Reese Kaplan -- Making his Orange and Blue Mets Debut...

September 1st is a significant day for many people.  The Labor Day holiday weekend is fast approaching.  School is about to start on the east coast (though some other parts of the country start in August).  Personally, it's an important reminder for me as my birthday is during the first week of the month, too.

For baseball under the new roster regulations adopted not too long ago the team can add players to the starting 26 up to 28 to take a look at some minor leaguers for the final month of the season to see how they look against major league pitching and hitting.  For the Mets there are several players who have had the Uber ride back and forth between the minors and the majors but it's the never-before-seen youngsters that generate the most curiosity.  

Pitcher Mike Vasil has been mentioned as a possible member of the starting rotation for 2024 and it would be good to see what he can do against hitters the quality that the Braves and other hot hitting teams can provide.  He is not on the 40-man roster yet so it's somewhat unlikely they would make the move to advance him unless they plan on moving someone off that list (such as shutting down Starling Marte and moving him to the 60-day IL).

However, it is the slugging, base stealing and .295 hitting Ronny Mauricio that gets fans and media types salivating.  He is already on the 40-man roster and as such it's been somewhat frustrating to see the team hesitate to promote him already since it's been clear since early June that they were not headed for October baseball.  Word filtered out that on this very day Mr. Mauricio gets to make his first trip as a player into Citifield.  

Before we anoint him as some savior for the team that way too often struggles to score runs, the first decision that needs to be made is where he's going to play.  He came up as a shortstop but Francisco Lindor has that job locked down for the foreseeable future.  

They've tried him in the outfield where, other than Brandon Nimmo, the team has struggled to flank him with offensive weapons.  Unfortunately, in his limited time out there he looks more like Todd Hundley in the outfield than he does like Todd Hollandsworth.  

So some of the folks in the front office felt his future could be in the infield and he's been tried for a handful of games at 3rd base where Brett Baty and Mark Vientos have both played with a bit less defensive (and offensive) polish than folks expected.  Putting him at the hot corner creates a bit of a crowd there without ready answers for Baty nor Vientos.

He has mostly played second base in the minors and it's likely that's where he will start playing his major league games.  With the emergence of DJ Stewart and Jeff McNeil's ability to play the outfield, moving Mauricio to partner on double plays with Lindor seems to make the most sense while reducing the crowd at third.  

DH is another possibility as he excites folks more for his bat than his glove.  Given his power, speed and batting average he would be an improvement on many of the poorer choices the Mets have auditioned there, but surprisingly Daniel Vogelbach has been on something of a roll lately with home run power.  Consequently benching him while being understandable is likely not the wisest move to make as they consider whether or not the big man will be a part of next year's team.

Regardless of where he winds up playing, a hot rookie appearance for the first time will give the long suffering fans something to generate interest and enthusiasm in an otherwise mind numbing season from most of the team.  Welcome to New York City, Ronny.  Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day and no one expects you to hit for the cycle in your very first game.