The Arizona Fall League has come to an end. The Mets’ prospect affiliated team, the Scottsdale Scorpions were eliminated from the AFL playoffs in the semifinals, despite putting up the best AFL record this season at 18-10. Let’s take a closer look at how each Met prospect did this fall in the desert.
C/LF Chris Suero .283/.353/.567
Suero brought his power from his successful season in Double-A to Arizona. His five home runs were tied for the Scottsdale team lead. He drove in 14 runs and had an impressive .924 OPS. Suero played in a little more than half of Scottsdale’s games, starting in 15 of them and had 61 at-bats. He also used his speed to steal eight bases while never getting caught. Overall, the AFL season was a success for Suero, who is the Mets’ #15 prospect per MLB Pipeline. His numbers at the plate only help raise his stock as a top prospect within the organization, and gives the Mets brass something to think about on how they want to move forward with the talented Bronx native.
In the field, he alternated roles as a left fielder and catcher. There’s a bottleneck at the catcher position in the higher levels of the Met organization, which is why they used him in left field for a bit in the summer. In Arizona, Suero would play four games in left field, eight at catcher, and two at first base. Suero had a perfect fielding percentage at each position.
Chris Suero comes off the field in Scottsdale
OF Nick Morabito .362/.450/.464
The Mets’ #16 prospect enjoyed a stellar season in his month with Scottsdale. Morabito used his speed to hustle out enough infield hits to raise his batting average to .362. Good enough for fourth place on the team overall. Speaking of speed, Morabito led the Scorpions in stolen bases with 16, double the amount of the player that finished in second place. He had an OPS of .914 and continued to show patience and discipline at the plate drawing 10 walks to 15 strikeouts.
Morabito is part of a group of Met hitting prospects that all have a similar profile, such as Jett Williams, a fellow AFL alum from last year, and A.J Ewing. That prototype is high contact, blazing speed, and taking smart at-bats with working walks and driving up pitch counts.
After one of the most impressive AFL seasons from any prospect this season, the Mets need to make a decision about whether or not Morabito is involved in their future plan. He’s Rule 5 eligible and the Mets have until 6pm ET tonight to add him to the 40-man roster. If not, they risk losing him to the Rule 5 draft scheduled for December 10th.
A second round pick for the Mets in 2022, Morabito has established himself as a great contact hitting and speedy prospect. If left unprotected, there will be no shortage of teams that’ll be more than happy to take him off the Mets’ hands.
Nick Morabito waits in the on deck circle at an AFL game in Mesa, AZ
OF John Bay:
A late addition to the AFL roster, Bay wasn't even in the Mets’ organization just four months ago. Signed in late July as an UDFA, he impressed in Single and High-A enough for the Mets to sneak him into the last couple weeks of the AFL season.
Bay went 1-for-10 with an RBI and two walks in his short AFL stint. Despite those numbers, I’m still very intrigued on what John Bay can do in a full MiLB season and expect him to start 2026 in High-A Brooklyn.
RHP Brett Banks:
One bad outing in relief ballooned Banks’ season ERA to 6.00, but don’t be deceived. Banks was one of the most reliable relievers out of the Scottsdale bullpen. In six innings of work, Banks had 13 strikeouts, five walks, and allowed just six hits. He also collected one save and had a SO/9 ratio of 19.5.
After putting up a solid season across Low-A and High-A with an ERA of 2.23 in 36 IP, Banks’ looks to continue to put himself into the conversation of future Met relievers as we head towards Spring Training 2026.
RHP Bryce Jenkins:
Coming off a season where he spent more time in the IL than on the field, Jenkins came into the AFL season after just throwing 12 innings in MiLB games this summer.
It was a bit of a rough month for Jenkins, who in eight innings pitched had an ERA of 7.56 with 10 walks and eight strikeouts. Drafted by the Mets’ in 2023, we have yet to see Jenkins in a full season of MiLB work. He’ll be turning 25 next April, and we can hope that 2026, he’ll avoid the IL and show off his talent in a full season.
RHP Austin Troesser:
Like Jenkins, Troesser was bitten by the injury bug for most of the 2025 MiLB season. He fared well in the AFL, pitching in 4 ⅔ innings to the tune of a 3.86 ERA, with four strikeouts and 21 batters faced. Troesser was the Mets’ fourth round pick in 2023, so the ceiling remains high for him. We shall see how he progresses in 2026.
Find recap, Steve. You did leave out D’Andre Smith, who did not play much and then left the team, but had a.353 OBP and 6 of 6 in steals in 31 plate appearances.
ReplyDeleteIt was either that the hitting in this year’s AFL was better, or the pitching in this year’s AFL was worse, or both. But the AFL is a very high runs per game venture. Teams’ ERAs, combined, exceeded 6.00
The numbers almost feel like the Pacific coast league, which has had inflated runs and inflated batting averages. Nonetheless, Morabito and Suero did quite well. And the pitchers did OK against challenging hitters.