First Half Record: 34-31 (1/4, Florida State League East Division)
Second Half Record: 43-22 (1/4 Florida State League East Division)
The St. Lucie Mets were the worst team in all of Minor League Baseball
in 2023 with a 44-84 total record and were the second worst team in 2024, with a 45-84 total record. The trend of improvement continued in 2025, but it was not a marginal, incremental improvement like there was comparing 2024 to 2023. The St. Lucie Mets were not just better; they were a whole lot better.
The St. Lucie Mets opening day roster had numerous top prospects on it- Jesus Baez (9), Jeremy Rodriguez (12), Nate Dohm (14), Marco Vargas (15), Trey Snyder (18), Will Watson (22), and Daiverson Gutierrez (23)- as well as players who had just missed the top 25 prospect list- most notably A.J. Ewing, Colin Houck, and Simon Juan- and potentially high-upside wildcards such as Matthew Allan, Robert Dominguez, and Raimon Gomez. While the team might have been missing premium talent, there was a lot of depth.
The team was not exactly dominant in the first half, but they won the Florida State League East Division with a 34-31 record, benefiting from an extremely weak division; St. Lucie was the only team in the FSL East to finish the first half over .500. When the second half of the Single-A season began on June 18, St. Lucie finally began dominating. The team went 43-22, once again winning the division and steamrolling through the rest of the Florida State League.
When the season ended, the St. Lucie Mets had a cumulative 77-53 record, the best in the Florida State League in 2025 and their best winning percentage (.592) since the 2012 St. Lucie Mets went 83-52 (.615). The team also set a franchise-record with 282 stolen bases on the season and established a single-season high on September 6 when the team stole 13 bases against the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels.
St. Lucie met the Daytona Tortugas in the FSL East Divisional Series, but fell two games to one, ending their season. St. Lucie had a 20-10 record against them this season and seemed to have the advantage, with both teams 1-2 in the league in terms of offense but St. Lucie having a decided pitching advantage, but things were not meant to be. The Mets won the first game of the series 4-2 but lost the second game 7-2 and the clincher 2-0.
TEAM MVP
Trace Willhoite: 85 G, 287 AB, .265/.382/.470, 76 H, 13 2B, 2 3B, 14 HR, 47 BB, 76 K, 14/14 SB, .310 BABIP
(Runner Up: Yonatan Henriquez)
When an athlete stands out as compared to his teammates and/or competition, we sometimes say that they were a man among boys. In the case of Trace Willhoite, that was literally true. Signed as an undrafted free agent just prior to the start of the 2025 season in March, the 24-year-old was assigned to the St. Lucie Mets, where he was roughly 3 years older than the league average for hitters. Wilhoite was promoted to the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones in mid-August, but in the four-and-a-half months he was rostered with St. Lucie, he had only 35 plate appearances against a pitcher who was older than him.
In the end, regardless of his age, Willhoite was better than any other batter on the St. Lucie Mets, period. His fourteen home runs led the team by a wide margin (Yonatan Henriquez and Colin Houck both hit eight), his batting average was second to only Yohairo Cuevas among qualified batters, and his OPS was best on the team among qualified batters.
TEAM CY YOUNG
Wellington Aracena: 17 G (8 GS), 64.1 IP, 38 H, 23 R, 17 ER (2.38 ERA), 35 BB, 84 K, .260 BABIP
(Runner Up: Frank Elissalt)
Wellington Aracena burst onto the scene in 2025 like a streaking comet; as soon as we noticed and started paying attention, he was gone. Now, we can’t see him.
An unheralded $70,000 signing during the 2022-2023 international free agent signing period, Aracena struggled a bit when the season started, perhaps due to his alternating use as a starter and piggy-back reliever, but when he finally locked in, the right-hander began turning heads. Fine-tuning his repertoire (fastball, cutter, slider-changeup) and learning to throw what, when, and where, the results started speaking for themselves.
A few days prior to the 2025 MLB trade deadline, he was traded along with Cameron Foster to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for left-hander Gregory Soto. Baltimore assigned him to the Delmarva Shorebirds, their Carolina League Single-A affiliate, where he made a single start, throwing 4.2 scoreless innings. He was then promoted to the Aberdeen IronBirds, their South Atlantic League High-A affiliate, to end the season. He appeared in 5 games for them and posted a 2.35 ERA in 23.0 innings, allowing 10 hits, walking 15, and striking out 24.
