The Mets 2024 plans get thrown out the door after Ronny Mauricio tore his ACL during a winter ball game, and now third base is wide open.
The 2024 offseason continues to get worse for the New York Mets. SS Ronny Mauricio, the future star of the organization, is officially out for the year with a torn ACL after playing for the Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Winter League back on December 10, 2023. The injury adds more headaches for the fans who had hoped for a radical shift in offseason maneuvers following the collapse of the 2023 season. The Mets will feel Mauricio’s injury during the regular season as a future star player won’t bring a spark to the Mets’ season in what has already felt like a terrible offseason for the front office.
Future Rising
Mauricio signed as an international free agent in July 2017 with a signing bonus of $2.1 million, which is pretty high for an amateur to receive upon joining a team. For reference, most ranked players in the new international class earn seven-figure bonuses because teams see something in them. And the Mets did with Mauricio. He was a big-name prospect due to his speed and hitting talent, reminding many of former star SS Jose Reyes. In May 2023, Baseball America named him the top prospect in the Mets organization.
His numbers in the minor leagues often were up to par. In 2018, with the Gulf Coast and Kingsport Mets, he hit .273 with three home runs and 35 RBIs in 57 games. Then in 2019, he played for the Columbia Fireflies, where he became a South Atlantic League All-Star. In 116 games, he batted .268 with four home runs and 37 RBIs. He did not play a minor league game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season as a result of COVID-19. In 2021, Mauricio split the season between the Brooklyn Cyclones and the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, hitting .248 with 20 home runs, 64 RBIs, and 11 stolen bases in 108 games. The Mets selected him to the 40-man roster following the season on November 19, 2021.
After a full 2022 season at AA, the Mets optioned Mauricio to the Triple-A Syracuse Mets to begin the 2023 season. In 116 games for Syracuse, he batted .292 with 23 home runs, 71 RBIs, and 24 stolen bases.
Major League Finances
Mauricio made his debut in September, leaving an impressive mark in his first taste of the big leagues. Playing in only 26 games, Mauricio hit .248 with two home runs, nine RBIs, and seven stolen bases. Not bad for a rookie. People in the organization have praised Mauricio for his work ethic and the way he plays the game. Scouts often tout him as a player who garners respect from his managers, coaches, and fellow players. But Mauricio wasn’t just doing the right thing, he wasn’t being compensated for his play.
Rookies in MLB made a minimum of about $570,500 in 2022, and the minimum last season was $730,000. A lot of money for most folks. However, in sports, it barely makes you survive. As it turns out, Mauricio was in desperate need of money despite Mets management telling him not to play in the Winter Leagues and instead to rest. Whatever that means. Tigers de Licey gave him a generous deal. He would make $20,000 a month for playing with the team for however long the winter season would last. And to make matters worse, he never saw the majority of the $2.1 million signing bonus he signed with the team. An agent and a family member screwed him over to whom he had given control of his finances.
This represents a major problem with how teams and trainers treat minor leaguers, who often come from poor backgrounds. Many of them come from the Dominican Republic where talent abounds in excess, but very few make it to play for a team in the land of opportunity. Who can forget the Atlanta Braves signing scandal of 2017? While Mauricio denies the story of having been cheated out of his money and why he had to play Winter Ball in the first place, it doesn’t make the situation any less bad for the Mets, who have a history of managing players poorly.
Losing free agency
Regardless of what the truth is, the one fact remains is that the Mets keep losing players to other teams. SP Shōta Imanaga, the third Japanese pitcher the Mets pursued, signed with the Chicago Cubs to a four-year, $53 million contract with a fifth-year option. The infield remains in need of improvement and the Mets just can’t seem to find star players to add to the mix. While homegrown talent like 3B Mark Vientos, 2B Jeff McNeil, 3B Brett Baty, and even superstar SS Francisco Lindor remain on the team and are covering three-quarters of the infield, the team needs to recuperate all the pieces they sent away from 2023.
In the farm system, the Mets have SS Luisangel Acuña, who is the younger brother of Braves superstar OF Ronald Acuña Jr. Luisangel was one of the players caught up in the Braves scandal from 2017 through no fault of his own. Luisangel could be part of the Mets’ future in the years to come, but that will take time. And time is fading fast for the Metropolitans.
