Aren’t we supposed to be immune to developing brand new sympathy pains for injured Mets players in December? Mets players aren’t supposed to get injured this time of year unless it’s something like what happened to Tug McGraw in the winter following the Miracle Mets’ world championship of 1969. In his 1974 memoir Screwball, Tug came clean on an ankle he twisted and reported to the club as the result of slipping on some ice while taking out the garbage. The injury was actually sustained as a result of tobogganing in snowy Syosset with Ron Swoboda, the two teammates sharing one toboggan. One of their rides didn’t go as planned, with Ron landing on top of Tug when it was over. Swoboda was OK. McGraw wasn’t.
“I had to sign my contract for the next season — it had just been mailed out by the Mets,” Tug remembered, “and I sure as hell didn’t want to tell them what happened, at least not how it happened. Especially since they thought we were nuts in the first place.” Thus, the cover story, which the Mets shrugged off as a hazard of bad luck and cold climes. Slipping on ice on Long Island is not uncommon (as I can vouch). Tug made it back to start the 1970 season and saved the Mets’ very first Opening Day win.
What befell Ronny Mauricio this past weekend while playing winter ball had the same luck component to it, though the weather was warmer. A baseball player got hurt playing baseball. That will happen. That it happened not for the Mets or a Mets affiliate but for Tigres del Licey in LIDOM competition…well, that, too, will happen. Mauricio tore the ACL in his right knee as he began to take off toward second base from first as a baserunner. He went down less than halfway toward his destination.
Ronny was honing his craft and the Mets were well aware of what he was up to. No whiff of scandal, not even WBC recriminations à la Edwin Diaz. As if that matters now. The injury will require surgery plus a recovery period that will prevent Ronny’s presence on the Opening Day roster or any Met roster for quite a while. This is a shame on several levels. Ronny’s been a Met prospect since approximately the year Swoboda was traded to Montreal, or so it seems. He’s only 22, but was signed at 16 and has ranked among Baseball America’s Top 100 up-and-comers since 2019. We got our first glimpse at his obvious offensive talent last September. A shortstop blocked by Francisco Lindor for the foreseeable future, Mauricio played a swift second base when he came up, a less sure third, the latter a spot that has no obvious Met occupant at the moment. Ronny will contend for neither position as 2024 gets going.
Sympathy abounds, of course, even if we were hoping to save it for the kid’s first slump.
It is the same as the Diaz injury, as he was doing something he didn’t need to be doing (i.e. not playing regular season important baseball for the Mets). Let’s hope it doesn’t portend the same fate for the team.
While I do not like this happening, obviously, I do not think we can fault him for playing in the LIDOM, trying to hone his craft, to be a better player FOR the Mets. The WBC, in my opinion, they are mostly stars playing for national pride, not honing their craft.