The Rockaway Wave
Originally Published April 18, 2025
Eli Serrano III has been the biggest breakout name for the Brooklyn Cyclones in the first few weeks of the season. He’s hit a few mammoth home runs, thrown a couple of runners out at the plate, and set social media ablaze. Mets fans believe they have a breakout prospect on their hands.
As for Serrano, he’s just trying to have fun.
“Just stay happy while I’m playing,” Serrano said when talking about his goal for himself this season. “Keep my mind up, stay in good spirits, because you know how the game beats you down. I just want to come in every day with a smile on my face, come out every day with a smile on my face.”
Serrano was a 4th-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft and made his professional debut in Single-A St. Lucie last season. He impressed, hitting .238/.333/.444/.777 with seven extra-base hits in just 17 games. Serrano did a lot of what usually helps hitters have success: He hit the ball hard and he pulled the ball, often times in the air.
Based on data provided by Thomas Nestico (@TJStats on X), Serrano’s average exit velocity of 90.2 mph and hard-hit percentage of 48.6% were both in the 95th percentile or better among hitters in the Florida State League. His pull percentage of 54.3% and pulled fly ball percentage of 42.1% were in the 95th percentile or better as well.
It’s an extremely small sample size, and it’s incomplete data. Not every Single-A ballpark is Statcast-enabled, and only 56 of Serrano’s 72 plate appearances are accounted for in this sample. Still, for what there is publicly available data on, Serrano crushed the ball.
However, contrary to what you’d expect for a 6-foot-5 lefty who loves to pull the ball, Serrano did not hit for a ton of power in college at NC State. He hit some, slugging seven home runs in 2023 and nine in 2024, but he was not a consistent home run threat.
“I think power is something that is the last thing to come, it’s the last thing of development in every player, I think,” NC State head coach Elliott Avent said. “You gotta learn how to hit, and hitting’s so hard in this game, power’s the last thing to come.”
Avent compared him to Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich, and said that he has a big frame to grow into. Serrano himself also mentioned those two as players he tries to model himself after.
“Both long, lanky lefties that I kind of relate with because I am long and lanky myself,” Serrano said.
So far this season, his power has shown up. In 10 games, Serrano is hitting .235/.409/.441/.850 with two home runs and a double. Both home runs came at home at Maimonides Park, which is a notoriously difficult park for lefties to hit in. Pulling two home runs, including one deep to right- center, turned heads.
Serrano has stolen three bases this season, already a third of all the bases he stole in two years in college. It’s something he was practicing all spring, learning to trust himself on the basepaths.
“I have speed. I’m long, but I do have speed,” Serrano said. “… Stealing bags, it seems like a hard thing, but if you just trust yourself and run with it, it kind of becomes easier.”
Serrano has also made multiple standout plays in the outfield. On April 9, while playing center field, he threw out two runners at the plate in one game. The next day, while playing left field, he threw out another runner at second and made a highlight catch crashing into the wall.
“He’s a guy that thrives for those moments,” Cyclones manager Gilbert Gómez said. “Found the wall, put his body out there, made a great catch to keep us in the game.”
While he has mainly been an outfielder in his baseball career, that wasn’t always the case. When Serrano was a freshman at NC State, the team needed a first baseman. Serrano was the one who got the job.
“He was an outfielder his whole life,” Avent said. “He went to first base and worked so hard, and became such an above-average first baseman as a freshman playing every day. For me, that was amazing.”
The next year, Serrano moved back to the outfield, and the Mets drafted him as an outfielder. So far in 2025, he’s played all three outfield positions.
So yes, he’s an outfielder, not a first baseman. But for Avent, the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks about Serrano is how he was able to take on the task of being the team’s primary first baseman when they needed him to.
A college bat, Serrano will turn 22 years old on May 1. If he keeps playing well, he could be a player who moves quickly through the system.
“I think it depends on how he performs, how quickly he can adjust and go through the growing of a long season for the first time, first full season for him,” Gómez said. “He definitely has the talent to move up quickly, but like I said, let’s see how things unravel over the next couple of weeks. See how he responds to adversity and things of that nature before we jump the gun on that.”
Jorge Eckardt Portfolio 