If one needed reminding of the game-changing power that Ronny Mauricio holds, they got it on Saturday night in Colorado.
The young infielder opened the scoring in the Mets’ 8-1 win over the Rockies in the top of the third inning when he demolished German Marquez’s hanging knuckle-curveball 456 feet into the second deck of the right-field seats at Coors Field.
“Pretty impressive,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Mauricio’s power display. “That’s the first time I’ve seen somebody going [up] there.”
“[It felt] pretty good,” Mauricio said of how the ball felt leaving his bat, which it did at 110.3 mph. “I feel like I hit it right on the barrel.”
It was the 24-year-old’s first home run of the season in his fourth game since being called up from Triple-A following Mark Vientos’ hamstring injury that landed him on the 10-day injured list. Mauricio himself had just returned to full health after recovering from ACL surgery two winters ago.
With it, he can re-assume his journey toward cementing an everyday spot in the big leagues — something he flashed during his 26-game MLB debut at the end of the 2023 season, where his power first stole the show. Now bigger and stronger, Mauricio is showing he has light-tower power.
“As soon as he hit it, I was like, ‘Damn, that’s going a long ways,'” Mets star shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “And then, I didn’t know what to do. Wait for him at home plate, wait for him on-deck. I was just admiring the baseball.”
For as awe-inspiring as the power is, the most glaring aspect of Mauricio’s offensive game is his plate discipline. It showed after he went hitless in his first 11 at-bats of the season with four strikeouts. Since then, he is 3-for-his-last-5 entering Sunday’s series finale against the Rockies.
“[He’s looking] better, definitely,” Mendoza began. “Especially on pitches in the strike zone. I feel like in the first couple of games, he was a little passive, and then they made him chase. Now, he’s ready to go on pitches in the strike zone. And when he’s doing that, he’s a pretty good hitter.”
