St. Lucie Mets, Palm Beach Cardinals Set for Season Opener

JUPITER, Fla. (Interstat) — The St. Lucie Mets and Palm Beach Cardinals will open their 2026 Florida State League schedules on Thursday at Roger Dean Stadium, with both clubs looking to start fresh after missing the postseason last year.

First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. under cloudy skies with a game-time temperature near 75 degrees.

The Mets will send right-hander Nicolas Carreno to the mound. Carreno, who owns a career minor league record of 0-0, will be tasked with silencing a Cardinals lineup that closed its 2025 campaign with a 4-2 victory over the Daytona Tortugas on Sept. 7. St. Lucie’s most recent result was a 2-0 loss to those same Tortugas on Sept. 12, 2025.

Both teams enter with identical 0-0 records, making this the first game for each franchise under the new minor league season structure.

Projections for the opener present a conflicting outlook. The Interstat game simulator predicts a narrow 1-0 victory for the visiting Mets. However, the same service’s ELO rating system gives the home-standing Cardinals a slight edge, projecting them with a 52.40% probability to win.

This game marks the beginning of a three-game series between the division rivals. The teams will meet again at Roger Dean Stadium on Friday and Saturday before embarking on extended road trips.

Following this series, the Mets will host the Dunedin Blue Jays for a six-game homestand beginning April 7. The Cardinals will hit the road for a six-game series against the Bradenton Marauders starting the same day.

Roger Dean Stadium, the shared spring training home of the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals, will host its first regular-season minor league game of the year. The ballpark is also the full-season home of the Cardinals’ Low-A affiliate, the Palm Beach Cardinals, and the Marlins’ Low-A affiliate, the Jupiter Hammerheads, who are not involved in this series.