Catching Up With Eli Serrano III
Inside Pack Sports recently made a trip to Brooklyn, where former NC State outfielder Eli Serrano III plays for the Brooklyn Cyclones in the New York Mets organization.
Serrano started all 61 games while leading the Wolfpack to a College World Series appearance in 2024 before being selected by the Mets. In his final college campaign, Serrano batted .286 with nine homers and 39 runs batted in.
The Mets selected the native of Fuquay-Varina, NC, with the 111th pick in the 2024 MLB Draft.
Read below as Serrano discusses how NC State has prepared him, his brother Christian, playing in Brooklyn, his MLB dream with the Mets, and more!
IPS: Going back to being drafted by the New York Mets, take us through that day and how you found out.
SERRANO: They contacted me about 10 minutes before they picked me. I was just sitting on the couch. I got a call from my agent, and was like, “Hey, this is what they want to do. The Mets want you at this spot.” I was like, “Yes, sir, I'll do it.” That was how I found out.
IPS: How much are you enjoying being a member of the New York Mets organization?
SERRANO: Whatever happens, happens for me, but this organization is a great spot though. I love it here. They do a good job with me.
IPS: With the Mets playing in Queens, it would seem ideal to be nearby in Brooklyn.
SERRANO: It is awesome. It is a 30-minute drive. You can go over there and pop in, but it is cool. Everything is right here. They move stuff over from Citi Field to here, too, so you get the perks of that as well. Being in New York, it is different for sure. It is not Raleigh at all. It is a big city, and you cannot park anywhere. You cannot do the normal stuff, so it is different, but I am getting used to it. It is cool.
IPS: The Mets had great success last season in reaching the National League Championship Series and have started well in 2025. Does success like that, and the excitement of it, trickle down to the minor leaguers in the organization?
SERRANO: A hundred percent, especially coming into the spring training. We were around those dudes a lot. You go over there, and you back up those big league games, and (Juan) Soto is in the dugout with you, (Francisco) Lindor is in the dugout with you, and they want to win. It is the same thing. Everyone wants to win. It felt like that last year for the Mets for sure. It was like, ‘Hey, this is a year where we can make it happen.’ Everyone feels that, and we have a good organization through and through.
IPS: How long did it take before being a professional baseball player became your ‘normal?’
SERRANO: Honestly, right away. Once you get into it, it is alright. It is your job now. You just have to keep going. The hardest thing is just pushing through those days when you do not have great days, knowing that you must go in there and play again tomorrow. That is different, but it is your job now.
IPS: Would you say that failure, in a sense, and how you handle it, is one of the more important opportunities for development at this level?
SERRANO: I think so. I have gotten a lot better from when I was at school, for sure. That just comes with failing, being around Coach Avent all the time, he kind of is on you all the time. You've got to learn how to just push through it, or he will just say, ‘Hey, next guy.’ I think it will be good. It is just one of those things you must learn as you keep going. It is still early on, so you just have to keep pushing.
IPS: Where is the growth potential for you over the next couple of years? What is high on your list of things you need to do to reach the Major Leagues?
SERRANO: It starts with my body just getting bigger, stronger, faster. Continuing to work defensively in centerfield so I can move up and continue to play center. On top of that, it is just tapping into that power potential that I have. I know I can hit the ball as well. It is just consistently doing it and trusting myself with that. I can get swings off and not be so funky with it. Just letting it go.
IPS: How has NC State prepared you for this?
SERRANO: I would say in every way possible. Really. It is ACC pitching. The difference now is that you see a lot more breaking balls, off-speed stuff, than in the ACC. I feel like in the past three days, I have only seen like four fastballs.
Coach Avent prepares you for that. Just the mental grind, always on you. It is where I can do it myself, where it is, “alright, this is what I need to do better with this, because I've heard so many times from other people before.” You are continuing to push forward, getting better every day, and keeping it going.
IPS: And now your brother, Christian Serrano, plans to follow in your footsteps and attend NC State. How exciting is that?
SERRANO: I am proud of him. He is doing well this year. I am super excited for him. He is excited as well.
He is real. I would say the biggest thing is just learning from the mistakes I made, watching me for so long. He is a tall, lanky guy just like me. I think he can hit the ball a lot further than I could at that age, that is for sure. He can play, he can stick in the middle of the field, and I think as long as he can just continue to be mentally there and present, taking failure as a grain of salt and move on with it, it's the best way for him, and he will be good for that.
IPS: So, you want him to use your career path to help improve himself?
SERRANO: Yes, a hundred percent.
IPS: Finally, do you allow yourself to ever dream about taking the field to play for the Mets? What would that be like?
SERRANO: I allow myself to dream. Obviously, that is the dream. Whether with the Mets or somewhere else, but that is what they prepare you for. That is what they are preparing us for. Just going in and doing our business every day. It is going to be cool. It is going to be a great experience, but I could not even tell you what it is going to be like because I have not been there yet. I do not know.
Of course, I want it to be there, but they tell us that they prepare us not only to be big leaguers for them, but just to be big leaguers in general. They want to produce big leaguers. We are going with the same purpose. We want to be big leaguers. We all want to be in the big leagues.
Inside Pack Sports also spoke with Brooklyn manager Gilbert Gomez about Serrano and his early start to his professional career.
IPS: With Serrano, what did the Mets think they were getting they were getting when they decided to draft him?
Gomez: Expectations were higher from the beginning in terms of like a polished bat, a guy that could put the ball in play consistently with the size that he brought, the potential to add up more power into that frame, the ability to manage the strike zone, and just a good feel for the barrel, good feel for what he's trying to do at the box. And then, obviously defensively, the potential of playing center and being athletic enough to cover some ground, a good arm back there. We kind of knew it.
IPS: Have any of the early expectations been exceeded?
Gomez: The biggest thing is seeing him competing. He seems like a guy who wants the big moment every time, wants to be out there for the big scenarios. He thrives off that from the short samples that I have been able to see, plays with a lot of energy, and defensively, he is better than I thought he was going to be. He has made two good plays at the wall, thrown two guys at the plate in this series. The fact that he cares about the defense, and he goes hard on that side of the ball. It is something that we appreciate.
IPS: Is the defensive aspect talent and desire, or is it instilled in the player by the coaches?
Gomez: It is a little bit of both. You must have the desire to be a good defender, being able to separate others with defense, especially at that age. It seems like he wants to do well for his teammates and wants to back up his teammates playing defense. It is one way to do it. We have been very pleased with the first impressions of him on that side of the ball.
IPS: In the minors, there is a balance of obviously wanting to win the game but also putting a premium on development. How is Serrano and the rest of the Cyclones handling that?
Gomez: We have to do a good job of setting the environment. Our practices need to be good. The training needs to be good for him to get a chance to develop.
Obviously, some guys want to play more games than others, but I feel like at the end of the day when we go out in between the lines that we are trying to win every single good game at end. I think if we do a good job of preparing them before the game, and the way that I put it is that we practice, develop, but at the end of the day, we play to win.
If we are doing what we need to do before the game, then the game is just letting the guys compete and putting them in positions to be successful. We know that there are certain things as a manager that I'm not going to be able to do certain pitching changes or, you know, pinch hit, pinch run scenarios because we want the guys to go through those scenarios themself, but, um, the competitiveness of trying to win every single game needs to be there if they want to develop the right way.
IPS: Serrano has a family background in baseball and a winning background while playing at NC State. Is that helpful in the developmental stage?
Gomez: I think so. I am assuming that is something that we value as a scouting department. I know for a fact that I, as a manager, that when guys know how to win, we try to teach him how to win games in terms of like understanding when it's time to play for the team, when it's time to be selfish, and when it's time to go for the fences or take pitch in there.
The fact that he said he was able to do it at that stage, with the College World Series, which is important. I feel like he has that pedigree in him because he has done it before. Now it is like, how can we keep that same competitiveness that he came with and still be able to develop that? Because at the end of the day, if he is going to play in New York, he needs to know how to win because we are in it for the long run here.
IPS: The next step for Serrano is Double-A. Many baseball insiders feel that is the level where kids, if they succeed, have a genuine chance of reaching the Majors. Is Serrano someone who may be on the cusp of that next step?
Gomez: It is too early. We know he has the talent to do it. We know that he has the ability to move up the ladder as quickly as possible.
I think right now it is how he is going to handle failure if he starts failing early? How is he going to be able to handle the slumps, right? The 0-for-20s, the 0-for-15, go 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, and leave 10 runners on base. How is he going to be able to post up the next day because he's a guy that we expect to play. We expect him to play quite often this year.
We want to see how quickly he can bounce back from a bad performance. We do not want him to struggle. That is the thing that we want the most for him.