{"id":648979,"date":"2026-03-28T17:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/648979\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T17:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:20:13","slug":"mets-top-prospect-makes-jump-to-low-a-st-lucie-to-start-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/648979\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets\u2019 Top Prospect Makes Jump to Low-A St. Lucie to Start the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Mets<\/a> knew that they had something special when they signed Elian Pe\u00f1a to the largest international signing bonus in franchise history. Now, they are looking to fast-track Pe\u00f1a to Low-A St. Lucie for the start of the season.<\/p>\n

According to a post from Baseball America\u2019s Matt Eddy<\/a>, the Mets are assigning Pe\u00f1a to St. Lucie, which means he is skipping the Complex League at the age of 18. New York signed Pe\u00f1a out of the Dominican Republic for a $5 million signing bonus in January 2025 and appears to be moving the infielder quickly through their system.<\/p>\n

Pe\u00f1a had a strong first year in the Dominican Summer League last season. Despite starting the year 0-for-26, Pe\u00f1a finished with a .292\/.421\/.528 slash line, nine home runs, 37 RBI, and 21 stolen bases in 55 games. Perhaps most impressive was Pe\u00f1a\u2019s patience at the plate. He was far from a free swinger despite his young age, recording 36 strikeouts and 36 walks in 221 plate appearances.<\/p>\n

After just one year in the Mets\u2019 system, Pe\u00f1a is already creeping into the team\u2019s prospect lists. MLB Pipeline already slotted him as the ninth-best prospect for the Mets, while SNY Mets analyst Joe DeMayo has him ranked seventh in the organization. It is not a stretch to see Pe\u00f1a rank in the top 5 by next season, especially with prospects like Carson Benge<\/a> and Nolan McLean graduating to the big leagues this year.<\/p>\n

Pe\u00f1a already had a small taste of what to expect moving forward as he suited up for the Mets Spring Breakout game against the Tampa Bay Rays. He reached base twice in that game with a walk and a screaming single to right field that had an exit velocity of 102 mph off his bat. Pe\u00f1a even flashed his glove, playing a few innings of defense in the infield.<\/p>\n

Projections have Pe\u00f1a hitting the big league team in 2030 at the age of 22. Pe\u00f1a\u2019s natural position is shortstop, which is currently blocked by Francisco Lindor.<\/a> But in four years, Lindor will be 36 and entering the last year of his 10-year deal, so we could be seeing the early signs of a succession plan by the Mets.<\/p>\n

Either way, Pe\u00f1a promises to be the most-watched Mets prospect for the foreseeable future, and one that could be a cornerstone that the team builds around well into the 2030s.<\/p>\n

If you like our content,\u00a0choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Mets knew that they had something special when they signed Elian Pe\u00f1a to the largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":{"0":"post-648979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mets","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-mets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkmets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116307953525258574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}