for us [via injury or poor performance] or we will have to make a tough decision at some point. You know that’s going to happen.”

That gets at another baseball reality at this time of year: For as much as it is discussed, projected and analyzed, the Opening Day roster is just that — the roster for the first game.

“I try to remind players, regardless of what side of the line they are on right now, we are setting a roster for one day,” Stearns said. “And rosters change rapidly over the course of the season. We expect a lot of players, including potentially the ones who we’re giving bad news to right now, to really impact us and help us over the course of the year.

“It can be tough sometimes to internalize that for players at this moment. But it’s the truth and we see it every year.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.