Ripple Effects: What Ronny Mauricio's injury could mean for Mets' third base situation in 2024

The Mets were dealt a serious blow on Tuesday when it was revealed that infielder Ronny Mauricio had suffered a torn ACL that will require surgery, as first reported by SNY's Andy Martino.

Mauricio, who injured his knee while playing Winter League ball in the Dominican Republic as he worked to get more experience at third base, had been slotted ahead of the Mets' other internal options at the hot corner for 2024.

It's unclear how long Mauricio will be out, but generally, the recovery from a torn ACL and surgery tends to be roughly nine months.

The above timeline would put Mauricio back around the middle of September, so the safe bet is counting him out when it comes to any meaningful contribution during the 2024 season.

Earlier this offseason, David Stearns made it clear that the expectation was for the Mets to solve third base with who was already on the roster.

Mauricio's injury changes the calculus as it pertains to who will be manning third this coming season, but New York going internal remains the most likely outcome.

Here's how things could shake out...

Turn to Brett Baty

Baty, who recently received an invitation from Francisco Lindor to come work on his defense and "offensive consistency," is an unknown entering 2024.

In his first cup of coffee in the majors toward the end of the 2022 season, Baty looked the part of a potential third base fixture for years to come. He had strong at-bats, made hard contact, and didn't look out of place.

Things changed for Baty in 2023, when he struggled so badly at the plate and in the field that he was sent to the minors during the season, giving him a mental break and the ability to torch Triple-A pitching -- which he did.

But it was unfortunately more of the same from Baty when he returned on Sept. 1 through the end of the season, as he slashed a paltry .200/.221/.293 in 78 plate appearances over 22 games.

A look at Baty's advanced stats shows that he was only decidedly above average in one offensive category -- hard-hit rate. But he didn't barrel balls up often enough and struck out far too often (28 percent of the time) relative to the amount of power he provided.

Additionally, Baty had serious trouble getting the ball in the air, with a ground ball rate of 50.4 percent. Elevating the ball was also an issue for him in his short sample in the bigs in 2022, when he hit it on the ground a whopping 56.7 percent of the time.

Entering his age-24 season, there is still plenty of time for Baty to reach his potential. And there are tons of examples of players who have taken a few years to hit their stride in the majors. But the clock is starting to tick.

Give Mark Vientos a shot

The Mets did Vientos no favors for most of the 2023 season, giving him sporadic playing time until finally allowing him to get regular at-bats starting on Aug. 1 following the trade deadline sell-off.

Vientos didn't immediately start producing once given a more full-time gig, but something clicked at the end of August. In 100 plate appearances over 26 games from Aug. 29 through the end of the season, Vientos hit .240/.290/.489 with seven homers.

Strikeouts were still an issue, as Vientos fanned 30 times during the above span, but the power explosion was eye-popping.

The possible problem with Vientos is that he's likely not a sure-handed enough defender at third base to be able to profile as a starter there.

Vientos is working on his defense this offseason with Lindor, with Newsday’s Laura Albanese recently reporting that Lindor invited Vientos to work specifically on "staying low to the ground" and not speeding up when the ball comes to them.

As the Mets decide how to proceed at third base, they also have to address issues elsewhere.

They should be adding at least one outfielder -- preferably someone who profiles as a starter -- to hedge against Starling Marte, whose 2023 season was decimated due to injury and whose ability to stay on the field and perform in 2024 is a concern.

And they should also be signing a full-time DH, which would make Vientos a bench bat or free him up to play third base if the Mets to choose.

Shift things around

As things currently stand, Lindor is entrenched at shortstop with Pete Alonso cemented at first base. Stearns said during the Winter Meetings that the expectation is that Jeff McNeil will get lots of playing time at second base in 2024. Will Mauricio's injury change that? Should it?

If the Mets adequately address their outfield need, they'll have the ability to slide McNeil from second base to third base instead of having to possibly rely on him to also play corner outfield.

But the most obvious candidate to play second base if McNeil shifts to third -- Luisangel Acuña -- does not appear to be ready offensively.

Acuña could possibly force the issue if he has a huge showing in spring training, but he hasn't played above Double-A and struggled in 37 games for the Mets with Binghamton after being acquired from the Rangers in the Max Scherzer trade.

So while Acuña should be an infield option at some point during the 2024 season, it's unlikely to be from the jump.

Beyond Baty, Vientos, McNeil, and Acuña, the only other viable third base option on the Mets' 40-man roster is Joey Wendle. But Wendle has a career triple slash of .263/.312/.386 and has hit just .238/.275/.335 with five home runs over the last two seasons, spanning 213 games.

So Wendle can't be seriously considered as the starter at third base.

Go external

If the Mets decide to change course and go external, they can turn to a free agent market that is headlined by the talented but flawed and regressing Matt Chapman, and also includes Justin Turner and Gio Urshela.

It's very hard to envision the Mets making a play for Chapman, and even harder to make a strong argument for it, so I think we can cross him off the list.

Putting a band-aid on the third base situation by handing out a one-year deal to someone else wouldn't be the worst idea. But even with the loss of Mauricio, the Mets have enough internal options that they should be able to figure this out.