Owner Steve Cohen stated he was getting his management staff ready for every scenario and backup plan as the Mets approached the trade deadline during an unexpected news conference in late June. It seems like he was trying to rally the team to salvage a struggling season by using this media conference.
Regretfully, that turnaround did not materialize, and those backup plans were activated when, on July 27, the Mets unexpectedly traded David Robertson to the Marlins during a rain delay. This was a sign that the Mets were sellers, but how much? Most assumed this meant the rental types like Tommy Pham and Mark Canha would relocate. What the Mets would do with their two $43 million arms, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, remained unclear.
There were a number of complexities involved, including Scherzer’s salary, which the Mets would have to bear heavily in order to obtain any kind of return, as well as an opt-out that prospective buyers wanted him to forgo and a no-trade provision. The rumors that Scherzer was close to joining the Rangers began to circulate two days after the deal of Robertson.
This resulted in many people, including myself, searching through the Rangers minor league affiliates’ Twitter/X feeds to find who was sitting out that particular game. There were names like Brock Porter, who was supposedly scratched from the start and then wasn’t, and Sebastian Walcott, who was suspended for disciplinary reasons. Word started to circulate that 21-year-old infielder Luisangel Acuña, who was left out of Double-A Frisco’s lineup, was returning to the Mets in place of Scherzer. After Scherzer waived his opt-out and no trade clause a day later, Acuña became a Met and Scherzer became a Ranger.
Acuña was enjoying a great season for Frisco with a slash line of.315/.377/.453 (.830 OPS) before joining the Mets organization. Even so, he may have had some luck because of his.381 BABIP, which helped him achieve some of those stats. Despite having a considerably lower.288 BABIP, his baseline numbers with Double-A Binghamton were not quite as good, with a.243/.317/.304 slash line. Since he just played a month’s worth of games with Binghamton, we are ultimately not talking about very large sample sizes, but it is evident that things went significantly better in his first half.
A closer examination reveals that while his walk rate was almost the same in both Frisco and Binghamton, his strikeout percentage was about one percent lower in Binghamton. With Binghamton, his batted ball profile revealed a notable increase in fly ball frequency and a marginal decrease in groundball frequency. Although those seem positive, Acuña’s line drive percentage decreased as well. Given his skill set, you would think he would concentrate on hitting more line drives. He successfully decreased his groundball rate in 2023 by modifying his swing.
That ability? Luisangel is different from his elder brother, Ronald Acuña, who plays with the Braves. That one can be resolved now. That does not negate the fact that he is a fascinating prospect in and of himself. Acuña has improved significantly in the past year or so in terms of plate discipline and making contact, but he is still prone to chase breaking balls occasionally. He could hit between.270 and.280 with a respectable on-base percentage and more than 30 doubles, in my opinion.
One scout I spoke with suggested that instead of focusing on hitting home runs, he should aim to spray line drives gap to gap in order to take advantage of his speed. I don’t think there are many more than 10 or 12 home runs in there right now.
He comes from a wealthy baseball family and is a good athlete with a high baseball IQ, which shows on the field and in the base paths. He has largely played shortstop and second base on defense, however he has also started to experiment in center field. Second base is going to be his best long-term home, according to most scouts. He has great sprint speeds and has stolen 40 bases or more in each minor league season, including 57 in 2023. At the next level, he ought to pose a threat as a stolen base as well.
Acuña, who is now on the 40-man roster of the Mets, is expected to start the 2024 season with Triple-A Syracuse. The 2024 season is not necessarily a “all-in” season for the Mets; rather, it is one in which they hope to compete for a postseason spot while also providing plenty of opportunity for the best young players in their system to make their mark on the biggest stage, as I discussed last week in my piece about what to expect from Drew Gilbert.
Along with Gilbert and Jett Williams, two additional elite prospects in the Mets system who may all make their big-league debut in 2024, Acuña is another prospect ranked in the consensus top 100.