2026 Minor League Season Review: St. Lucie Mets

First Half Record: 33-33 (2/4 Florida State League East)

Second Half Record: 25-39 (3/4 Florida State League East)

The 2025 St. Lucie Mets were a powerhouse. The team went 34-31 in the first half to win the Florida State League East Division and went 43-22 in the second half, once again finding themselves atop the standings. They met the Daytona Tortugas in the FSL East Divisional Series but fell two games to one, ending their season.

The 2026 team, on the other hand, at no point were really that relevant of a team. In the first half, they went an even 33-33 to end the season second in the division, but they still found themselves 4.0 games behind the first place Jupiter Hammerheads. In the second half, they were a dismal 25-39, somehow not last in the division but irrelevant in the standings all the same.

Towards the end of the season, some of the 2026 draftees began making appearances, but outside of individual milestones or appearances, the 2026 St. Lucie Mets season wasn't particularly fun or exciting.

Elian Peña: 96 G, 365 AB, .271/.388/.397, 99 H, 18 2B, 2 3B, 8 HR, 61 BB, 94 K, 28/37 SB, .343 BABIP

Considered one of the best players available in the 2025-2026 international free agent class, and potentially the best position player available, the Mets and Elian Peña agreed to a $5 million dollar signing bonus, shattering the prior organizational record (Yovanny Rodriguez, $2.85 million) and eating up the majority of the $6,261,600 that the team had in their 2025-2026 pool.

Assigned to the Dominican Summer League, the 17-year-old Peña has had an interesting start to his career. It took him nearly two weeks to log his first professional hit, going 0-fer from June 2nd until June 14th. After finally getting over that hurtle, Peña hit an incredible .351/.467/.635 over the course of the rest of the season, hitting .292/.421/.528 in total with 13 doubles, 1 triple, 9 home runs, 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts, and 36 walks to 36 strikeouts in 55 games.

He was promoted to the Low-A St. Lucie Mets for the 2026 season and a somewhat divisive year. In total, he appeared in 96 games for St. Lucie and hit .271/.388/.397 with 18 doubles, 2 triples, 8 home runs, 28 stolen bases in 37 attempts, and 61 walks to 94 strikeouts. For large stretches of the season, Elian Peña looked meek at the plate, going up and alternating between taking too many pitches or taking bad hacks. For other stretches, he looked like a star, spraying the ball around the field and pulling fly balls for homers. Regardless of the actual offensive value he created, Peña spent the year playing against pitchers and fielders three years older than him, on average, and that in and of itself is a major positive. In late August, he was promoted to High-A Brooklyn and appeared in 15 games for them, hitting .164/.250/.224 in a ballpark that is the exact antithesis of his left-handed pull-and-lift approach.

Emilio Obispo: 14 G (10 GS), 53.1 IP, 43 H, 19 R, 12 ER (2.03 ERA), 24 BB, 54 K, .285 BABIP

Emilio Obispo was signed by the Mets in May 2024, just prior to the start of the 2024 Dominican Summer League season. The Dominican right-hander was given a low five-figure signing bonus and was suiting up for the DSL Mets a few weeks later. The 17-year-old right-hander appeared in 9 games for the DSL Mets Orange, starting all of them, and posted a 3.47 ERA in 36.1 innings, allowing 21 hits, walking 12, and striking out 41. He was assigned to the FCL Mets for the 2025 season but never actually played, missing the entire season due to an injury.

Obispo returned to the mound in 2026, and after analyzing his progress during extended spring training, the Mets made the decision to begin the season in Low-A St. Lucie, a challenging assignment for the 19-year-old. He rewarded the faith that scouts and evaluators in the organization had in him by posting a 2.03 ERA in 53.1 innings over 10 starts and 4 relief appearances, allowing 43 hits, walking 24, and striking out 54. In late July, the right-hander was promoted to High-A Brooklyn, where he appeared in 6 games with them, all starts, and posted a 3.76 ERA in 27.0 innings, allowing 23 hits, walking 12, and striking out 28.

Obispo throws from a low-three-quarters arm slot with a long arm action through the back. He does not push off or extend much off the mound and as such, his whippy arm has a comparatively high release point. The right-hander throws a sinker, four-seam fastball, changeup, and curveball. During his time with St. Lucie, he threw his sinker roughly 45% of the time, his changeup 25% of the time, his curveball 20% of the time, his four-seam fastball 10% of the time.

Obispo's sinker sits in the high-80s-to-high-90s, the volatility in its velocity highlighting the potential but unpredictability in 19-year-old right-hander. Averaging 93 MPH, the pitch features 18 inches of horizontal arm-side break, above-average for a sinker. Florida State League batters hit .217/.330/.265 against it with a 22% whiff rate. His four-seam fastball finds itself in roughly the same velocity range, sitting in the low-to-high-90s, averaging 94 MPH, but because it does not feature much backspin or sidespin, it features fringe-average life and below-average induced vertical break, resulting in batters hitting a healthy .273/.333/.500 against it with a suboptimal 8% whiff rate.

His changeup sits in the low-to-high-80s, averaging 84 MPH. With a spin rate ranging between 1,500 and 2,150, the pitch has averaged an average 35 inches of vertical drop and an above-average 18 inches of horizontal arm-side fade. The pitch has been Obispo's best offering, limited FSL batters to a .169/.247/.292 slash line with an impressive 46% whiff rate.

His curveball sits in the mid-70s-to-low-80s, averaging 80 MPH. The pitch has a low spin rate, averaging 2220 RPM, resulting in a big, loopy pitch that doesn't have much bite. Obispo occasionally struggles to land it in the strike zone, and batters hit .276/.364/.310 against it with a 36% whiff rate. Occasionally, he will fire one off that has sharper bite, and has the appearance of a gyro slider rather than a curveball.

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