More than any level of the minor leagues, the Dominican Summer Leagues are purely designed to provide developmental time for young and mostly foreign born prospects.  It is a place for the mostly teenage prospects to begin their professional careers in a comfortable environment before heading stateside to begin in earnest their hopeful march to the Major Leagues.  As a result, success of teams at this level is mostly judged by development and not record.

That said, the DSL Mets1 team did have quite a successful season with a 47-25 record finishing in third place in the South Division.  This mostly was on the strenght of a pitching staff which was fifth in the league in ERA (2.88).  The offense was not far behind with a .691 OPS, which was ranked 13th out of 44 DSL teams.  The DSL Mets2 team was not as successful with just a 34-37 record and a fifth place finish in the San Pedro Division.

When looking at the 2018 Dominican Summer League season, the one name which stands out above the rest was catcher Andres Regnault.  In his third season in the DSL, the 19 year old catcher had a breakout season hitting .333/.420/.527 with 17 doubles, a triple, nine homers, and 45 RBI.  Behind the plate, Regnault continued to make strides defensively.  Notably, after throwing out 26 percent of base stealers last year, he would throw out 37 percent this year.  More importantly, he did not yield one passed ball this season.

While Regnault was the breakout star, second base prospect Felix Valerio would be the name which would dominate the top of the team’s leaderboards.  The diminutive 17 year old showed the ability to get on base with an 11.2 percent walk rate and a .409 OBP.  With his speed and ability to get on base, he has showed promise to be a top of the order type of player.

On the pitching side, the two standouts were Daniel Guzman and Andres German.  Both pitchers would have an ERA under 2.00 and a WHIP below 1.000.  What skewed the stats for both pitchers was both of them being over 20 years of age making them much older than the competition.

Among younger pitchers, the left-handed 16-year-old Junior Santos had a real noteworthy season.  The one thing which really stood out for him was his control.  In his first professional season, Santos would have an outstanding 6.50 K/BB ratio. In his 14 appearances, he did walked more than one batter just once, and he had eight appearances without a walk.

There were some other notable performances from this past year’s International Free Agent signing class. Adrian Hernandez, who received the second highest bonus from the Mets last season, showed steady improvement, and he would hit .2869.375/.434 with three homers in 21 August games. David Marcano struck out 7.3 batters per nine. Adrian Aybar had a 2.57 ERA in 10 starts and two relief appearances. Eiker Huizi had a 1.59 ERA in five appearances. Juan Loyo had the top OBP between both rosters (.435). Ruben Monegro lead both rosters drawing 42 walks.

Overall, while the DSL Mets1 team performed well the real mark of the season was how well the prospects developed and performed. When you had players like Regnault and Valerio putting together much better seasons than the organization could have imagined, and a player like Santos showing control beyond his years, it is fair to say this was a very successful season for the Mets Dominican Summer League affiliates.

Coaching Staff

DSL Mets1

Manager – Manny Martinez
Pitching Coach- Francisco Martinez
Hitting Coach – Leo Hernandez

DSL Mets2

Manager – Yucary De La Cruz
Coach – Samuel Taveras
Pitching Coach – Rafael Roque
Coach – Pedro Reyes
Hitting Coach – Gilbert Gomez
Infield/Bench Coach – Lilian Castro

Batting Leaders

G – Felix Valerio 67
PA – Felix Valerio 303
AB – Felix Valerio 263
R – Felix Valerio 54
H – Felix Valerio 84
2B – Felix Valerio & Andres Regnault 17
3B – Juan De La Rosa 8
HR – Andres Regnault 9
RBI – Andres Regnault 45
SB – Felix Valerio 16
BB – Ruben Monegro 42
BA – Andres Regnault .333
OBP – Juan Loyo .435
SLG – Andres Regnault .573
OPS – Andres Regnault .993

Pitching Leaders

W – Christofer Dominguez & Nixon Silva 6
ERA – Daniel Guzman 0.88
G – Daniel Guzman 29
GS – Andres German 12
CG – Andres German 2
SV – Daniel Guzman 6
IP – Andres German 73.0
K – Jefferson Escorcha 63
WHIP – Daniel Guzman 0.875
BB/9 – Andres German 1.8
K/9 – Andres German 7.2