2 NY Mets trade chips they'll regret holding onto, 1 they’ll be thankful they did

Throughout the offseason the New York Mets have been rumored to be active in the trade market, yet up to this point they haven't made any substantial swaps to bring in big-league talent. As the free agent market begins to dry up, the trade market will start to heat up more as teams look to fill holes they whiffed on in free agency.

Several players in the Mets organization have been rumored to be on the block, and two of them the team will be better served moving on from sooner rather than later. One player, however, holds more value than meets the eye, and the team would be wise to hold on to.

The Mets would be wise to move on from Ronny Mauricio now

Ronny Mauricio felt primed to seize an everyday job with the Mets in 2024 before a torn ACL in the Dominican Winter League (LIDOM) brought everything to a screeching halt.

Mauricio had been coming off a 2023 season that saw him be productive in AAA before making a splash in his first taste of big league action, but ultimately fizzling out as he got more exposure at the highest level. The 23-year-old switch hitter looked to build on that in 2024 prior to suffering the injury that cost him the entire season.

It's hard not to feel bad for Mauricio. Born in the Dominican town of San Pedro de Macoris, a hotbed of baseball talent that has produced stars such as Robinson Cano and Sammy Sosa, Mauricio signed with the Mets as a teenager in 2017, receiving a then-team-record $2.1 million signing bonus.

For a young man from the developing Caribbean nation, $2.1 million should be life-changing money, however, the exploitative system present in the country made sure that Mauricio, like many before him, actually saw very little of those funds. Instead, seedy individuals known as buscones, pseudo-agent-managers for these baseball prodigies, siphon off a big chunk of that while the pressure to support impoverished family members puts a large dent in what's left.

These financial struggles, combined with the pride of playing for one of LIDOM's premier franchises, Los Tigres del Licey, led Mauricio to play again in the Dominican Republic last season against the Mets' wishes.

After his initial surgery to repair the torn ACL Mauricio had to undergo another procedure to remove scar tissue from the same knee over the summer. While that second surgery isn't expected to cost him any more time, it still is not a great sign for a player who has relied on his explosive athleticism to make an impact on the diamond.

In 2023, Mauricio posted a .292/.346/.506 line for AAA Syracuse. While on face value those numbers appear impressive, they were only good for a 108 wRC+ in the extremely hitter-friendly International League. At that rate, Mauricio could project to be a below-average bat at the big league level despite the loud tools that once made him a top-100 prospect.

The questions about how his knee injury will affect his performance going forward, the questionable translatability of his AAA performance to the big league level, and the fact that he's been surpassed on the depth chart by up-and-coming slugger Mark Vientos and fellow prospect Luisangel Acuna, all signal why the Mets would be wise to trade him now before his value turns into dust.

For Mauricio, that would be an unfortunate outcome, however, a fresh start with a new team may present him with a better opportunity to realize his Major League Baseball dreams.