Perhaps the only one happier than the Mets about Mark Vientos’ emergence this season is an aerospace sales manager from Lakewood, California.
Jakob Bell, 36, is a Vientos super collector, who began stockpiling Vientos cards in 2018 and now owns 60 graded examples.
“I've always been somebody who wants to find the guy before he becomes the guy,” Bell said.
Bell, like many others, collected cards during his childhood, but stopped as he grew older. It wasn’t until 2018, at age 30, that he resumed. But he didn’t rediscover this passion on his own.
His wife, Gloria, began noticing the amount of accounts on Instagram dedicated to cards and box breaking, and she was astounded to learn the money involved in opening and selling cards.
“I had no idea what it was,” Gloria said. “(I) didn't know people collected sports cards, you know, to make a living out of it.”
But the mystery attracted the couple to the hobby.
“One box turns into four boxes,” Bell said. “Four boxes turn into eight.”
Soon, they began buying and breaking boxes and having case competitions to see who could pull the best cards.
While Bell is a baseball fanatic, Gloria had virtually no interest in the sport at the time, and joked she still doesn’t. When they would break boxes, she would have to ask her husband if she had pulled a good card.
And often she did. During one of their case battles, Gloria pulled a Triston Casas 2018 1st Bowman Chrome Draft 1/1 Black Refractor Auto that Bell later sold for $6,500, though he wishes he still had it.
But the prices of cases kept rising. Soon they were $1,500 to $1,800 per case, a number that was simply not sustainable to keep purchasing. And when the pandemic hit, they skyrocketed even further.
“I look at, you know, I'm not lying, like, probably 25 open cases, and I'm like, ‘Why did I open this.’” Bell said.
With the help of an old friend, Bell altered his strategy. Instead of opening cases, trying to find a diamond within, he began trying to forge the diamond himself, devoting his attention to prospecting.
That same year, in 2018, Bell’s cousin, Patrick Walsh, a die-hard Mets fan, was over at Bell’s house. The pair was discussing the prospects within the Mets organization. Bell grew up an Angels fan, but began following the Mets very closely at a young age because of Walsh’s love for them.
One of the prospects Walsh was really excited about was a young 2017 draft pick, Mark Vientos, who then piqued Bell’s interest.
But Bell isn’t just a standard baseball fan. He has an advanced scouting eye. He played throughout his entire life, into college and then even attempted to play professional baseball overseas in Korea.
It wasn’t until he was 24 when he surrendered his big-league aspirations in favor of a more stable job, though he still plays in local leagues and coaches as well.
“I can really look at a hitter, and I can break down (his) game. Doesn't mean I'm always going to be right, but still, I can generate my own opinion without just having to listen to somebody.”
So, when Bell began breaking down Vientos’ game, he felt confident investing.
“When you're breaking down his power, you know it's real,” Bell said, mentioning his “70” raw power grade on FanGraphs. “The opposite-field was probably one of the things that stood out to me early in his career.”
“The defense is a little shaky,” Bell said of Vientos then. “(But) as a baseball player, when you can hit the ball the other way, center field to the right-field gap. You just know that that type of hitting ability is good, you know, when you're not a dead pull guy.”
That year, Bell made his first individual purchase of a Vientos card, a 2017 1st Bowman Chrome Gold Wave Refractor Auto PSA 10. But that was the only purchase.
Walsh, who Bell considered to be an older brother, suddenly passed away in 2020 from a kidney complication.
“He taught me everything about baseball,” Bell said. “It came out of nowhere.”
Six months later, Bell remembered sitting at the dinner table with Gloria, still with Walsh heavily on his mind. It was then that Bell made a decision on Vientos, the prospect his cousin was so intrigued by.
“I look at her and I say, ‘I'm just going all in. I'm going all in on Mark.’” Bell said. “I've been studying his game hard. I know what's translatable to the hobby.”
Bell has played fantasy sports for nearly 25 years, of all kinds. He saw the same opportunity with Vientos he has seen every year playing fantasy baseball or football or basketball.
“Picking up the waiver-wire players or drafting somebody in the seventh, eighth round is how you win the leagues,” Bell said. “If I just go ahead and invest in the seventh or the eighth-round guy, like, fantasy, we can make this work out. And then the light bulb went on.”
“I know not everybody can buy these Luca Doncic's, not everybody can buy a Patrick Mahomes PSA 10. ... I look for penny stocks.”
Vientos was never once ranked in MLB's Top 100 Prospects.
Bell began not only digging into Vientos’ game, but the market as well, comparing his prices to other Mets prospects such as Brett Baty, a 2019 first-round pick.
The two played the same position and would eventually compete against each other for a spot in the Mets lineup.
But in addition to liking Vientos’ game more, Bell saw his card prices significantly lower than Baty’s as well as a greater level of experience. Vientos, 24, is a month younger than Baty, despite being drafted two years earlier.
“Finding young guys, letting them learn at the higher level, it gives you more of a window,” Bell said. “You're drafting a Wyatt Langford (drafted at age 21) or you're investing in some of those guys, your window needs to happen a lot sooner, because their ages are going up.”
He took the same approach in collecting cards of Miami Heat forward Bam Adebayo — albeit because he is a vigorous Heat fan.
“With Bam and Mark, I knew these guys were super young and ... super raw,” Bell said. “I just saw the vision, what could be.”
He actually has even more Adebayo cards than Vientos cards, with 75 graded Adebayo cards.
Recently, Bell was coaching a high school senior who wanted to play collegiately, but wasn’t putting in the extra practice time necessary to make it.
“Your hourglass is ticking out,” Bell remembered telling the high schooler.
Vientos had a much larger hourglass than most players, since he was drafted at 17 and was already facing professional pitching before he turned 18.
It’s the same reason why so many parents want to have their 10-year-olds play against 12-year-olds now, Bell said. They’ll have to adjust and grow faster in order to keep up.
Soon, Bell found himself almost playing more of a role of a general manager than a collector.
The Angels were no longer his favorite team, the Mets were. But he wasn’t just watching Mets games, he was watching minor-league games every night, tracking Vientos’ progress and breaking down his adjustments, following his investment closely.
Bell can tell you his strikeout rate for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies (the Mets' Class AA affiliate) in 2021 or his walk rate for the Syracuse Mets (AAA) in 2022.
He knows plate appearances by year, his home-run percentages, his hard-hit rates. Anything a scout could inform you, Bell could as well.
And like nearly any player on their way to the majors, there are highs and lows.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the minor leagues completely shut down, and the MLB season lasted only 60 games. But prior to the season’s start, minor-leaguers were working out with the major-leaguers, so Vientos had the chance to learn from players such as Pete Alonso or Jeff McNeil.
Bell recalled then-Mets GM Billy Eppler appearing on a podcast and discussing the team’s top prospects. When he brought up Vientos, it was pure bliss for Bell.
“They're all taking BP. And he was like, but somebody, the ball sounds different off their bat,” Bells remembered Eppler saying. “And that's Mark Vientos. He goes even when you're Pete Alonso, the ball just sounds different off of (Vientos’) bat.”
“That's the type of stuff I want to hear,” Bell said.
Vientos was called up for stretches in both 2022 and 2023 and struggled mightily during them.
In 2022, Vientos hit .167 with 12 strikeouts in just 36 at-bats across 16 games. His big-league stint was much longer in 2023, but the numbers didn’t drastically improve. Across 65 games he hit just .211 with 71 strikeouts, but he did hit nine homers, showing the pop Bell knew was there.
When spring training rolled around this season Bell felt it was Vientos’ time. Knowing Baty would be starting the season at third base, Bell figured Vientos would play DH most of the year.
That was until New York signed six-time all-star J.D. Martinez on March 24.
“I remember, put my head down, like, ‘Are you effing kidding me?’” Bell said. “Like this was finally his opportunity.”
What hurt even more, Bell said, was Martinez was a mentor for Vientos. They worked out together in Miami and Martinez helped train him.
“This is like a guy coming in and stealing your girl,” Bell said. “That's literally how I felt. I started getting wars on Twitter about J.D. Martinez.”
The hourglass that once seemed endless, was now ticking closer to its end. Vientos had recently turned 24, and not many players break out as stars beyond that.
“I can't just keep waiting till he's 25, 26, 27,” Bell said. “We need it to happen.
“I’m seeing my husband, you know, feel deflated at times, Gloria said, “because he would think, you know, ‘Did I make a wrong mistake in investing on him’ and me being there, and being like, ‘No, no, you know, he's a great player. We just need the organization and the next GM, they just need to give him a chance.’”
After beginning the season in the minors, Vientos was called up to face the Cardinals on April 27, with Starling Marte on bereavement leave. Vientos went 1-for-2 with a hit, but one day later he clobbered a walk-off homer April 28 against St. Louis.
Still, once Marte was reactivated, Vientos was sent back down to AAA.
The next and final call-up came May 15, where Vientos went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI against the Phillies. Since then, Vientos finished the season with a .266 average, 27 home runs and 71 RBI.
He finished top-four on the Mets in home runs, RBI, slugging percentage and OPS. In the playoffs, he has been the Mets best hitter, leading the team in batting average, hits, home runs, RBI, slugging and OPS.
All he needed was the chance
“It makes you feel like, almost like a GM,” Bell said.
Bell regularly posts updates on his Instagram and gives advice to young collectors who are interested in following the same path that he did.
“When I'm putting my stamp on somebody, I just want to make sure that if somebody does spend their hard earned money, It's something that, you know, I put the time and research into. And if I'm wrong, hey, you know, my money's on it too.”
But while their involvement in the hobby has obvious financial implications, it has created lasting emotional connections as well.
“It made our connection much stronger, husband and wife,” Gloria said. “We're also business partners, because, you know, both of us are investing into these players.”
Vientos was also the prospect Walsh, Bell’s cousin, was so animated about back in 2018, and his death was the reason Bell dove into collecting the Mets third baseman. He had only bought one Vientos card before Walsh’s death in 2020. Now, he owns 60 and watches every Mets game, except for the ones on AppleTV, as he is an android supporter.
“Watching Mets games felt different for me,” Bell said. “Almost like a connection for two and a half, three hours that I had with him.”
Matt Liberman is a reporter and producer for cllct.