{"id":568876,"date":"2026-02-12T21:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/568876\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T21:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:38:15","slug":"mets-ronny-mauricio-returns-to-normalcy-after-knee-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/568876\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets’ Ronny Mauricio returns to normalcy after knee injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 This 2026 season will be a pivotal one for Mets<\/a> infielder Ronny Mauricio<\/a>. No longer a top prospect, he has only one minor league option year left. Two years after a devastating knee injury that cost him significant development time, Mauricio, entering his age-25 season has to show more than just potential \u2014 he has to show that he can live up to it.<\/p>\n

Mauricio will compete with Vidal Brujan, Grae Kessinger and Jackson Cluff for the Mets\u2019 utility infielder role this spring. With Francisco Lindor sidelined for six weeks to recover from hamate surgery, Mauricio will see more time at shortstop this spring than usual.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his natural position, the position the Mets signed him to play as a 16-year-old, well before Lindor was ever on their radar. But Mauricio has played very little of the position since about the middle of 2023, a few months before he tore his right ACL while playing winter ball.<\/p>\n

The Mets have to see if he\u2019s still mobile enough to field the position at a high level.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hasn\u2019t played it very much, and we\u2019re going to have to get him ready, but it\u2019s not something you forget,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said this week at Clover Park. \u201cAs long as he\u2019s healthy \u2014 which he is \u2014 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mauricio doesn\u2019t see it as an issue either. It was the very first position he played on a baseball field, and the Mets were slow to move him off it in 2023. When they did, they moved him to second base where he was still blocked at the big-league level. Late in the season, the Mets moved him to third base, then had him play third during his September call-up.<\/p>\n

The plan was to transition him to third on a more full-time basis, but a few months later came the knee injury. Surgeries and setbacks in his recovery cost him the entire 2024 season, and he still wasn\u2019t even cleared to participate in full during last spring\u2019s camp. He didn\u2019t even get into a Grapefruit League game last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I haven\u2019t played a lot of games at shortstop since my surgery, but I\u2019m feeling great,\u201d he told the Daily News. \u201cI\u2019m healthy and my knee feels great.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s looking forward to playing shortstop again, even if it\u2019s only in Grapefruit League games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love is that every play that\u2019s made, the shortstop has to be there,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I like, I like to be in games and I like to be everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mauricio played in 61 Major League games for the Mets last season, hitting .226 with a .663 OPS, hitting six home runs and stealing four bases. A strong, athletic infielder, the 6-foot-4 switch-hitter possesses strong bat speed and hits the ball hard \u2014 when he hits it. Plate discipline was an issue in the minor leagues, and while he was able to draw a few more walks than expected last season, he still chased too many pitches outside of the zone. He had an especially hard time hitting breaking balls.<\/p>\n

He was streaky, and it didn\u2019t help that the Mets had too many young infielders and not enough places to play them. By the time the end of the season came around, Mauricio was barely playing. He had only 13 at-bats in nine September games, and when the Mets needed him in the final series of the year, he was cold off the bench.<\/p>\n

Mauricio returned to Tigres del Licey over the offseason, the winter league team in his native Dominican Republic he has played for since he was 19. Unlike in 2023, the Mets encouraged him to play in the winter league to make up for some of the time lost. The focus in his offseason work was on consistency. He worked on being able to repeat the motion of his swing and strengthen his defensive fundamentals.<\/p>\n

In between workouts, he spent time with his 7-year-old son Liam, who is also playing baseball. Liam has gravitated toward catching more than playing in the infield, so Mauricio is hoping to bring Liam to New York during the season to spend time around Mets catchers Francisco Alvarez<\/a>, Luis Torrens and Hayden Senger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of good ones in here he can learn from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If Mauricio is feeling any pressure at the start of spring training, he\u2019s not showing it. He might be one of the happiest players in the clubhouse no matter what time of year it is. This spring, he\u2019s extra excited to finally return to normalcy and be with the team instead of rehabbing on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing is, he\u2019s finally fully healthy,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe\u2019s not on a running progression, he\u2019s not doing backfield activity. He\u2019s a full player for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE \u2014 This 2026 season will be a pivotal one for Mets infielder Ronny Mauricio. No…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,9492,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,4804,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-568876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-knee","10":"tag-mets","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-mets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkmets","16":"tag-ronny-mauricio","17":"tag-spring-training"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116059826138331051","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}