Marco Vargas, Photo by Ed Delany of Mets Minors

While the New York Mets will most likely not be playing professional baseball in 2023, some of their minor league affiliates still have a chance to go for titles of their own. On Thursday afternoon, the FCL Mets punched their ticket to the postseason with a 11-7 win over the FCL Marlins out in Jupiter, Florida.

The final out and the celebration!

Playoffs up next 🔜 pic.twitter.com/KKg916CbCZ

— Florida Complex League Mets (@FCLMets) August 17, 2023

The win officially clinched the FCL East Division and put them at 30 wins on the year. The season for Jay Pecci’s squad will officially end on Tuesday and then the playoffs will begin. By clinching a postseason bid, it allows the roster, with some of the players taken in this year’s draft, to get more playing time for development and get their first taste of postseason baseball.

Even though the Marlins took an early 1-0 lead, the Mets rallied for three runs in the top of the third thanks to an RBI double by Marco Vargas (acquired by the Marlins for David Robertson) and walks from Willy Fañas and Jesus Báez.

Miami scored three runs in the bottom of the inning to re-take the lead. However, the Mets got it back with three more runs in the fifth. Báez tied the game with a base hit, and Fañas had a two-run triple to put the Mets ahead, 6-4.

All good things come in threes, so the Mets would have another three-run inning in the sixth. Vargas and Yonatan Henriquez each had an RBI double, and Fañas added his fourth RBI of the day with a base hit. As an offense, the Mets had eight hits, but they had more walks (11) than strikeouts (7).

Thursday was a day of debuts in the Mets organization on the mound. RHP Kade Morris (third Round pick out of Nevada) got the start and allowed an unearned run on one hit in the first. RHP Dakota Hawkins (undrafted out of Washington State) threw a scoreless second inning (one walk, one strikeout) and RHP Bryce Jenkins (17th round pick out of Tennessee) got one out in the fifth (one unearned run, one walk, one strikeout).

The Mets pitching staff is the main reason for the team’s push to the postseason. As a team, they had the third-lowest ERA in the FCL coming into Thursday (4.42), the fifth-highest strikeouts (451), and the fifth-lowest batting average against (.228). The Mets do have the pitcher who has the most strikeouts in the FCL in right-hander Wilson Esterlin (57 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings pitched).

Boston Baro, Photo by Ed Delany of Mets Minors

On offense, the Mets will get to see more of July’s draft picks in Colin Houck (first round), Nolan McLean (third round), and Boston Baro (eighth round), just to name a few, as they head to the postseason. Baro has a .524 OBP in the six games that he has played so far this year.

Another hitter to watch would be Fanas, who leads the team in RBIs with 25. The Mets have eight players who have driven in double-digit runs this year, but three of them (Diego Mosquera, Nick Morabito, Yohairo Cuevas) have moved on to Low-A St. Lucie.

In addition, Ronald Hernandez (also acquired from Miami for Robertson) has had 12 walks this month and has walked at least twice in four of the last five games, including the two he had on Thursday.

On a day where the Mets used nine pitchers, RHP Cristofer Gomez (2-0, 1.04) picked up the win while RHP Jonaiker Palacios got the final four outs for his fifth save of the year.