by For the first two weeks of the season, you would have been hard pressed to find a hotter hitter in High-A, and maybe all of Minor League Baseball, than Chris Suero.
The No. 21 prospect in the Mets organization on MLB Pipeline, Suero started his season by picking up a hit in nine of his first 10 games, and four of which were multi-hit affairs. He slugged five home runs and six doubles in those games, boosting his slash line to .351/.415/.919/1.334.
“One thing that I think that’s helped him is that he has an uppercut swing, and he can elevate pretty well on contact, and I think that’s what he was doing here in the early going,” Sam Dykstra, who is in charge of putting together the Mets top 30 prospects list for MLB Pipeline, said. “If you’re gonna be a power hitter in Brooklyn, it’s better to be a left-handed one than a right-handed one
Dykstra said Suero is someone he circled to start the year due to his profile as a catcher with plus speed, which is something that is so rarely seen. He’s still pretty new to catching, so he’s still learning the position, but he’s spending most of his time behind the dish. He does have experience in left field and at first base, however, giving him legitimate multi-position versatility.
There’s even the possibility of the Mets giving him looks in center field, Dykstra said, but on a Cyclones team that includes Carson Benge, Eli Serrano III and others, there’s already a surplus of center field options. It’s still on the table, it just hasn’t happened yet.
Even though he’s a bit undersized, Dykstra does believe Suero can stick as a catcher long term and has been encouraged by his early-season success throwing out baserunners. Most likely, though, he profiles best as a backup catcher and fourth outfielder.
“I think that’s where his value is gonna be,” Dykstra said. “Usually, you have somebody who is a fourth outfielder and you have somebody who’s your backup catcher, and those are two different roster spots. He can bridge that gap and cover both of those just himself and open up another spot on the bench for somebody else. I think that’s value in itself.”
He’s cooled off recently at the plate, but through 18 games, Suero is still hitting .241/.389/.603/.992. His OPS is good for second on the team among qualifiers through Wednesday.
The only player ahead of him? Jacob Reimer, who hit three home runs on Wednesday to become the first Cyclone to do so since 2005.
Reimer made his Cyclones debut back in 2023, earning a late-season call-up after a successful few months in Single-A St. Lucie. The 2022 fourth-round pick made it as high as No. 15 in the Mets organization in MLB Pipeline’s rankings heading into 2024, but missed most of last season with a hamstring injury and never really got going once he returned.
He slid slightly to No. 20 entering 2025, but has been tearing the cover off the ball to begin the year. In 21 games, Reimer is hitting .318/.383/.659/1.042 with a staggering 16 extra-base hits, the most in the entire South Atlantic League. He also played 17 games in the Arizona Fall League this past offseason and posted a .730 OPS as one of the younger players there.
“The hit tool has always been there for him, can play a decent third base, might have to move around to the outfield,” Dykstra said. “I’m gonna be interested to see how the power comes around. This is somebody who we thought had this in his bag, and somebody who’s repeating High-A now for the third-straight year, maybe we shouldn’t be too shocked that he’s doing this now that he’s healthy. I think the real challenge is gonna come at Double-A.”
He’s still just 21 years old and will be for the rest of the year, but if he keeps hitting the way he has, a promotion to Double-A at some point down the road is definitely on the table.
Also among the current Cyclones who could see Double-A later this season is the aforementioned Benge, the Mets’ first-round pick in 2024. A 22-year-old college bat out of Oklahoma State, Benge made his professional baseball debut last season at Single-A and impressed with an .856 OPS, and he’s picked up right where he left off to begin 2025.
Through 18 games, Benge is hitting .300/.402/.443/.845 with one home run, one triple and five doubles. His 20.7% strikeout rate is second-best among Cyclones qualifiers, and his 14.6% walk rate is third-best.
Benge is the No. 3 prospect in the Mets organization and No. 97 in baseball on MLB Pipeline, and the highest-ranked Mets prospect currently in Brooklyn.
“The interesting thing for me with him is, he was a two-way guy at Oklahoma State. Now, he’s no longer that, and that’s one reason why we pushed him on the top 100,” Dykstra said. “Somebody who’s now only focused on hitting, that’s going to allow him to grow even more on that side.”
Benge could be on the same trajectory that Drew Gilbert, who was a top 100 MLB prospect and one of the highest ranked in the Mets system, was on before injuries hampered him for a good chunk of 2024. Gilbert was thought to have a chance to make his big league debut as early as 2024 if things went well, but he struggled mightily in the 62 minor league games he played last season.
“Last year, he was dealing with the right hamstring strain. I saw him in the Arizona Fall League, it’s like he was somebody who was basically stuck in second gear, which is not the way Drew Gilbert has ever played,” Dykstra said. “You go back to his time at Tennessee, the amount of times I’ve heard ‘he plays like a man with his hair on fire’ is plentiful. That’s always been his game.”
Dykstra likened Gilbert to Suero, who needs to lift and pull the ball because he’s a bit undersized, which didn’t happen a lot in 2024. The power didn’t show up much, and as a result he slid out of the MLB top 100 and down to No. 10 in the Mets organization, leapfroged by players who had much stronger 2024s like Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong, and new arrivals to the organization like Benge and international free agent signing Elian Peña. Dykstra did say that in many other systems, he would likely be in the 5-to-7 range.
Gilbert started better in 2025, beating up on the younger competition while rehabbing in Single-A to start the year, but has come back down to earth now that he’s back in Triple-A.
“Everything I was told by the Mets this offseason is like, ‘Hey, listen, that was not the real Drew Gilbert. The injury was really a focus for him. He didn’t want to re-injure himself in the fall league. You’re gonna see him be closer to that this year.’ We haven’t seen it so far.”
Benge and Gilbert, both left-handed outfielders drafted out of college, could see themselves competing for playing time in the not-too-distant future. As it stands right now, Benge, who has more power potential, has more momentum than Gilbert does.
One prospect with serious helium, who also jumped Gilbert on the Mets’ list, is infielder Jesus Baez. After making it to Brooklyn at just 19 years old last season, Baez suffered a torn meniscus eight games into his Cyclones career. However, what he showed in Single-A was enough to boost him from No. 21, which is what he was entering last season, to No. 7 entering this season.
Baez has power potential to dream on, especially up the middle, and while he may ultimately be ticketed for third base due to his below-average speed, Dykstra said the Mets are still interested in keeping him at shortstop and second base.
Dykstra cited his 104.6 mph 90th percentile exit velocity as a teenager — a mark he said would be good for the majors — and said if he can learn to pull the ball in the air more, it’ll help his power play even better in games.
“Everything seemed to be ticking up, and then he underwent that right knee torn meniscus, which really halted his progress,” Dykstra said. “But everything was ticking up in the right direction for him.”
Baez is off to a slow start to begin 2025, hitting just .173 with a .450 OPS in his first 12 games for Brooklyn, but it’s still very much in small-sample-size territory.
Brooklyn also had a bit of a roster shakeup this past weekend, sending pitchers Zach Thornton and Ryan Lambert to Double-A Binghamton while calling up young hitters Marco Vargas and A.J. Ewing from Single-A St. Lucie.
Thornton has been Brooklyn’s most effective starting pitcher to begin the season, giving up just one earned run in 20 and ⅔ innings over four starts, striking out 25 and walking just two. As for Lambert, he’s one of the most intriguing relief pitcher prospects in the organization.
In eight innings in 2025 as a Cyclone, Lambert gave up just one run on three hits and a walk while striking out 17. A 22-year-old fireballer, Lambert can pump it up to triple digits and throws a strong slider to go with it. If he continues to have success, there’s an outside chance he could make his MLB debut this year.
“Once you reach Double-A, I think it’s well within reason that anybody could go to the majors,” Dykstra said. “So the fact that he’s doing this already … we’ll have to see how many bullets he has left by August and September, but if you’ve got a guy who can scrape 99-to-100, and he’s sitting there maybe in [Triple-A] Syracuse by that point, I think the Mets would have to consider it.”
Brooklyn’s new arrivals, Vargas and Ewing, are a pair of youngsters who got off to explosive starts in Single-A.
Vargas, who was acquired by the Mets from the Miami Marlins in 2023 in the David Robertson trade, had a lot of hype around him when he first got to the organization. At that time, Vargas was an 18-year-old who was lighting up the Florida Complex League, however, he struggled when he got to the Mets organization and then again in 2024, albeit in just 37 games due to wrist tendinitis.
It’s been a different story in 2025, with Vargas hitting .409 with a 1.072 OPS in 13 games in Single-A before his promotion.
Dykstra said Vargas has always had strong strike zone awareness and ability to put the ball in play, and the question with him will be how much power he can hit for, especially coming back from a wrist injury.
“One of those things that I think gets scouts really excited is the quality of swing decisions, and that’s something that you can have regardless of how your wrist is doing,” Dykstra said. “But, with him, he was making good swing decisions, but it just wasn’t very loud contact. If it gets to that 40 [grade] level again, which is what we’re seeing, then you’ll have a little bit more eyes.”
Ewing was also hitting .400 at the time of his promotion and accompanied that with a 1.121 OPS, largely thanks to eight extra-base hits. Four of those were triples, which, accompanied by 14 stolen bases, shows off his speed.
The 2023 4th round draft pick has a smooth left-handed swing that can generate some pop, and has played a lot of second base and center field in his minor league career, joining Brooklyn’s surplus. He also has over 250 innings at second base, and a handful of starts in the corner outfield, so expect him to move around the diamond with the Cyclones.
“Once he gets to a level, he reaches the level of the league really well and exceeds it with time,” Dykstra said. “Didn’t have a great time at St. Lucie last year, that’s why we have him at No. 27 right now. But, going back there, learned the lessons, adjusted, and is taking off again. So, he might get off to a slow start with Brooklyn, but the pieces are there for him to be interesting again, and maybe a month or two from now, he’s back on course.”
With the promotions of Vargas and Ewing, the Cyclones have the potential for something rare and exciting: a full lineup of top 30 prospects. Brooklyn has nine hitters in MLB Pipeline’s top 30 currently on the roster. If one of Suero or Ronald Hernandez — the club’s two main catchers — plays first base as both have done already this year, one through nine in the batting order can be comprised of true top prospects.
That doesn’t happen every day.
The Brooklyn Cyclones season is underway! For promotion and ticket information, visit www.milb.com/brooklyn.
