As one of A.J. Ewing\u2019s biggest fans in the baseball industry, Joe Raccuia wants to talk about the New York Mets\u2019 most recent call-up but apologizes at the beginning of a conversation.<\/p>\n
His voice is weak, so if anything is unclear, ask him to repeat, and he will, he says.<\/p>\n
Raccuia, a scout for the Kansas City Royals focusing on hitting development, is recovering in a hospital from a recent stroke. Earlier this year, his son, Joey, died in a car crash at 19 years old.<\/p>\n
In a year full of incomprehensible pain, Raccuia said that watching Ewing makes him feel a little better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps,\u201d Raccuia said Friday by phone.<\/p>\n
So Raccuia starts talking. Because the topic is Ewing, he is up for a chat. He talked to another news outlet, too, and he will keep speaking about Ewing for anyone who asks. Raccuia previously worked for the Mets and was Ewing\u2019s signing scout.<\/p>\n
When he speaks about Ewing, there is no need to ask him to repeat anything. His words come out clear and strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took one swing,\u201d Raccuia said.<\/p>\n
Seeing the ease of Ewing\u2019s stroke and his quickness to the ball during a game early on in the high school season in 2023, Raccuia said he thought to himself, \u201cWait a minute here.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2023, Raccuia was a New York Mets area scout in Ohio. At the time, he heard Ewing was the kind of high school player worth a look. Nothing much more. He even arrived late to see Ewing, having traveled from a college game. Then he watched the swing. It was one of the best he had seen in his area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just fell in love with the hitter,\u201d Raccuia said.<\/p>\n
Three years later, Ewing keeps winning people over. With the Mets desperate to turn their season around while dealing with injuries throughout their lineup, they called up Ewing this week to provide a spark as their everyday center fielder. The 21-year-old quickly made a positive impression.<\/p>\n
Through four games, Ewing\u2019s OPS stands at 1.105.<\/p>\n
A handful of Ewing\u2019s tools stand out, including his speed and defense. All of Ewing\u2019s strengths contributed to his fast rise through the Mets\u2019 farm system. However, it was his bat and confidence that captured the Mets\u2019 attention and motivated them to beat out two other teams to get him.<\/p>\n
In the 2023 amateur draft, the Mets picked Ewing in the fourth round because they couldn\u2019t afford to wait any longer. On draft day, they considered it a three-team race for Ewing with the Boston Red Sox and San Diego Padres showing serious interest, league sources said. The Padres did not have a fifth-round pick and were trying to overpay to take him in the sixth round. The Mets ended up signing Ewing for $675,000 (the slot value for the pick was $483,000).<\/p>\n
The Mets sent more scouts beyond Raccuia to see Ewing. Marc Tramuta (now with the Toronto Blue Jays), Tommy Tanous (now with the Colorado Rockies) and Drew Toussaint (Mets amateur scouting director) were among those in leadership positions.<\/p>\n
Everyone who traveled to watch Ewing returned with strong reviews. Ewing is 5 foot 10 and 160 pounds. Back then, the Mets were not concerned about his size because he showed enough bat speed and raw power combined with his speed to make them think he\u2019d offer plenty of slugging.<\/p>\n
Ewing\u2019s perceived swagger turned off some teams. Mets officials loved that part of his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some of the interviews, a lot of people are trying to be super cookie cutter and show off the best version of themselves, but I just try to be myself,\u201d Ewing said. \u201cI think I come off as a pretty confident person. I don\u2019t know if that had anything to do with it. I\u2019m big on being myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Raccuia, Ewing\u2019s makeup was anything but a deterrent. It was another reason to advocate for him.<\/p>\n
After that first game Raccuia scouted, he called Ewing and set up a meeting for the next day. Inside Ewing\u2019s home, Raccuia spoke with him for two hours while Ewing\u2019s mother was in another room. The one-on-one conversation, a rarity for high school players, Raccuia said, revealed Ewing\u2019s maturity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis makeup was off the charts,\u201d Raccuia said. \u201cHe wanted to win, he had a passion for the game and he wanted to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ewing said that he didn\u2019t know of another scout who watched more of his games than Raccuia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept going back,\u201d Raccuia said.<\/p>\n
And he kept pushing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe pushed hard for me,\u201d Ewing said. \u201cNo one pushed harder for me than him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As one of A.J. Ewing\u2019s biggest fans in the baseball industry, Joe Raccuia wants to talk about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,1189,99],"class_list":["post-647453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}