Miguel Serna; Jersey Shore's Next Big Thing

With the bandbox that is the Ballpark at the Shore, hitters will most always take center stage on the D-Bags roster.  With Mikey Bryant on his last leg and Dave Dodd turning 33 this year we look towards a 26 year old and former 1st round pick who burst onto the national scene last season.

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

1st Round 2021; Bags select Ben "Cadillac" Morton

The amateur draft always a favorite time of the year for GM Josh Swain.  The way real teams build their core is to through the draft.  Jersey Shore is no exception to the rule, just look at their former 1st round picks: Mike Bryant, Matt Doyle, Richard Coker, Lawrence Schroeder, Fabrice Brodeur, Gianluigi Ciottone, Roland Martin, Gerald Johnson, Matthieu Vancini....and those are just 1st and 1st round compensatory picks over the past 10 years.  

The D-Bags selected 24th this year and for the 3rd year in a row and for the 4th time in 5 years they chose to selected a prep player over going the going the college route.  They selected out of Sante Fe High School, Catcher Ben Morton, or simply as his teammates call him.....Cadillac.  In his senior year and first year as a starter, Morton caught 36 of the teams 40 games while hitting 8 doubles, 6 homers and driving in 33 runs.  He finished with a triple slash line of .299/.389/.493.  While not lighting it up like a lot of first rounders in high school do, Jersey's scouts see  the tools  While his defensive tools won't light the world on fire, scouts predict him to be middle o the road if he can live up to his potential, but his bat is why he got chosen here.  "We have his bat and gap as plus tools and his power at plus-plus.  He will never be a guy who walks a lot and probably will strike out his fair amount of times, but catchers are still one of the more rare positions in the BSA and if he can refine his hitting tools he could be one of the better hitting catchers in the league, but he has a long ways to go for that.  I imagine he struggles pretty good with A pitching, but being at age 18 we have a lot of options going forward," said GM Swain.

Jersey won't pick again until the 62nd overall pick which will be their regular 2nd round pick.  While that is a lot of players to be picked between now and then, don't be surprised to see GM Swain find a player who will turn out to be productive, it's just what they do in Jersey during a draft.

Last year's 1st round pick Miguel Serna, who was drafted 21st overall last season, is starting to pick it up in A ball after struggling last season.  While the power hasn't come around he is hitting .251 and has 20 doubles in A ball.  Jersey's other 1st round pick, SP Ben Head, another prep player, is improving as well.  He has reduced his BB/9, while picking up his K/9 and H/9.  His FIP is 4,43 and will probably spend the rest of the year in Manhattan to improve.  2nd round pick and 63rd overall last season 2B John Moore is really picking it up in AA.  Moore turned 24 this year has shown off his speed with 18 steals, 18 doubles and 3 triples.  He has struggled in the field, but management has him playing shortstop trying to improve his range there as he has been scouted to be one of the better fielding 2B at the AA level.  Chances are he will be playing in AAA before the year is done.

GO D-BAGS

Jersey Shore Selects Prep Star Serna 21st Overall

With the 21st pick in the 2020 amateur draft the Jersey Shore D-Bags selected 19 year old Miguel Serna out of Madawaska Valley High School from the Canadian Province of Ontario.  Though Serna only saw 65 games in his HS career, he amassed a stat line of .382/.494/.593, while hitting 9 HR in his 199 AB.  Though scouts have his talents as very raw, they believe his potentials could top out at plus contact, power and eye to go along with his plus-plus speed.  While he is listed as a 3B, many believe that his future could be at 2B given his fielding talents.

Jersey was given the 21st pick as compensation for not signing their last year 1st round pick, prep star Max Jones, who attended the Univeristy of Miami this year and is draft eligible.  By not signing Jones and his lofty contract demands, Jersey sits with the 21st and 32nd picks in the first round and a real chance to add great talent in what is turning out to be one of the deepest drafts the BSA has seen in a long time.

Serna is the 3rd infielder off the board after Irvine took SS Murphy and Los Cabos snagged college 2nd baseman Gonzalez one pick ahead of Jersey.  Serna is the 11th bat off the board as the first 22 picks were split evenly between arms and bats.  This marks the 2nd year in a row that Jersey selected a prep player and the first time since 2015 that they selected an infield bat with their 1st overall pick.  In 2015 they selected current starting 3B Fabrice Brodeur with the 25th overall pick.

Serna will likely be sent to Single A Manhatten after he signs and likely take his bumps with professional pitching but hopefully add some pop to a lineup who only has one player with over 5 HR and a team that sits with a 33-45 record.  It will yet to be seen what Jersey will do with their 2nd pick in the first round.  According to GM Swain, there is a lot of top talent on their draft list and will be a tough decision on who to select with that pick.  We will see soon enough who else will be joining the organization

GO D-BAGS