Entering Spring Training, when it came to most of the New York Mets‘ top prospects, the buzz surrounded Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, and Mark Vientos. In large part due to their possibilities of being on the Opening Day roster being stronger than anyone else. To this point, Baty and Vientos have certainly helped themselves.
When it comes to other prospects right there with Baty and Vientos off to strong starts through the first few games of Spring Training, none have done more than Ronny Mauricio. He has seemed to fly under the radar a bit for some time relative to the other Mets’ top prospects and was not garnering the hype of some others entering this year’s preseason work. However, none of that has to do with a lack of ability.
Mauricio first joined the Mets in July 2017 when he signed with the team as an international free agent. Since then, he has gained four years of experience in the minor leagues (2018-19, 2021-22) and played in 404 games. He has a .261 batting average and .724 OPS. From a home run and RBI perspective, Mauricio broke out over the last two years posting 20 homers and 64 RBIs in 2021 and 26 home runs and 89 RBIs in 2022.
Mauricio is MLB Pipleline’s sixth-rated Mets prospect. He is a very young player at 21 years old and will turn 22 in April. Mauricio has some great height, listed at 6-foot-3. His top two traits are his power and arm. He is also a good fielder at shortstop, although, with Francisco Lindor, that will not be his position with the Mets.
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Mets getting impressive start to Spring Training from Ronny Mauricio:
So far in Spring Training, Mauricio has played in three games for the Mets. In the last two, he has shown off his exciting potential.
In Sunday afternoon’s game, Mauricio had one at-bat. In the bottom of the eighth inning, he absolutely crushed a home run to deep right-center field, showcasing his remarkable power. The exit velocity was 110 MPH, and the home run went 450 feet.
He followed that up with a home run for the second-consecutive day yesterday afternoon. Mauricio had two at-bats in yesterday’s game. Mauricio’s second, in the top of the ninth, he demolished another one to deep right-center again. This time, with an exit velocity of 108.6 MPH off the bat that went 413 feet, further proving his incredible power.
Through the three games Mauricio has played, he has a .400 batting average, two home runs, three runs batted in, and a 1.600 slugging percentage.
With all of his recent success, Mauricio has made known to the media his expectations regarding his future roster status in the major leagues with the Mets.
“I am trying and working for that. I want to be on this team. I want to be in the big leagues on this team.”
Following Mauricio’s strong play as of late, Buck Showalter shared the following on his thoughts of the talented young prospect.
“You can tell he hasn’t had much down time. It doesn’t surprise anybody that he is swinging the bat well. … He’s a better defender now than he was last year when he was here. His work habits, the pace to his game. There’s a certain fluidity that he’s gaining. You can see it in his confidence level. He’s got the chance to be a good one.”
The start to this Spring Training for Mauricio could not be much better. He is displaying the natural ability he is gifted with, his size and power, simply allowing those skills to take over for some highlight-reel homers. Hopefully, Mauricio continues to develop throughout Spring Training and proves why he should be a big part of the Mets’ future.