Background
The Florida born, Canadian educated Serna as the 21st overall pick out of Madawaska Valley High School In Barry's Bay, Ontario in the 2020 1st year player draft. A 2-year starter in HS, he had his best season as a Junior where he hit .394/.518/.651 with 6 HR and 21 RBI. Serna opted to sign for $3.85M, well above slot, to skip college and join the D-Bags organization. Serna would report to A ball in Manhattan where he would struggle mightily all year long. In 66 games his slash line looked like .152/.184/.187 with 102 strike outs and only 35 hits in 230 AB. Even with his struggles, he was still named the 11th best prospect in baseball by the OSA going into the 2021 season.
Improvement
Serna's 2021 season was much improved but the 20 year old still showed glaring holes in his game. While he would raise his triple slash to .268/.334/.389, he would strike out 207 times in 634 AB, which would be 2nd in league history for K's in a season trailing the leader by a single K. Serna would only hit 7 HR all season, but what encouraged scouts were the 42 doubles he hit. Scouts hoped that those doubles would some day turn to HR, so they stayed optimistic. Serna would return to Manhatten as a 21 year old for 2022 season. Playing in 152 games, he would improve again, this time bringing his average up to .300 and his slugging up to .435. He would still strikeout 182 times but take more walks, hit more homers as he was ranked the 16th best prospect in baseball. After only 16 games in 2023, Serna would suffer a broken kneecap at a collision at homeplate that would cost him the entire of the season.
Breakout
2024 would be the year for Serna that he finally put things together. He would go to Manhattan for the 4th time, but only stay for 16 games before being called up to AA Gainesville. Miguel would only spend just over a month in his home state as he crushed AA pitching to the tune of .384/.452/.500 with 2 HR and 17 RBI in 28 games. He would be bumped up to AAA Tuscaloosa where his bat would continue to turn heads. It was here where Serna finally found his power stroke. In 127 games for the Trout Slayers he would smash a career high of 19 HR and 73 RBI on his way to 2.6 WAR. He would have probably gotten a cup of coffee in the bigs but was blocked by Gerardo Escobedo who was on his way to a 3.0 WAR season for Jersey.
Escobedo was still the D-Bags in 2025 and was the Opening Day starter at 3B. Serna would spend the first 45 games in AAA where he hit .319 to add to his 9 HR and 40 RBI. A fractured foot suffered by Escobedo meant that Serna would finally get his shot in the bigs. He would struggle as rookie, but would go on to start 96 games at the hot corner where he would amass 0.5 WAR. Serna would even start all 7 games for Jersey Shore in the playoffs where they eventually swept out by rival Greenville in the Divisional Round of the CL Playoffs.
Stardom
With Escobedo leaving as a free agent, Serna was the heir apparent to the 3B and was only 1 of 2 players who played there during Spring Training. After a slow start to the season, Miguel would turn it in the dog days of summer. He would eventually start 158 games for the D-Bags and have a monster season offensively. His 38 home runs would only trail the 44 of CL MVP Dave Dodd meanwhile finished 3rd on the team in RBI with 109 and WAR with 4.2 as well leading the team in SB with 27. Jersey Shore would win the division in a playoff game and eventually lose the World Series in 7 games to the Irvine Green Gang. Despite missing the All-Star game due to his breakout coming later in the season, Serna was award with the 2026 Platinum Stick for 3B in the CL.
Serna hasn't slowed in 2027 as he is the offensively leader on May 10th and on pace to hit 59 HR, drive in 135 runs and 10.4 WAR. At 26 years old, we are probably looking at the future star and building block of this Jersey franchise. Before the season Jersey locked up Serna to a 9 year deal so he isn't going anywhere soon so get use to seeing #18 rounding the basepaths for the D-Bags.
GO D-BAGS
