The Mets’ Single-A affiliate had plenty of youth, but with youth comes inexperience.
First Half Record: 22-44 (4/4, Florida State League East)
Second Half Record: 23-40 (4/4, Florida State League East)
Since the realignment of minor league baseball in 2020/2021, St. Lucie—and every other team in the California State League, Carolina State League, and Florida State League, really—has been kind of funky in terms of roster management. Whereas the St. Lucie Mets used to be a High-A team full of players who had generally shown an ability to grasp the basics of professional baseball and needed to be challenged a bit more, they are now a Single-A team in a world with only a single domestic complex league beneath them. At any point in time, the St. Lucie Mets’ roster can be made of players making their stateside professional debuts, players with college experience making their professional debuts, high school players making their professional debuts, players with college experience and a little experience from the Florida Complex League, or high school players with a little experience from the Florida Complex League. On the whole, the average age for hitters and pitchers in the Florida State League in 2024 was 20.9 for hitters and 21.9 for pitchers, trending slightly down from 21.3 and 22.0 between 2021 and 2023.
During that span, the St. Lucie Mets have regularly fielded teams that were below-average in terms of median age, and the 2024 St. Lucie Mets were no different in that regard. With an average age of 20 for hitters and 21.4 for pitchers, the St. Lucie Mets were the youngest team in the league. The Jupiter Hammerheads and Lakeland Flying Tigers were the oldest, with a median hitter age of 21.9 and median pitcher age of 23, respectively.
On May 1, a 7-1 win over the aforementioned Hammerheads, St. Lucie had 2 players get onto the field making their full-season debuts and 4 players making their professional debuts, period. Over the course of the rest of that series, and the rest of the year, that number would grow. Unfortunately, with youth comes inexperience and growing pains, and as their laughable last place records in both the first and second halves highlight, St. Lucie players certainly went through their fair share of growing pains.
Speaking of pains, Marco Vargas was put on the injured list four times throughout the year- once due to wrist tendonitis and the others because of unannounced issues- and only played 37 games, hitting .208/.369/.239 with 4 doubles, 0 triples, 0 home runs, 13 stolen bases in 15 attempts, and 34 walks to 38 strikeouts.
Ranked the Mets 19th top prospect by Amazin’ Avenue to much controversy, Colin Houck had a season that lives very little margin for discussion: he was bad. That does not mean that he won’t recover, that does not mean that he won’t improve going forwards, that does not mean that he is a draft bust; his 2024 was a bad one, batting in .206/.304/.306 in 112 with 16 doubles, 5 triples, 5 home runs, 8 stolen bases in 12 attempts, 49 walks to 171 strikeouts, and 29 fielding errors.
While not premier prospects necessarily, A.J. Ewing, Willy Fanas, and Jeffry Rosa were all interesting players on the cusp. Ewing was promoted from the FCL Mets at the beginning of June but wasn’t able to keep his momentum going and ended up hitting an underwhelming .228/.345/.344 in 71 games with 10 doubles, 2 triples, 5 home runs, 8 stolen bases in 12 attempts, and 44 walks to 87 strikeouts. Fanas was promoted at the same time and ended up hitting .200/.267/.268 in 58 games with 5 doubles, 3 triples, 1 home run, 2 stolen bases in 6 attempts, and 16 walks to 61 strikeouts. Rosa was sent back down to the FCL Mets in July after being assigned there in early May and ended up hitting .149/.284/.234 in 42 games with 3 doubles, 0 triples, 3 home runs, 2 stolen bases in 3 attempts, and 16 walks to 59 strikeouts.
It wasn’t all bad though. Jesus Baez appeared in 64 games for St. Lucie before being promoted to Brooklyn in early July—and eventually missing the rest of the season with injury—and hit .262/.338/.444 with 14 doubles, 1 triple, 10 home runs, 8 stolen bases in as many attempts, and 25 walks to 46 strikeouts. Boston Baro appeared in 84 games and hit .288/.368/.399 with 16 doubles, 4 triples, 4 home runs, 8 stolen bases in 9 attempts, and 41 walks to 66 strikeouts. Ronald Hernandez appeared in 98 games and hit .271/.362/.359 with 12 doubles, 2 triples, 5 home runs, 7 stolen bases in 9 attempts, and 47 walks to 96 strikeouts. Nick Morabito stung the hell out of the ball for a month at the beginning of the year on his way to a .300+ season, Carson Benge made his professional debut at the end of the season and was rocking a swing much better suited to professional baseball, and perhaps most importantly, Jonah Tong announced his arrival in a big way, dominating the Florida State League for a month before going on to do the same to the South Atlantic League and the Eastern League.