Mauricio's latest LIDOM feat: Inside-the-park homer

The Minor League season has been over for nearly a month, but Ronny Mauricio continues to raise his standing within the Mets farm system.

An example of just how much things are going the 21-year-old’s way: One day after belting his first home run of the Dominican Winter League campaign, Mauricio sprinted home after a failed attempt at catching a line drive for an inside-the-park roundtripper.

The Mets’ sixth-ranked prospect added a run-scoring single later on Sunday and through eight games is hitting .441 (15-for-34) with a 1.222 OPS and 11 RBIs for the Tigres del Licey.

Mauricio is participating in his third consecutive season for the 23-time LIDOM champions, though it’s the first time he’s been given an opportunity to play alongside Major Leaguers new and old -- like Triston Casas, Emilio Bonifácio and Nate Pearson, as well as MLB’s No. 14 overall prospect Elly De La Cruz -- and taken advantage of it.

In 2020, Mauricio took just one plate appearance, though at 19 years old he joined future MLB stars Julio Rodríguez  and Wander Franco in a select group of teenagers in a league where the average player is 28. In 2021, Mauricio was given a starting role and got off to a fast start, hitting .394 through 10 games, but he hit just .158 over his next 15 games and was removed from the roster in December.

Now, on the heels of a 26-homer, 20-stolen-base year for the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies, Mauricio has carved out another strong start to the winter season. There’s reason to believe that this performance is sustainable, though. He’s already matched his 2021 walk total -- three -- in 55 fewer plate appearances. The traditionally free-swinging Mauricio -- whose difficulties have actually been rooted in pitch recognition and ground balls, rather than whiffs -- has also slashed his strikeout rate from last winter’s stint by 10 percent.

Mauricio was added to the Mets’ 40-man roster last November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft but he was never in the conversation for a Major League callup, let alone a promotion to Triple-A. He’s tracking to debut with the Syracuse Mets next spring, where, at 22, he’ll be among the youngest players in the International League.