JT Benson
Week: 5 G, 16 AB, .250/.400/.813, 4 H, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 3 BB, 5 K, 0/1 SB (High-A)
2026 Season: 33 G, 116 AB, .276/.361/.578, 32 H, 10 2B, 5 3B, 5 HR, 11 BB, 36 K, 8/11 SB, .355 BABIP (Single-A) / 19 G, 63 AB, .238/.360/.460, 15 H, 6 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 8 BB, 20 K, 3/5 SB, .317 BABIP (High-A)
This was not a good week for the Mets minor league offense. In total, the St. Lucie Mets, Brooklyn Cyclones, Binghamton Rumble Ponies, and Syracuse Mets hit 16 home runs in a combined 24 games. Add in two triples
and twenty-seven doubles, and that’s 45 total extra base hits over 24 games, which comes out to roughly two per game. JT Benson was responsible for 2 home runs and 4 extra base hits- 13% of all of the home runs hit this week and 8% of all of the extra base hits- and is our Mets minor league hitter of the week as a result.
Johnathon Tyler Benson was signed by the Mets this March. Previously, he attended the University of Louisville, where he played for three seasons, hitting a cumulative .284/.402/.494 in 128 games with 16 home runs, 51 stolen bases, and 66 walks to 96 strikeouts between 2022 and 2024. The outfielder went undrafted after graduating and played for the Lake Country DockHounds, an independent team in the American Association. There, he hit .286/.385/.418 in 27 games with 2 home runs, 9 stolen bases, and 9 walks to 19 strikeouts. The right-hander was unable to garner a contract with a major league team and returned to the indies in 2025, signing a contract with the Evansville Otters of the Frontier Association. There, he hit .295/.412/.477 in 80 games, with 10 home runs, 24 walks, and 45 walks to 67 strikeouts. He planned on returning to the DockHounds for the 2026 and had reached an agreement with team management, but the Mets offered him a minor league contract and he wisely did not turn the opportunity down.
The 24-year-old Benson was assigned to the Single-A St. Lucie Mets to begin his professional career and played with them for roughly a month and a half before being promoted to the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones. In 33 games with St. Lucie, the outfielder hit .276/.361/.578 with 5 home runs, 8 stolen bases, and 11 walks to 36 strikeouts and in 19 games with Brooklyn is currently hitting .238/.360/.460 with 2 home runs, 3 stolen bases, and 8 walks to 20 strikeouts. Altogether, in his first few months of professional baseball, Benson is hitting a cumulative .263/.361/.536 in 52 games with 16 doubles, 6 triples, 7 home runs, 11 stolen bases in 16 attempts, and 19 walks to 56 strikeouts.
At the plate, Benson stands slightly open, holding his hands high at the eyes, waggling his bat between one and three o’clock. He swings with a moderate leg lift, swinging with a bit of loft; while playing at St. Lucie, he regularly registered 100+ MPH exit velocities and launch angles in the 8-32 sweet spot. On the whole, he is a dead-red fastball hitter; while in St. Lucie, he hit .306/.405/.694 with a 25% Whiff Rate against fastballs, as opposed to .231/.286/.385 with a 50% Whiff Rate against breaking balls and .125/.125/.500 with a 50% Whiff rate against off-speed pitches.
Benson’s batted ball data is very encouraging. With the caveat that he is older than practically everybody else in the league and has much more experience than most, he currently has a 25.6% line drive rate, 33.3% groundball rate, and 41.0% flyball rate. While playing with the St. Lucie Mets earlier in the season, he had equally encouraging 34.2% line drive, 27.8% groundball, and 38.0% flyball rates. At both levels together, he has been pulling the ball at a 40.0% rate, going back up the middle at a 28.3% rate, and going to the opposite field at a 31.7% rate.
Putting the ball in play has been an issue for the outfielder, who had a 27.1% K% in St. Lucie and currently has a 28.2% K% with the Brooklyn Cyclones. Thanks to his extremely favorable spray tendencies, he was able to post a .355 BABIP in St. Lucie and is currently running a .342 BABIP with the Cyclones, and his success seemingly will be highly dependent on his ability to continue maintaining those favorable tendencies and maintaining that high BABIP, because, with a .237 batting average, Benson might quickly become untenable as a hitter if it begins dropping with a BABIP normalization.
Nicolas Carreno
Week: 1 G (1 GS), 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K (High-A)
2026 Season: 11 G (6 GS), 41.2 IP, 23 H, 14 R, 9 ER (1.94 ERA), 21 BB, 58 K, .253 BABIP (Single-A) / 1 G (1 GS), 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER (1.50 ERA), 2 BB, 9 K, .273 BABIP (High-A)
Venezuelan left-hander Nicolas Carreno was initially signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates back on January 15, 2023, signed to an undisclosed sum- as an undersized left-handed pitcher whose fastball sat 89-91, it is unlikely that the southpaw received much more than a token sum. The 17-year-old was assigned to one of Pittsburgh’s Dominican Summer League affiliates, the Pirates Black and posted a 10.50 ERA in 12.0 innings over 12 games, allowing 12 hits, walking 21, and striking out 17. He began the 2024 season assigned to their other DSL affiliate, the Pirates Gold, and had a bit more success; in 21.2 innings over 8 starts, he posted a 3.74 ERA, allowing 11 hits, walking 17, and striking out 36.
On July 30, 2024, the Pirates traded Carreno to the Mets in exchange for 29-year-old left-hander Josh Walker, who had a 5.11 ERA in 12.1 innings at the major league level and a 2.83 ERA in 28.2 innings with Triple-A Syracuse. Carreno was assigned to the DSL Mets Orange and made three more starts on the season, allowing 4 earned runs in 10.1 innings, giving up 8 hits, walking 7, and striking out 9. All in all, for the DSL Pirates and DSL Mets combined, the left-hander posted a cumulative 3.66 ERA in 32.2 innings over 11 starts, allowing 19 hits, walking 24, and striking out 45.
The 19-year-old was brought stateside in 2025, assigned to the FSL Mets. He appeared in 12 games for them, making 3 starts, and posted a 6.85 ERA in 22.1 innings, allowing 20 hits, walking 19, and striking out 25. He was promoted to Single-A St. Lucie at the end of August and appeared in 2 games for them, making 1 start. In 6.0 innings of work total, he allowed four runs but just one earned run, giving up 6 hits, walking none, and striking out 7. He remained with the St. Lucie Mets when the 2026 season started, and ended up appearing in 11 games, starting 6. The left-hander posted a 1.94 ERA in 41.2 innings, allowing 23 hits, walking 21, and striking out 58. He was promoted to the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones on June 11 and has since made a single start with them, which went quite well.
Carreno, who is listed at 5’10”, 155-pounds, has certainly put on some weight but looks every inch 5’10”. The left-hander throws from a slingy three-quarters arm slot with a long arm action through the back. So far this season, Carreno has relied on a three-pitch mix consisting of a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, and a slider. He used his four-seam fastball about 30% of the time while pitching for St. Lucie, where statcast hookups can give us precise information about his pitches, his two-seam fastball also about 30% of the time, and his slider about 40% of the time.
Carreno’s four-seam fastball sits in the low-to-high-90s, averaging 95 MPH and topping out at 98 MPH. The pitch has averaged 2,500 RPM of spin and roughly 15 inches of induced vertical break, the former above-average for a four-seam fastball and the latter about average. Opposing batters are hitting .267/.452/.467 against the pitch with a 29% Whiff Rate; Carreno often has trouble throwing his fastball for strikes, leading to hittable, grooved pitches in the strike zone when the left-hander needs to throw one in the zone.
His two-seam fastball mirrors almost all of the metrics that his four-seam fastball produces except it has roughly 5 inches less of induced vertical break and about 4-8 additional inches of arm-side movement. He gets fewer swings-and-misses with the pitch but held opposing hitters in the Florida State League to a much more palatable .133/.235/.300 batting line.
By far, Carreno’s best pitch is his slider. The pitch sits in the low-80s-to-low-90s, averaging 86 MPH. With anywhere between 1-5 inches of horizontal movement, the pitch has sharp, cutter-like sudden slice and has carved up Florida State League hitters, limiting them to a .145/.272/.188 batting line with a 44.3% Whiff Rate. The left-hander is able to control and command the pitch better than his fastballs, and the pitch gets reliable swings-and-misses both inside and outside of the zone.
Earlier in his career, when he was still with the Pirates, he was working on adding a changeup to his repertoire, but the project has since been paused and/or cancelled, as the southpaw does not throw a change. As he progresses up the minor league ladder, he will need to develop a suitable third pitch to remain a viable pitcher, though the need for one diminishes a bit if his ultimate destiny is the bullpen, especially with how effective his slider has been.
