Ronny Mauricio’s Struggles Key In Mets’ Loss To Reds

It has not been an easy couple years for infielder Ronny Mauricio. After tearing his ACL in December of 2023, Mauricio endured a long rehab that resulted in him finally being able to return to action this season. Despite dominating at the Triple-A level prior to his return to the big leagues, his play with the Mets thus far has left a lot to be desired.

Those struggles flashed in a couple different ways on Saturday, as the most important came via a throwing error Mauricio committed in the game’s sixth inning. The 24-year-old, while playing third base, fielded a ground ball hit by Tyler Stephenson and an errant throw forced Brett Baty to come off second base, not only allowing a run to score on the play, but extended the inning, which resulted in another run after a two-out single followed. Mauricio’s throwing error directly contributed to two Reds’ runs in their 5-2 defeat of the Mets on Saturday.

To make matters worse, Mauricio went 0-for-4 at the plate with two strikeouts. As a result, his average is down to .218 and his OPS to .665. Over his last five games, Mauricio is 2-for-18 with seven strikeouts.

A look under the hood at the analytics through his 101 at-bats this season paint an even more alarming picture. Only his average exit velocity and bat speeds rank above the league’s 50th percentile, while his xBA, xSLG, chase rate, whiff rate, strikeout rate, among other advanced statistic categories, rank below the league’s 30th percentile. It has been a rough go of it as Mauricio continues to work his way back after his major knee injury.

Mauricio’s struggles add to an unfortunate trend of several promising position players struggling since breaking into the big leagues. Along with Mauricio (.665 OPS), Mark Vientos (.628 OPS), Luisangel Acuña (.559 OPS), and Francisco Alvarez (.652 OPS) have all struggled mightily this season. Fortunately, Brett Baty, who homered on Saturday, has showed some promising signs, while Alvarez is tearing up Triple-A with another call-up looming.

It is still extremely early in the career of Mauricio and several of the other younger prospects mentioned, which is why optimism should still exist. The continued development of these young position players would go a long way in helping the Mets not only compete this season, but for years to come.

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