Amazin' prospect Mauricio blasts off… again
JUPITER, Fla. — The winter of Ronny Mauricio doesn’t want to end.
It might be spring training, but technically late February is still winter, and Mauricio is packing the same kind of punch at the plate that became noteworthy in the Dominican Winter League, where he earned MVP honors this offseason.
On Monday, he homered for the second straight day — a highlight for the Mets in their 12-7 exhibition loss to the Cardinals at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. This latest homer was more garden variety than the 450-foot rocket Mauricio launched a day earlier against the Nationals in Port St. Lucie, but further raised awareness of the rookie shortstop, who could get plenty of additional opportunities in the coming weeks with the entire Mets starting infield headed to the World Baseball Classic.
Mauricio, who spent last season at Double-A Binghamton, was asked how he viewed his chances of getting a shot at the major league level to start the season.
“I am trying and working for that,” Mauricio told The Post. “I want to be on this team. I want to be in the big leagues on this team.”
Mauricio saw action Monday at shortstop, and flubbed a grounder for an error. That miscue didn’t go unnoticed by manager Buck Showalter, who values defense. A day earlier Showalter had praised Mauricio for the manner in which he started a double play on a grounder.
“Everybody wants to talk about home runs,” Showalter said. “He had a good play when he hit a home run last game. Today he had a ball … it’s tough to fault anybody defensively today, the field was challenging. Of course [the Cardinals] didn’t seem to have a lot of trouble with it.”
Said Mauricio: “It was just a bad hop.”
In 123 games last season for Binghamton, the 21year-old owned a .259/ .296/.472 slash line with 26 homers and 89 RBIs.
Showalter noted before the start of camp that Mauricio had accumulated 744 plate appearances between Binghamton and winter ball since last season began and his workload might have to be monitored.
But Mauricio would just like to keep receiving opportunities.
“I haven’t gotten tired at all,” Mauricio said. “I think the best thing is to keep playing.”