Laura Albanese: Mets' Ronny Mauricio latest example of club's 'next man up' mentality
Mets pinch-hitter Ronny Mauricio reacts as he runs on his walk-off single in the 10th inning to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday at Citi Field. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Ronny Mauricio suffered no delusions. Manager Carlos Mendoza wouldn’t allow it.
When Mauricio, who’s had about as chaotic a start to his major-league career as any, was called up for the injured Juan Soto Tuesday, the message was clear. His name wouldn’t be in the starting lineup, but they were looking at him as “an important role off the bench,” Mendoza said before the Mets’ 4-3, 10th-inning win over the Diamondbacks Tuesday.
There are two versions of what that means. The worst case for Mauricio would be a repeat of last year — where the Mets played him very sporadically (in that case, they didn’t send him down in an effort to preserve his final option). Charitably, it means they hoped he could provide versatility off the bench while also being a late-inning pinch hitting and pinch running substitution.
What he provided Tuesday, though, was a win.
In his first major-league at- bat of the year, Mauricio fell behind 0-and-2 before lining Paul Sewald’s fastball to deep right at a screaming 107.1 mph, scoring Francisco Lindor from third. The feat spoke to baseball’s idiosyncrasies — you never know who the hero is going to be — but it also spoke to this team’s steeliness and, they hope, a “next-man-up” mentality that was largely missing last year.
“We’re never out of games,” Mendoza said. “It’s good to see it this early, especially with [what we] went through last year. The stats, they were crazy. It’s hard to explain baseball. It’s baseball, too, right? Here we are within the first 10 to 11 games, coming back. It’s good to see it. I think guys trust in each other. They trust in their preparation, their game plan, [they’re] not panicking and [they] just continue to have fun and have good at-bats.”
On Tuesday, that meant coming back from a 3-2 deficit in the eighth and watching Luke Weaver strand the ghost runner at second in the 10th. It meant starter Freddy Peralta fighting through whipping winds that changed the tenor of his pitches. And it meant the hero would be Mauricio, who wasn’t even supposed to be here.
“I was really appreciative of the conversation” he had with Mendoza, Mauricio said through an interpreter. “He was very clear, very transparent. Obviously, we know the situation right now, so I’m just here to help the team in any way possible and I’ll be ready once my name is called.”
He hasn’t been the only one, either.
The last few days have showcased a couple bright spots. Marcus Semien, who started off ice cold, is heating up. Mark Vientos, who seemed to be a man without a role, is emerging as the Mets’ best bet at first base as Jorge Polanco nurses a tweaked Achilles. Brett Baty, despite a thumb injury, has acclimated to right, and Carson Benge, though struggling at the plate, was slotted into Soto’s spot in left with no incident. Jared Young, who possibly wouldn’t have had a roster spot had Mike Tauchman not gotten injured in spring training, is hitting .385 and tied the game in the eighth with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to the warning track.
It will take all of that to ably navigate Soto’s absence. It’s looking as if he’ll miss two to three weeks with a calf strain — the longest injured list stint of his career — and while caution is certainly the right move, it’s not exactly easy to replace a player who last year was worth over six wins above replacement.
They’ve got to “continue to play good baseball” in his absence, Mendoza said. “Don’t try to do too much. Be yourself. We still have a lot of good players. It’s hard to replace a guy like Juan Soto [but] we showed it the past three games in San Francisco — it’s a pretty deep lineup. At the end of day, we’ve got to go out there. We’ve got a job to do, and they will. I mean, we’ve got a lot of good players.”
Now is certainly the time to prove it. While there’s no real “upside” to losing Soto, it can at least give the Mets the opportunity to find some untapped strengths. It can prove, too, that they’re far more than just one player.
Sometimes that player can be Vientos. Sometimes it can be Lindor or Bo Bichette. And sometimes it can be Mauricio.
“It’s nothing new, right?” said Weaver, ever philosophical. “When a guy comes up, you want to make that impact. I know the pressure he’s feeling to just want to execute for our team and not just for our team, but for himself. It’s an awesome moment to be presented and oftentimes, I feel like those moments tend to find you — whether you’re a guy coming into a new position into the game, or you make a nice play and come up [to bat] first. Baseball’s got weird quirks like that.”
It does, and last year, those quirks tended to not go in the Mets’ favor. But it’s a new year, and this year, on this day, Mauricio is up to bat, and the hit falls in.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
