Nick Lorusso has had plenty of success.

Despite not receiving draft interest until late in his college career, Lorusso has risen to the challenge of each level. From being named Big East Freshman of the Year, to a monster season at Maryland, to producing at High-A Brooklyn, Lorusso’s on-field performance has helped him climb up each rung of the ladder.

At age 25, though, Lorusso is still a couple levels short of his MLB dreams. After a full season at Double-A Binghamton, Lorusso knows there’s still work to be done to get where he wants.

“This past offseason, I challenged myself a lot, trained myself to be a big leaguer,” Lorusso said. “I’m looking forward to a healthy season with a lot of success. And I’m just going to have all the confidence in the world, knowing that I prepared to the best of my ability. And I get to learn from a lot of people and see where it goes.”

Early Baseball Pursuits

Lorusso grew up in Monroe, Conn., a town of around 18,000 people. He always knew he was good at baseball, he said, but it became more serious for him in the latter half of high school.

“I’d say the real turning point was probably my junior year of high school, when I was starting to get those college recruitments,” Lorusso said. “I knew it was something I was obviously very good at. But it was an eye-opener as soon as I started to get colleges talking to me, telling me what their visions are.”

Lorusso also played football and basketball at Masuk High School. But he pursued his best sport of the three, baseball, and went from Masuk to the Division I level. After graduating in 2018, he became a Villanova Wildcat in 2019.

At the start of his college career, Lorusso was actually an infielder and a pitcher. His prowess with the bat quickly took over, though. He hit .302 in 49 games as a freshman, along with a .408 OBP and four home runs. He was the first Villanova player in 25 years to win a major award, let alone Big East Freshman of the Year.

“And that’s when I really had my sights set on the MLB,” Lorusso said.

His path was slightly halted — as was virtually every baseball player’s around this time — in 2020, when the season was abruptly canceled after 10 games.

It was somewhat of a lost year for Lorusso.

Blossoming Into One of the Best College Hitters in the Nation

Lorusso came back in 2021 and had another good year for Villanova. But it wasn’t the same as his freshman year. He hit .306, but with just one home run and a .750 OPS. He had established himself as a solid college hitter, but he hadn’t found much growth yet.

“I was just looking for something more,” Lorusso said. “At that time, it was all about exposure. And I felt like we weren’t getting the exposure at Villanova, rather than a school that was on the rise like Maryland. They went to the East Carolina Regional and made some noise.”

Lorusso entered the transfer portal. At the time, two of his friends from Connecticut were already at Maryland. They pushed him to join them.

“And then I went down there for a visit, and I ended up loving it,” Lorusso said. “Loved the coaching staff. So I thought it was a perfect fit.”

Lorusso’s game blossomed to a new level at Maryland. His first year there, in 2022, he hit .322 with a .971 OPS. After just one home run the season prior, he hit 15 for the Terps.

Slowly but surely, his name started to reach the radar of MLB teams. There still wasn’t much draft interest, but a few teams inquired about signing him as an undrafted free agent after his first year with Maryland.

“But that wasn’t something I wanted,” Lorusso said. “I feel like I knew I had a lot more to offer in college. And we had a great team coming back for ’23, so I wanted to be a part of that.”

Between seasons, Lorusso kept his skills sharp with a brief stint in the Cape Cod Baseball League. He joined the Brewster Whitecaps late in the summer, playing seven regular-season games and six postseason games with them. They eventually lost to the Bourne Braves in the 2022 CCBL championship series.

The CCBL is consistently where the top college talents go during the summer. It got Lorusso some more of that exposure he was looking for. He hit .346 in 13 games.

“It was a fantastic time,” he said. “I got exposed to a lot of different things. Some of the best pitching. And I felt like I really did well, and was able to have that confidence going into the fall, which would have been my second year at Maryland. So I feel like having the Cape, doing well there, really gave me the confidence to have a breakout year in 2023. And that’s exactly what happened.”

In 2023, now in his fifth year overall and fourth year of college eligibility, Lorusso built on his already-strong 2022 season.

He batted in the same lineup as Matt Shaw, who’s now playing in MLB for the Chicago Cubs. The Terps typically had Shaw second and Lorusso third. Shaw hit .341 with an 1.142 OPS, en route to being drafted in the first round by the Cubs. The leadoff hitter was Luke Shliger, a sixth-round pick by the San Francisco Giants.

Maryland went 42-21, making it to the Winston-Salem Regional.

“We had a great team,” Lorusso said. “[Shaw and Shliger] made my job a lot easier when they were on, and I just had to come through when they were in scoring position.”

Lorusso ended up leading all of Division I in RBIs with a whopping 105. The mark was a Maryland program record. He also set Maryland’s single-season home run record, smashing 24 long balls. He posted a blistering 1.211 OPS, slashing .379/.446/.765 in 61 games.

“I give a lot of credit to the coaching staff at Maryland: Rob Vaughn, Matt Swope, Anthony Papio,” Lorusso said. “They helped me out tremendously, going through scouting reports, going through what I could do to really push myself. And during the fall, during the winter, prior to that season, I really challenged myself in being the best version of myself. And they pushed me. I asked them to push me. They’re just a great group of coaches that know how to be successful.”

Simply put, Lorusso was one of the best hitters in the nation in 2023.

“I was able to build on the confidence that I had from the Cape, build on the confidence that I had from the fall of ’22,” he said. “And I just stopped looking ahead and kind of just looked out where my feet were and be present in the moment. Taking it one pitch at a time, one inning at a time and one game at a time.”

Turning His Success Into an Opportunity With the Mets

Going into the draft, Lorusso knew he was going to be taken on Day 2.

He watched the draft from his aunt and uncle’s house. He was guessing he’d come in around rounds 5-7.

“Your heart starts to beat a little bit when that time comes,” Lorusso said. “But around round six or seven, it goes by, and I hadn’t heard a thing. So my heart really starts racing.”

Then, during the eighth round, they all came flooding in. Lorusso recalled getting calls from “like 10 different teams” at once.

“Okay, I guess this is where a lot of people had me at,” he said. “So just answering calls, going through some deals, and the Mets were the one to pull the trigger first. So I’m forever grateful for them.”

Lorusso ended up being taken in the ninth round by the Mets as a third baseman. He made his professional debut the same summer, playing in 26 games for the Single-A St. Lucie Mets.

Since the time he was drafted, he’s been represented by Joseph R. Guzman of MLBPA Certified Player Agent Empowerment Sports Group.

“He has ice in his veins. No moment’s too big or too small,” Guzman said. “He’s very levelheaded, works relentlessly and won’t stop until he’s the best version of himself. He’s extremely humble and grateful for every opportunity that’s presented to him, and he’s truly a remarkable human being.”

The Highs and Lows of Pro Ball

Lorusso’s first 26-game taste of professional baseball was a struggle. But then, in his first full professional season — which he started with High-A Brooklyn — he thrived.

Lorusso slashed .267/.365/.469 in 70 games with Brooklyn, good for an .834 OPS. He played under manager Gilbert Gómez, now a first base and outfield coach for the big-league team.

“It was an experience, for sure,” Lorusso said. “A lot of history there. But it was fun. We got a lot of great players with the Mets, a great coaching staff in Gilbert Gómez leading the way. … He was tremendous. He helped me out a lot. He allowed me to play free, be myself. And I feel like that was a huge reason why I had some success in my first full year.”

Lorusso added that his teammates were “tremendous”: “A lot of lifelong friends, and we were really, really tight. So I feel like that helped a lot with our success.”

In the field, Lorusso got substantial reps at both first and third base, with 320 1/3 and 184 2/3 innings at each position, respectively, during his tenure with the Cyclones.

Lorusso’s performance was good enough to earn him a promotion to Double-A Binghamton on July 10, 2024.

He only played eight games there before a hand injury ended his season. He was placed on the injured list on July 25, with his last game falling on July 23.

“It was like a mental reset,” Lorusso said. “I was able to have some time to reflect after the hand injury. And that was like my first real injury in my life — like, I had never been out for a significant amount of time. So that gave me some perspective as to what people go through, and how fortunate you are to play this game every day.”

Lorusso worked back to full health for the 2025 season, which he began at Double-A.

For the first time in his baseball life, he played a season that began in April and extended into August and September. His 112 games played were a career high.

And it showed. After a hot July where he hit .305 with a .984 OPS, his production wavered during the final two months. His OPS was .523 in 22 August games, and .387 in 11 September games.

It dropped his season OPS to .680.

“It’s a very long season. And I think I learned that this past year,” Lorusso said. “When we got to August and September, it’s like I hadn’t done that in my first year. And that’s kind of where I struggled this past year.”

The dog days of summer, approaching the early fall, gave Lorusso a glimpse of the season-long discipline required to maintain production over a full MLB campaign.

“It felt like another season after July hit, because that was when I ended my first full year [in 2024],” Lorusso said. “It’s a real grind to get through August, September, and then obviously you’re hoping to play into October when you’re with the big-league team. So I learned that lesson, I’d say, the hard way this past year. But again, I built on it. I adjusted my training this past offseason, and I’m excited for what this year has in store.”

Lorusso did play more third base in his second full season, though, than he had during his first. He played 463 innings at the hot corner and 310 1/3 at first.

“I started playing [third base] in college; I feel like that’s where I’m most comfortable,” Lorusso said. “But I like to view myself as versatile. So wherever and whenever the team needs me to do, I’ll be doing it to the best of my ability.”

On and off the field, Lorusso has settled into the Mets’ system.

He’s attacking the upcoming season with a fresh reset. And the environment surrounding the organization helps him do that.

Lorusso echoed the praises that other Mets minor leaguers have given to the quality of housing, food, treatment, etc.

“They are absolutely terrific with how they go about that, and taking care of the little things,” Lorusso said. “It’s been a true blessing, especially because we have a lot of friends in different organizations, and from what I hear, it’s potentially not the best situation. And I have had no problems with the Mets in any regard at all. Their staff, their people that clean the locker rooms, to dealing with our travel, to the cooks, the chefs — so, I mean, they’re just absolutely terrific. And I feel like they’re one of, if not the best, in the entire league.”

Lorusso will likely begin this season back at Double-A with the chance to take off and earn a quick promotion to Syracuse.

Then, he’ll try to earn the ultimate promotion the same way he’s earned everything else — with the continued adjustments and elevation of his on-field performance.