2025 has been an excellent season for Mets prospects. Players like Jonah Tong, Nolan McLean, Carson Benge, A.J. Ewing, and Jacob Reimer have all had breakout years. Their individual success has translated into team triumphs, as the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, Brooklyn Cyclones, and St. Lucie Mets have each won their division’s first-half titles.
Let’s break down each of the three teams, how they got here, and the players who carried them to their division championships.
Binghamton Rumble Ponies
The Rumble Ponies boast an Eastern League-best 45–23 record. Their success has come from a dynamic mix of speed and pitching. Binghamton leads the league in stolen bases with 103, including three players with 20 or more. Leading the pack is Mets No. 16 prospect (per MLB Pipeline), Nick Morabito, with 27. He also leads the team in doubles with 21 and has posted an impressive .799 OPS as he adjusts nicely to his first Double-A season.
Jett Williams, the Mets’ top prospect, is right behind him with 20 stolen bases and a team-leading .913 OPS. After missing most of 2024 due to injury, Williams has emerged not only as Binghamton’s best player but arguably one of the top performers in all of Double-A. At this rate, he may not be in Binghamton much longer.
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| Top Prospect Jett Williams had led Binghamton to their second division title in three years |
Other key contributors include Ryan Clifford, who leads the team with 13 home runs and 41 RBIs, and Kevin Parada. Once struggling after being selected in the first round of the 2022 draft, Parada has caught fire in June with 12 RBIs and a 1.044 OPS. He’s second on the team with eight home runs.
On the mound, Binghamton has one of the best one-two punches in all of MiLB in Jonah Tong and Jack Wenninger. Tong leads the Eastern League with 107 strikeouts and holds a dominant 1.75 ERA over 67 innings. Wenninger, not to be outdone, is second in strikeouts with 86 and carries a 2.90 ERA with a 7–4 record.
Brooklyn Cyclones
Brooklyn, the team with the most top-30 prospects in the Mets’ system, also holds the best record in the South Atlantic League. The Cyclones regularly field lineups featuring 7–8 top prospects and have five hitters with an OPS of .800 or better. They lead the SAL in triples with 24.
The standout on this star-studded roster is arguably Jacob Reimer. The 21-year-old third baseman leads the team in OPS (.898), doubles (18), and runs scored (52). Ranked No. 17 in the Mets system, Reimer is enjoying a breakout season in Brooklyn and was recently promoted to Double-A Binghamton.
Joining him in Binghamton is Carson Benge, the Mets’ No. 3 prospect and a top-100 overall talent. Drafted 19th overall in 2024 out of Oklahoma State, Benge has lived up to his first-round billing. In 60 games with High-A Brooklyn, he hit .302 with an .897 OPS, five triples, 37 RBIs, and an impressive 41 walks against just 50 strikeouts.
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| After putting up dominant numbers with Brooklyn, Carson Benge is on his way to Double-A Binghamton |
New York native Chris Suero leads the team with nine home runs and 42 RBIs. A.J. Ewing, called up from St. Lucie just a month and a half ago, already has 33 stolen bases and has only been caught three times. Meanwhile, 20-year-old shortstop Jesus Baez is beginning to live up to his international hype, driving in 39 runs and showing a strong walk-to-strikeout ratio (25 BB to 37 K).
Pitching has also powered Brooklyn’s run. They lead the SAL in strikeouts with 707. R.J. Gordon and Noah Hall pace the staff with 65 strikeouts each. Hall, the Mets’ seventh-round pick in 2023, also leads the team in ERA at 2.39 over 60 innings. Brendan Girton, a 2024 tenth-round pick, has been a pleasant surprise with a 2.92 ERA in his first High-A season. Joel Díaz has been electric, posting 56 strikeouts and only eight walks in 52 innings.
St. Lucie Mets
St. Lucie is headed back to the FSL playoffs for the first time since 2022, when they won the championship with names like Alex Ramírez, Dom Hamel, and Calvin Ziegler.
This year, it’s been the starting pitching that has carried the Mets to a first-half division title. St. Lucie ranks third in team ERA, second in strikeouts, and first in opponent batting average at .213.
Wellington Aracena has led the rotation with a 2.87 ERA and 60 strikeouts, and he’s yet to allow a home run in 47 innings pitched. The 20-year-old right-hander is enjoying a strong first full season at Low-A.
The bullpen has also been a strength, highlighted by Hoss Brewer’s 1.00 ERA and team-leading six saves. Nineteen-year-old Franklin Gomez has been dominant in June, sporting a 1.46 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 12 innings.
Undrafted free agent Trace Willhoite has been a standout find. The 24-year-old infielder from Lipscomb University leads St. Lucie in OPS (.854), home runs (9), and RBIs (39). After going undrafted in 2024, Willhoite played most of the year in the MLB Draft League before the Mets signed him in March.
Colin Houck, the Mets’ 2023 first-round pick, is enjoying a strong bounce-back season in 2025. He’s raised his OPS by over 200 points and already surpassed last year’s home run total (8) in half the games. His improvement earned him a promotion to Brooklyn on June 22.
Team success in the minors doesn’t always translate to Major League wins. But for a Mets system that has struggled over the past decade to develop impactful big-league talent, this kind of on-field success across multiple MiLB levels is an encouraging sign for the organization's future.
5 comments:
Steve Sica, very nice minors highlight recap. Much more fun to write about winning teams, for sure.
I have been writing about the Mets minor leagues for 20+ years and I can't remember having three playoff teams qualifying at mid season
Ditto that. Been following Mets MiLB teams for about that same amount of time. I remember going to B-Met playoff games in Trenton in 2013 and 2017. Lost both times, ugh.
Thank you, Tom. Very true, nice change of pace from what we've been watching from the MLB team these last two weeks.
Teaching prospects how to play baseball is great. Teaching them how to win in baseball is greater.
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