He is somewhat right about that. Not many players are capable – whether it be the physical or mental part – of being a part-time player, a role player coming off the bench at a moment’s notice. In fact, the ones that WERE successful at it are pretty well-known in MLB circles. Ben Zobrist immediately comes to mind. The Mets own Jeff McNeil has shown he can do just what Zobrist used to do.

But the young players like Vientos, Brett Baty, Ronny Maurcio, and Luisangel Acuna are not real good at that sporadic playing. All four have been bounced around, in and out of the lineup, trying to share two positions – second base and third base – while Vientos has gotten SOME time at DH. In fact, Baty and Mauricio have teetered back and forth between second and third themselves. Baty is the better third baseman so why would they have him playing second with Mauricio who is a natural shortstop but looks uncomfortable anywhere he plays playing third? And Vientos, while acceptable last season, has looked inept at third base this year.

So let’s just play musical chairs with these kids.

The other kid, Francisco Alvarez, looked brutal at bat and behind the plate. The Mets were heavily counting on him. They used one of his options and sent him down to AAA Syracuse to work on things. Exactly what Harvey refused to do in 2018. It must have helped because Alvarez was his old self at Syracuse and returned looking like the Alvarez the Mets had been counting on.

When Baty floundered last season after being handed the starting third base job, he went to Syracuse and worked on his hitting and versatility. It seemed to have helped. Somewhat.

Acuna was promoted as having the same talent as his brother. That has yet to be seen. He was given a lot of key playing time early on this season and then just seemed to fall out of favor, especially when Mauricio was brought up.

Mauricio was always hyped as the huge offensive weapon from both sides of the plate, someone who was going to be an impact player. But it was also always known that he was not very good defensively, and there were also indications of a somewhat poor attitude.

Alvarez, Baty, Acuna, Mauricio…they all have options. Vientos does not. He is stuck here.

I have said that the Mets should play all of the kids, regularly, and see where it takes them. It’s true that consistent playing time works.

Perhaps Vientos should do what Harvey refused to do. Alvarez did it and look how it turned out. But the rest of them, perhaps the Mets are being a bit unfair to the young talent that they, themselves, so hyped to everyone. It just may be that the Mets are doing a disservice to them. It would not be the first time. The Mets didn’t exactly handle some other young players very well and probably, in some instances, ruined what might have been more productive careers.

There are some examples like Ed Kranepool. Or more recently, Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Even Michael Conforto was mishandled at the beginning of the 2016 season when he was put in the lineup against Madison Baumgartner – it ruined his season and sidetracked him and almost ruined him completely.

So whether it’s on the players themselves, or the organization, something has to give. There does appear to be talent amongst those guys. But flipping players around like a juggler doing a magic trick is just not going to work.

Maybe the players should learn from the mistakes of others, and the organization should learn from THEIR mistakes inflicted upon others. It’s called self-awareness. Wow…the psychology of baseball.