The Dominican Winter League went off with a bang for Mets prospect Ronny Mauricio as he homered in his first at-bat of the season for the Tigres del Licey.

Mauricio, coming off a career-high 20 home runs in the regulars season, played shortstop and batted seventh for the Tigres del Licey. His home run came in the second inning with one runner on to give them a 2-0 lead they would never relinquish in their 4-1 Opening Night win. Former big leaguer Hanley Ramirez was the cleanup hitter for the Tigres del Licey and had two hits in the game.

  • SS Ronny Mauricio 1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI

As you can see in the video if you’ve been following along with Mauricio, it looks like he’s grown some even since the minor league season ended in early September. MiLB and Baseball Reference both have Mauricio listed at 6’3”, 166 pounds, but clearly that’s way off at this point.

The 20-year-old finished the 2021 season with 40 extra base hits (15 doubles, five triples, 15 home runs) in only 108 games between High-Brooklyn and Double-A Binghamton.

Arizona Fall League

It was mostly a quiet night for Mets prospect in the AFL  on Wednesday with the Salt River Rafters winning 3-2 after a few days off. Carlos Cortes and Brett Baty were the only two Mets prospects in action on Wednesday and they had only one hit combined.

  • DH Carlos Cortes 0-for-4, .240 average, .675 OPS
  • 3B Brett Baty 1-for-4, .265 average, .815 OPS

A couple of StatCast notes from the game include Cortes having the farthest hit ball in the game at 404 feet and Baty’s single being 103.3 mph.

 

Both Cortes and Baty have cooled off after having an OPS north of 1.000 after the first week of the season.

Very exciting news that all of the Salt River Rafter home games will be streamed by the AFL. Follow @MLBazFallLeague for all the updates.

The Salt River Rafters are back in action on Thursday with a 3:35 p.m. ET start.