Last winter, Mets prospect Ronny Mauricio took the Dominican Winter League by storm, slashing .287/.335/.468 for Los Tigres del Licey and earning MVP honors. The 22-year-old was off to an even better start in the 2023–24 season, batting .433 with four extra-base hits in seven games, but all that ground to a halt on Monday. Facing rivals Las Águilas Cibaeñas, Mauricio attempted to steal second, but when he tried to make a sudden stop, his right leg buckled. On Tuesday, SNY’s Andy Martino reported that the injury is a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Although the Mets won’t put a timetable on his return until after he undergoes surgery, even the most aggressive rehab schedule would have him missing at least the first half of the season before getting his legs back under him in the minors. It’s grim news for a young player who was primed to get his first real shot at breaking camp with the big club.

A switch-hitting shortstop, the 6-foot-3 Mauricio has loud tools but runs an eye-watering chase rate. The Mets signed him in 2017, and he climbed the ladder via a series of solid but not spectacular seasons. Aside from an eight-game stint in rookie ball in 2018 and another eight-game stint in Double-A in 2021, he never posted a wRC+ below 93 or above 108 in an any of his minor league stops, even as he put up consecutive 20–20 seasons with Double-A Binghamton in 2022 and Triple-A Syracuse in ’23. He made his debut with the Mets on September 1, launching a 117.3-mph double, the team’s hardest-hit ball in over two years (and the fourth-hardest a Met has ever recorded).

Mauricio ran an 80 wRC+ over 26 games, playing second and third base. At the time of his call-up, Eric Longenhagen had this to say about him on Effectively Wild: “Mauricio’s risky. He’s going to strike out a ton. He is kind of a physical freak where he’s a 6-foot-3 switch-hitting shortstop with huge power.” Francisco Lindor’s presence at shortstop, though, puts a ceiling on the value that Mauricio would actually be able to provide to the Mets. While in Syracuse, he had been seeing time at second, short, third, and left field, although the outfield experiment did not go particularly well. Here’s how Eric described the situation:

I have Ronny Mo’ evaluated in a vacuum, right? Where he can play shortstop, and that’s a big part of carrying real world baseball weight when you’re evaluating this guy, because ultimately only so many guys can actually hack it at shortstop at the big-league level. It’s a very difficult thing to do. Because he’s not going to do that in all probability for the Mets, if I’m predicting how he’s going to pan out from a value standpoint, it’s probably below where I have him evaluated in a vacuum as a shortstop, right? He’s probably going to be a streaky, somewhat frustrating, but also very exciting — and again, dangerous, the power element here makes him dangerous — utility guy for the Mets next year … Ultimately on a contending Mets team this guy is probably playing in all over the place, filling in when guys get hurt…

With shortstop blocked by Lindor, then, Mauricio looked like a potential addition to the Mets’ current third base options of Brett Baty and Mark Vientos. Baty has a bit more plate discipline, and Mauricio has the speed and positional flexibility, but all three have yet to translate their success in Syracuse to success in Flushing. All three have struggled to prove that they can play a decent third base. All three can make very loud contact but are plagued by too much swing-and-miss and an inability to elevate the baseball. Though both Baty and Vientos had real chances to claim the third base job after the Mets traded Eduardo Escobar in June, neither came particularly close to putting things together. The team ended up with an MLB-worst -1.3 WAR at the position, without a single player providing positive value there.

Looking at Mauricio, Baty and Vientos specifically, there’s not all that much daylight between the stats the three young players put up in Flushing last season:

Vientos has been working on his defense with Lindor in Puerto Rico, and Lindor told Newsday’s Laura Albanese that he has also invited Baty down to work out. On the first day of Winter Meetings, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said definitively that the Mets would not be adding a third basemen during the offseason, telling reporters, “We will have that covered internally.” He added, “I don’t have anyone in my head right now that’s got the job. And we may not go into Opening Day with anyone who’s got the job.” He also indicated that Mauricio would at the very least get a chance to compete for the job, telling reporters that he needed reps at the position, but that his hands and reflexes were good enough to play there.

Along with waiver claim Zack Short, Joey Wendle, signed to a one-year, $2 million contract with additional playing time bonuses, was supposed to be the team’s infield insurance policy. But with Mauricio out of the picture, the calculus has changed. Martino, along with Tim Britton and Will Sammon of The Athletic, reported that the Mets are now expected to look outside the organization for help. In a sense, the team is right back where it started in 2022, hoping that Baty or Vientos will grab the job but hedging that bet with a veteran option who can contribute and still allow them to get enough reps to progress.

Excluding Matt Chapman, who ranked seventh on our Top 50 Free Agents list and represents a whole lot more than the supplementary piece the Mets have in mind, the free-agent pool features plenty of options but few slam dunks. Martino floated Justin Turner as a possible fit in a third base-slash-designated hitter role, but while Turner put up a 114 wRC+ in Boston, he played just 50 games in the field in 2023, and just seven times at third (and with particularly bad defensive numbers over that tiny sample size). Among third basemen in their late 30s who can still contribute with the bat, though, Turner represents the safest bet, followed by options like Donovan Solano, Evan Longoria, Josh Donaldson, and Jean Segura. Provided that he’s fully healthy, the 32-year-old Gio Urshela would make a lot of sense as a bounce back candidate. He played just 62 games before fracturing his pelvis in June, posting a 92 wRC+ with passable defense for the Angels, but Steamer sees him as exactly league-average in 2024, putting up a wRC+ of 100 and 0.0 runs on defense.

It’s worth noting that none of the aforementioned players features the positional flexibility that Mauricio would have provided. For that, the Mets might have to go for a lesser option at the bat, such as Isiah Kiner-Falefa or Enrique Hernández, both of whom can play the outfield. After that, there aren’t many players who represent that much more upside than Wendle. Lastly, the team could also take a sentimental route, reuniting with Escobar or bringing back Luis Guillorme.

Mauricio’s injury is devastating for a player who seemed so close to making it happen after years of waiting. There’s no way of knowing how his 2024 season would have gone, but in one fell swoop, his injury robs the Mets of upside, depth, and flexibility. Regardless of whether they trust the options they have or look to add, if the team is going to succeed, Baty or Vientos need to start hitting.

Source