Eli Serrano III impressing in Brooklyn to start season

Last Monday, David Groveman wrote about some early-season surprises in the Mets minor league system, and one of the most-prominent names mentioned was Eli Serrano III, a lefty-hitting outfielder starting the season with the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Having seen the Cyclones for six games in a series against the Hudson Valley Renegades two weeks ago, Serrano was really a player who stood out in both my eyes and in the eyes of scouts.

Drafted in the fourth round of the 2024 MLB Draft out of North Carolina State, Serrano won’t celebrate his 22^nd birthday until May 1. He has good size at 6-foot-5 and 201 pounds, but is lean and athletic. He has started games at all three outfield positions, but will likely end up in a corner.

Serrano has been praised, and rightfully so, in the early going of the season for what he has been doing at the bat. Although he is in a bit of a funk, going 1-for-25 in his last eight games, His on-base skills have carried him to the tune of a 23.2% walk rate and a .393 OBP.

He has also flashed legit power, homering in Brooklyn on April 6 and 8, with the latter home run going out to dead center at Maimonides Park, which is a cavernous 412 feet. It bears repeating that Brooklyn is a tough place for any lefty to hit for power, but those shots by Serrano were impressive.

Beyond his bat, Serrano has also shown a great ability defensively. In the five games he played against Hudson Valley, Serrano made two leaping catches in left field to rob extra-base hits while crashing into the wall and hanging on for the out. Both were balls that a regular left fielder wouldn’t have gotten to. He also had three outfield assists, throwing runners out at home each time.

A scout who watched Serrano said he would put a 65 grade on his arm, which is MLB All-Star caliber, and thought he had a plus glove also. This was expressed with a little bit of surprise, as the scout said he wasn’t expecting to be blown away by Serrano, but came away very impressed.

That is an extremely exciting scouting report for a player drafted in the fourth round of the draft. Ultimately, Serrano’s bat is what will carry him as a prospect, and while the results are not there in terms of average (batting .209) or big power numbers (3 extra-base hits) just yet, he passes the eye test.

His mature approach at the plate and peripheral skills point to his being able to be a successful hitter. Even in the games where he didn’t get hits, he grinded out at-bats and was a tough out.

So where does Serrano fit in in the Mets prospect hierarchy? MLB Pipeline ranks his as the #23 prospect in the system, while Baseball America’s preseason rankings did not rate Serrano in the club’s top 30. But he (and Chris Suero) out-shined higher-regarded position player prospects Carson Benge, Boston Baro, and Jacob Reimer during the week that I watched the Cyclones.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that he will ultimately become better than any of those players, but in my judgment, Serrano has the tools and polish to be a big-league regular. As a result for an under-slot fourth-round pick (Serrano was ranked around 100 spots lower than where he was picked), that result is pretty good.

It is hard to draft and develop big league regulars. And the Mets might have found a diamond in the rough with Serrano.