PORT ST. LUCIE — For anyone paying attention to Yankees spring training over in Tampa, you know the danger of expecting too much too soon from young prospects, regardless of how high they were drafted or, in Jasson Domínguez’s case, how much money they signed for.
Nearly seven years after getting a $5.1 million bonus from the Yankees, as well as the nickname “The Martian,” the switch-hitter is still trying to establish himself as a major leaguer.
That brings us to Elian Peña, the 18-year-old infielder who signed with the Mets in January 2025 for $5 million out of his native Dominican Republic.
Now 18, Peña is in his first spring training not only in Port St. Lucie but in the United States.
He spent last season in the Dominican Summer League, where he began his professional career by going 0-for-26.
The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Peña rebounded with a solid two-plus months in the DSL and has spent much of this spring playing minor league games on the backfields behind Clover Park — where he was at shortstop Sunday.
The lefty-swinging Peña will get his first chance on a bigger stage Thursday in the Mets Spring Breakout game at Clover Park. As Andy Green, the Mets senior vice president of player development, said Sunday, “That will be the first opportunity to see him in a sanctioned game atmosphere, but we’ve seen some of the things he can do against pretty high competition already.”
That includes when Carlos Mendoza saw Peña deliver immediately in a minor league game.
“He homered as soon as I saw him, left-on-left,” the manager said. “It was a good first impression.”
But as Domínguez and the Yankees know, it takes more than a few good swings to get to the majors and stay there.
And the franchise record bonus Peña received — which nearly doubled the previous high of $2.7 million that Francisco Alvarez received in 2018 — will add some challenges.
Just ask Domínguez, who appears to be headed to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to open the season.
Domínguez became aware of Peña last July, when Peña broke out with a three-homer game in the DSL and Domínguez saw the clips on social media.
He had two pieces of advice for Peña: “I hope he has someone to tell him what to do with his money. Just leave it alone like I did.”
And secondly, Domínguez added, “Don’t worry about expectations from other people and be careful with social media. It’s good when you get hits and everyone says you’re great, but if you strike out four times, it’s, ‘I hope you die and your family dies.’ You get used to it, but that can be a lot when you’re young if you pay attention to it.”
That startling reality will be among the things Peña will have to contend with as he works his way up the system.
“I think that’s part of being in New York and high expectations,” Mendoza said. “There are gonna be a lot of eyes on him. He’s mature and I think he’s built for it, but you’ve got to go through it and learn. Our job as an organization is to guide him and get him locked in on things he can control.”
There have been promising signs, according to Green, especially with how he recovered after his rough start to his pro career.
“The resilience he showed after going 0-for-26 and bouncing back is important,” Green said. “This game is going to smack every player around at some point, and you have to be tough.”
The Mets are also confident Peña can be a shortstop despite some questions there.
But with just 55 professional games under his belt, not even the Mets can predict where Peña will wind up.
He could be with the team’s Florida Complex League affiliate this season, as they try to forge a path for him to Queens.
Green, though, has seen plenty of examples of young players exceeding expectations and falling short. He managed the Padres when Fernando Tatis Jr. debuted with San Diego as a 20-year-old in 2019. That was a year after he watched Juan Soto hit his second major league homer with Washington at age 19.
“Those guys are extreme examples,’’ Green said. “There are a ton of really successful outcomes that show up in the big leagues at 22, 23 or 24. I have no idea what his timeline will be. Nobody does. It’ll take the amount of time it takes.”
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