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| Justin Rocke and Johnny Gadamowitz, Brooklyn Cyclones Broadcasters |
The Mets not only have one of the best farm systems in Baseball, they have some of the best minor league announcers. The Minor League Games on the MiLB Website or App are filled with player information you can't get anywhere else.
On Sunday September 14th, before the Brooklyn Cyclones played Game 1 of the South Atlantic League Championship Series against the Hub City Spartanburgers, I had the privilege of talking to Cyclones Broadcaster Justin Rocke about the 2025 Brooklyn season and some of the promising prospects that he saw.
John From Albany: Justin, with just a few games left, what are your impression of this year's Brooklyn Team?
Justin Rocke: The biggest thing about this group has been their resiliency throughout the course of the year. I mean, there have been a
lot of ups and downs, a lot of roster changing, particularly between the first
half. This team that's in the playoffs, you look at the lineup for Game One of
this Championship series, and only one, two, three guys in the starting
nine were really part of that roster, and Diego Mosquera missed the last month
of the first half because of an injury. They have found a way to get
things done even when the cards have been stacked against them. They've
played with good energy, they've always found a way to bounce back.
One of the more impressive things about this group is this might be the best team I've worked with in my years of minor league baseball in terms of their ability to put what happened the day before behind them and start fresh the next day. They've been very good at just being able to leave what happened in the past in the past and push on to the next thing, which I think is not only just important as a pro athlete, but especially being a pro athlete in New York.
JFA: How big a factor do you think Gilbert Gomez has been in that?
Justin Rocke: Tremendous. He's won championships in Florida, he's won championships in the Dominican. The coaching staff has done a phenomenal job all year long.
The players really take after Gomez well. Bryan Muniz has done a great job as the hitting coach. Jordan Kraus has done a phenomenal job with the pitching staff this year.
The coaching staff has done a great job of keeping guys focused, but also having a little levity and fun.
JFA: We've seen a lot of good pitchers come up to the major leagues from the Mets minors recently. Is there anybody that you were impressed with, pitching-wise, that you thought could be the next guy that we could see in Flushing?
Justin Rocke: I mean, it's been really impressive what they've done over the last couple of years with the pitching lab down there. The amount of guys they've churned out, I mean, ERA-wise, I think our pitching staff is top ten in minor league baseball for the entire season.
But, you know, they're seeing a lot of guys move on up from here this season. I mean, I'm shocked that Brendan Girton hasn't become a top 30 prospect in the organization yet with the season he's had.
Bursting onto the scene, Will Watson was phenomenal for us coming up at the tail end of the first half. I mean, his third high-A start was the clinching game of the first half. Was able to, you know, didn't have his best stuff, but was able to battle through it and give, you know, four-plus innings of shutout ball and help, you know, set the tone for what was to come the rest of the night.
Obviously, Jonathan Santucci got off to a slow start this season, but got out of the bases loaded jam about mid-May, early in the game against Winston-Salem, and from that point forward he just sort of took off and has obviously finished the season incredibly strong up in Binghamton.
R.J. Gordon's had a tremendous breakout season. I don't know what people were expecting from him, but he's had an incredible campaign. Zach Thornton, before he got hurt, was obviously the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month for April and was absolutely phenomenal.
Noah Hall's had a great bounce-back season from injury.
I'd be interested to see what happens going into next year with Joel Diaz. You know, this is really his first full year back off of Tommy John surgery, first full year of health. You know, second season back and second year back from a major surgery like that is usually the year that things start to normalize and return back to where things were pre-injury.
There's a lot of really interesting arms that have come through here this season, and pitching's been a big reason why Brooklyn has made it as far as they have this season. I mean, the first two playoff games and the first eight innings of the game against Greensboro, they only allowed one run in those innings in that series.
JFA: Right. Greensboro was a tough team before that series.
Justin Rocke: No, they're extremely tough. They won the first five games of the series against us during the regular season, ended up taking the last three, the last one in the regular season in the two playoff games. But that's the kind of resiliency this team has had all year that, you know, even if something didn't go their way in a previous matchup or something like that, able to bury it and go forward.
JFA: So we talked a little bit about the pitching side. What about the player, the position player side? Is there anybody that really impressed you during the year and you see good things from them in the future?
Justin Rocke: Particularly the first half, the offense was incredible. There was a stretch of time where Cyclones were putting out, you know, lineups every day that had nine top 30 prospects in there.
You know, the first half of Carson Benge, you know, lit the world on fire. And he and Eli Serrano were not only just the emotional leaders, but the leaders in terms of how they produced on the field during the course of the season's first half. But A.J. Ewing was incredible, you know, sort of following in the footsteps of Nick Morabito last year. You know, speed and contact at the top of the lineup, you know, was absolutely phenomenal.
Jacob Reimer in the first three home run game by a Cyclone in 20 years this year was absolutely tremendous. So it looked like they sort of overhauled the Mets organization their entire hitting side of things on the minor league side going into this season. And it's paid dividends.
You know, even now, look at this roster. Obviously, it's a lot different than it was earlier in the season. But, you know, YonatanHenriquez looks like a real player.
Colin Houck started to figure things out a little bit at this level. It's interesting.
JFA: Was there anybody this year that really surprised you or really caught you by surprise and gave you a lot more than you expected?
Justin Rocke: I mean I think there was a lot of different guys during the course of the season that sort of popped up and caught your attention. You know Eli Serrano wasn't a top 30 prospect when the season began and he's a guy that really made a name for himself early in the campaign before injuries took hold.
Dylan Ross was somebody that didn't know what to expect. He only pitched in one game in his entire career coming into this season and was phenomenal for us during the first month and a half after that road series in Asheville went up to Binghamton. And honestly at this point I'm kind of surprised that he hasn't made the jump up to the big league level. The way he's pitched not only a double A but a triple A as well. I think his ERA under two since he's been up at that level. So he's been phenomenal.
Didn't know necessarily what to expect from A.J. Ewing especially since last year it seemed like he was focused more on utilizing his strength and power and to see him become a speed demon. If he stayed here longer he would have broke the single season record for stolen bases.
But those guys were really impressive and then obviously before the trade Anthony Nunez (sent to Baltimore in the Cedric Mullins trade) was somebody that sort of came out of nowhere. He was a guy that was a position player going into last year's college season and obviously figured things out. He was so out of nowhere that a Padres scout and they were the ones that drafted him came up to me and said when did he learn how to pitch. We didn't know he had this in his arsenal. So that one was interesting and sort of came out of nowhere and obviously ended up becoming a trade piece for the Mets at the deadline.
And then to a certain degree also Noah Hall. Struggled last year with injuries, shoulder problems and for him to stay healthy like he did all year and produce the way he did all year long was something that was definitely eye opening.
And I think also to a certain degree Brendan Girton. Going back to that I think that's also a name that's in that conversation in the sense of you didn't know what to expect. A guy that was predominantly a collegiate reliever. Didn't throw a lot of innings in college and another guy if he stayed here longer would have had 100 strikeouts with us. And join a small group of guys that have accomplished that feat since the Cyclones became a full season team.
There have been a lot of guys that have sort of popped up on the radar this season. Whether they're prospects or guys that are just making a name for themselves here in Brooklyn which have been really impressive.
JFA: Thank you Justin for your time and great insight into the 2025 Cyclones, the South Atlantic League Champions.
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