DENVER -- Brandon Nimmo grew up attending games at Coors Field. As a professional, he’s appeared in more of them here than any of his teammates, giving Nimmo a unique understanding of a place where the air is thinner and the home runs travel farther.
But when Ronny Mauricio crushed a 456-foot homer in the third inning Saturday, keying an 8-1 blowout of the Rockies, even Nimmo was taken aback.
“Did that just go in the third deck?” he asked his manager in the dugout.
“I think so,” Carlos Mendoza replied.
Mauricio’s blast indeed arced into a place where few baseballs go, forcing fans in the lower two decks to crane their necks to catch a glimpse of it.
“I feel like I hit it right on the barrel,” Mauricio said in English, the second language he’s been working to perfect.
Approaching the plate for his first at-bat against Rockies starter Germán Márquez, Mauricio said he was simply looking for something up in the strike zone. When Márquez complied with a hanging knuckle-curve, Mauricio adjusted to the slower speed of the pitch, whipping his bat through the zone to launch it skyward.
Rockies right fielder Tyler Freeman took a few cursory steps backward but gave up once he reached the warning track. By that point, Mauricio’s ball was soaring over his head, over the out-of-town scoreboard, over the shallow lower deck in right, over the steeper second deck behind it, and finally over the electronic ribbon board on the facing of the third.
Standing in the on-deck circle, Francisco Lindor quipped that he “didn’t know what to do.”
“It was very far,” Lindor said. “It was very far. As soon as he hit it, I’m like, ‘Damn. That’s going a long ways.’”
A partial list of those to hit a ball longer than Mauricio this season: Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Kyle Schwarber.
“It’s stupid power,” Nimmo added.
On a warm night in Denver, Mauricio was far from the only one to bludgeon the baseball, as Jared Young and Jeff McNeil also homered, and Lindor rapped out three hits (and stole two bases) on a broken toe to give Clay Holmes plenty of backing. But Mauricio’s shot was clearly the most impressive of the bunch, giving the Mets visual confirmation of what team officials and rival scouts have long said of him.
Every elite prospect has a carrying tool -- the skill that can get them to the Majors and may define them once they’re there. Some are good at making contact. Others possess strong plate discipline or blazingly fast speed. Some prospects field well. Others have strong throwing arms.
Mauricio, the Mets’ ninth-ranked prospect, hits the ball very, very hard.
“We know the power is real,” Mendoza said. “We know the impact.”
With his next words, the manager cautioned that the Mets still must be patient with Mauricio, a 24-year-old who missed the entire 2024 season recovering from multiple knee surgeries. When the Mets called Mauricio up last week as an injury replacement for Mark Vientos, Mendoza cited Mauricio’s raw plate approach as one reason not to anoint him a savior.
His future defensive home also remains unclear; playing third base on Saturday, Mauricio showcased his athleticism to scoop a slow ground ball in front of him, but also committed a fielding error on an awkward two-hopper that struck his glove.
Despite all of it, Mauricio’s potential is plain to see. In addition to his homer, Mauricio singled and stole a base in the fifth inning, finishing 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Since beginning his Major League return on an 0-for-11 skid without a ball hit out of the infield, Mauricio is 3-for-5 with four batted balls of at least 94 mph.
His homer left the bat at 110 mph, giving Nimmo one more reason to feel a sense of awe -- not because of how hard Mauricio hit it, but because of how much additional strength the rookie appears to have in reserve.
“He probably has more -- that’s the crazy part,” Nimmo said, referencing the 117 mph double Mauricio hit in his first big league plate appearance two years ago. “It’s super special, super special. It was really good for him to get that one. It’s pretty impressive.”