Vientos a huge hit immediately for Mets in return from surprise demotion to minors

NEW YORK (AP) — Maybe the New York Mets made a mistake when they sent Mark Vientos to the minors.

After waiting a month for another big league opportunity, the 24-year-old infielder is quickly making the most of it.

Vientos socked a two-run homer in the 11th inning on his second day in the majors this season to give the Mets a 4-2 comeback victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.

“I was sitting for that one pitch the whole at-bat,” he said. “I finally got it and I put a good swing on it.”

Vientos also had a pinch-hit single in the ninth and is 3 for 4 in two games since getting called up from Triple-A Syracuse — all off the bench.

“We know the power to all fields, especially against lefties,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He was ready to go. So, credit to him, and it’s good to see it.”

Mendoza said he was pretty sure Vientos will be in the starting lineup Monday night against the Chicago Cubs. Mets outfielder Starling Marte is expected back from the bereavement list on Tuesday, though, so Vientos’ future remains uncertain.

Asked whether the youngster might stick around longer, Mendoza said: “We’ll see.”

“To be honest with you, I’m happy where I’m at right now,” Vientos said. “I’m not really thinking about the past or the future. I’m living in the present right now and I’m happy with this moment, celebrating with my team.”

Vientos batted .211 with nine homers, 22 RBIs and a .620 OPS in 233 plate appearances for the Mets last season. Throughout spring training this year, he appeared in line for regular big league at-bats at designated hitter and perhaps third base before New York signed veteran slugger J.D. Martinez to a $12 million, one-year contract on March 23.

Vientos was disappointed by his surprise demotion to the minors two days later, as the Mets put light-hitting backup Zack Short on the opening-day roster because he plays all over the infield, while Vientos mainly mans the corners.

Short was designated for assignment Friday when Martinez was activated.

Vientos didn't sulk down at Syracuse, however. He was hitting .302 with five homers, 22 RBIs and a .923 OPS in 23 games at Triple-A before getting recalled Saturday when Marte went on the bereavement list.

“He’s performing. He earned it,” Mendoza said then. “My message to him is, be ready for your opportunity.”

He certainly has been.

New York was 0 for 15 with runners in scoring position and down to its last strike Sunday when Harrison Bader singled home the tying run in the 11th inning.

Vientos then fouled off a couple of two-strike pitches before driving a 1-2 sinker from Matthew Liberatore just beyond the glove of a leaping Michael Siani at the center-field fence. A fired-up Vientos pumped his arms and tossed aside his helmet as he approached home plate, where he was swarmed by jubilant teammates.

It was the first walk-off RBI in the big leagues for Vientos, a second-round draft pick in 2017 out of American Heritage High School in Florida. He made his Mets debut in 2022 and appeared in 65 games for them last year.

“I feel like it’s almost a déjà vu moment. I feel like I’ve lived that moment over and over in my head,” Vientos said. “So it was just like, let it go, let all the energy out. Just a great feeling.”

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New York Mets Mark Vientos (27), left, celebrates with Harrison Bader after hitting a walk-off home run during the 11th inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field, Sunday, April 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Mets Mark Vientos (27), center, celebrates with teammates after hitting a walk-off home run during the 11th inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field, Sunday, April 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Mets' Mark Vientos hits a walkoff home run during the 11th inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field, Sunday, April 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Mets' Mark Vientos celebrates after hitting a walkoff home run during the 11th inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field, Sunday, April 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Mets' Mark Vientos celebrates after hitting a walkoff home run during the 11th inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field, Sunday, April 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) — Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world's largest philanthropic organizations over the past 20 years.

“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on the X platform on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”

She praised the foundation's CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation's board of trustees, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.

“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She already organizes some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organization, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.

Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to the foundation in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”

The foundation will change its name to the Gates Foundation, a spokesperson said.

French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families. The foundation said that Gates would supply those funds personally, not from the foundation's endowment.

The Gates Foundation is a massive funder of global health, supporting major international institutions like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It also funds research into a wide range of topics like child malnutrition and maternal health as well as eradicating polio and treating and preventing malaria. The foundation has also donated billions to help small farmers adapt to climate change.

In the U.S., it funded education policy and research that had sweeping, if mixed, effects, and now, has pledged to increase its support around antipoverty initiatives.

“The announcement is a surprise for many of us, but I don’t think it’s spur of the moment,” said Latanya Mapp, president and CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.'

French Gates has already helped cement a gender equity lens within the Gates Foundation's programs to ensure it continues on past her departure, Mapp said. The first president of the foundation's gender equity division was hired in 2020.

When French Gates officially resigns June 7, Bill Gates will be the sole chair of the foundation's board, though Suzman, as CEO, has taken on a higher profile role in the past three years. For example, he began writing the foundation's annual letter outlining its priorities in 2022.

Linsey McGoey, a professor of sociology at the University of Essex and author of “No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy,” said French Gates' departure again raises the question of whether power over the foundation should be more widely distributed.

“Should there be more than a tight nucleus of people in charge?” asked McGoey, adding that the foundation controls a great deal of funding that affects people who lack “a democratic pathway” to contest how it's used.

In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced French Gates' decision to employees on Monday.

“After a difficult few years watching women’s rights rolled back in the U.S. and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.

Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for her advocacy, especially around gender equity.

“I know how beloved Melinda is here,” Suzman wrote.

The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through the course of its work in 2024.

The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

FILE - Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, gestures during the unveiling of the logo and website of Alliance for Global Good – Gender Equity and Equality, Feb. 28, 2024, in New Delhi. Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit shone of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world that she helped her ex-husband Bill Gates found more than 20 years ago. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)

FILE - Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Melinda French Gates smiles as she leaves the Elysee Palace, June 23, 2023, in Paris. Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit shone of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world that she helped her ex-husband Bill Gates found more than 20 years ago. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)