Ronny Mauricio is tearing the cover off the ball so far in spring training. The Mets prospect has three hits – all home runs – in seven at-bats through five games. They haven’t been cheap home runs either.
Mauricio has been moving up the charts this offseason after a tremendous showing in winter ball. He was named the Dominican Winter League MVP after hitting .287 with a .803 OPS in 47 regular-season games.
The 6-foot-3 shortstop hit .259 with 26 home runs in 123 games at Double-A Binghamton last year and hit 19 home runs in 100 games with High-A Brooklyn in 2021.
Mauricio has a tough path to the majors with Francisco Lindor locked up for the foreseeable future, but he could play himself onto the roster at some point this season.
WFAN’s Evan Roberts of the Audacy Original Podcast “Rico Brogna” detailed one potential path for Mauricio to make the Mets this season.
“I wonder if DH can be the spot that Mauricio pushes because that isn’t really set in stone. It just isn’t,” Roberts said. “ And Vogelbach is so unplayable against left-handed pitching that wouldn’t it be cool in this perfect world where Mauricio’s bursting onto the scene where you could have a switch hitter as your DH? So you’re not thinking platoon immediately when there’s a pitching change. Because that’s the spot the Mets are in right now at DH.”
The Mets are currently expected to have a platoon of Daniel Vogelbach and either Darin Ruf or Mark Vientos.
Vogelbach hit .261 with an .879 OPS against right-handed pitching last year as opposed to .139 with a .415 OPS against lefties. The right-handed hitters’ splits were pretty rough as well.
“So to me, this is just me speaking – I don’t know what Billy Eppler and Buck Showalter are thinking – I think DH would be the place where Mauricio can push it,” Roberts continued. “With that being said, it’s still a very much outside shot that despite this early power surge he’s going to make this team.”
Despite Mauricio’s three home runs this spring coming from the left side, his scouting report says that he has more contact from that side with more power from the right side. Nevertheless, a switch-hitting DH that could move around the diamond to give starters days off could be enticing.
Granted, Mauricio making the team out of camp is highly unlikely. But during the season? It’s possible.
“What happens if Daniel Vogelbach is not hitting the cover off the ball? What happens if no one steps up as the right-handed part of the platoon? Ronny Mauricio and Brett Baty, even if they don’t make the team right out of the gate, they’re leaving an impression early on,” Roberts said. “f those guys get off to really good starts, they’re going to push the issue. So I’m not necessarily talking only about making the team right now. A lot of it is what is their role this year? Because those are two guys on the doorstep.”
The Mets had one of the best offenses in baseball last year in terms of scoring runs and that should continue this season with improvements from within, including Mauricio.
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