Paul Articulates – The struggle for LuisAngel Acuna

The name LuisAngel Acuna is very familiar – he is the brother of star Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr.  He is the ray of hope from the trade deadline move that sent Max Scherzer to Texas as the Mets cleaned house in 2023.  He is famous for his brief major league stint in 2024 to spell and injured Francisco Lindor in a playoff chase who hit .308/.325/.641 and played outstanding defense.

LuisAngel Acuna seems to have the ingredients of a major league star, yet he is buried in the role of a bench player that can pinch run or play defense in the late innings.  The likelihood that he will emerge from this current position seems lower as several talented prospects are rising to challenge him.  Let’s look at his path to date and understand the actions he needs to take to improve future outcomes.

LuisAngel Acuna was born in Venezuela in March 2002 to a father that was also a ball player.  Ron Acuna Sr. played minor league baseball with several teams, including the AA Binghamton Mets in 2006.  All three of Ron Acuna Sr.’s sons are currently playing professional baseball: Ronald Jr. with the Braves; Bryan with the Twins minor league affiliate Fort Myers Mighty Muscles; and LuisAngel with the Mets.

LuisAngel was signed by the Texas Rangers in 2018 as a non-drafted free agent from the international pool.  He was assigned to the Dominican summer League, where he became an all-star in 2019 while hitting .478 with a .438 on base percentage and striking out only 5 times.  He did not play in 2020 because the DSL was cancelled due to the pandemic, but in 2021, he started where he left off with the low-A Down East Wood Ducks, again being named to the East all-star team.  He was among league leaders in several categories including hits, stolen bases, and runs scored. He continued to rise through the Texas Rangers organization until he was traded in the Scherzer deal in 2023.

As a Met, Acuna was assigned Binghamton where he batted .243 over the last 37 games.  He was promoted to AAA Syracuse to start the 2024 season, and although he only batted .258 there, he was in the right position to fill for Lindor during that late September stretch.  In 2025 he split time between Syracuse and the Majors, excelling in the minors with a .303/.347/.385 line but not in the majors, where he hit .234.

Acuna is a dynamic player.  He has speed, quickness, and baseball instincts.  He can impact a game from the field and from the base paths as we have all seen from his brief appearances with the Mets.  To fully realize his potential, he needs two things: a more consistent bat and an opportunity.  Certainly his 2024 debut was a great opportunity, but he was not going to become the Mets’ shortstop.  Another roadblock arose in 2025 when the team was experimenting with Brett Baty at second and also playing Jeff McNeil there much of the time.  Acuna’s role became the utility guy, the speed guy, and the late inning defensive replacement.  This can be considered all good major league experience, but not the at-bats he needs to figure out what it takes to consistently hit MLB pitching.

One might think that the departure of McNeil and the team’s shift towards Baty as the third baseman would open the door for Acuna, but the December trade for Marcus Semien shut that door rather quickly.  Now he must fight for time as a utility infielder while trying to fend off the challenges from other prospects like Jett Williams and AJ Ewing.  At best he will perform in a similar role to the 2025 season where he took 175 at-bats over 95 games.  

For LuisAngel there are two possible paths to success:

1) Grind out another season as a role player on the major league bench, learning as much as possible from Semien and working with the new hitting staff to develop a plate approach that maximizes his OBP so he can do damage on the base paths.

2) Play a full season at AAA Syracuse and dominate, earning him either the shot to win a full time role in 2027 or becoming a prized trade chip to an organization that has a middle infield need.

This is a pretty good problem for the Mets to have: plenty of talent competing for a few positions.  Let’s hope they maximize the opportunity for the team and for LuisAngel.

Paul Articulates - Acuna is someone to watch

Welcome to May, Mets fans!  April has been very, very good to us and all of us are hopeful that May will bring more of the same.  From the unexpected superb performance by the pitching staff to the renaissance of Pete Alonso, the beginning of this season has brought us a little more pleasure than we thought.  

If there are any doubters to that statement, just look at the stands in Citi Field lately - the place is packed and the fans are having a great time. Tuesday night's game was off-the-charts fun.  Home runs flying out of the park, highlight reel defensive plays coming one after another, and plenty of Mets joining in on the party.  

So even though some players have not yet hit their stride, there are enough contributors to ensure that this team will not live or die based upon one person's performance.

So let's talk about one player that is quietly heading on a path to become a big piece of the future.  His name is LuisAngel Acuna.

LuisAngel has best been known as the brother of Ronald Acuna Jr. who stars with the Atlanta Braves.  He is also the son of Ron Acuna, another baseball player who spent some time in the Mets' farm system. This is a big baseball family that includes the Escobars (Jose and Alcides). 

LuisAngel started out in the Texas Rangers organization as a non-drafted free agent, signed in July 2018.  As a Ranger he played several seasons at four different minor league levels before being traded to the Mets in the July 2023 deal that sent Max Scherzer to the Rangers.

Acuna had put up some pretty good numbers before being traded - he had batted .315 with Texas' AA club in 2023 where he had a 1.220 OPS and stole 42 bases in 84 games.  He was the number 3 prospect in the Rangers organization at the time of the trade.

Things did not go quite as well when he arrived in the north country.  He began with the AA Binghamton Rumble Ponies where he hit .243 with a 1.00 OPS and 15 stolen bases in 37 games.  The following year he played a competent but non-spectacular season with the AAA Syracuse Mets.  His slash line there was .258/.299/.355 in 131 games.  Not bad, but not screaming for a MLB contract either.

Then came the late-season injury to Francisco Lindor just as the Mets were making their 2024 playoff push.  Acuna had demonstrated more skill as a defensive shortstop than any other candidates, so even though the Mets had Jose Iglesias as a backup, they decided to bring Acuna up to the big club.  What followed was a welcome surprise for everyone.  Not only did Acuna play a really solid shortstop during some very stressful pennant race games, but he also showed more with the bat than he had in Syracuse.  

Acuna compiled a .308/.325/.641 slash line in that brief 14 game stint in the heat of the race.  He proved he could play there not only with his stat line, but in the calm demeanor he displayed under the intense pressure.

This season the expectations were very high for LuisAngel.  He played his way onto the opening day roster, and when Jeff McNeil went down with an injury, the second base job opened up to a platoon between Acuna (vs lefties) and Brett Baty (vs righties).  Both candidates started very slowly, and Acuna showed a few lapses out in the field that seemed uncharacteristic.  

Francisco Lindor even wondered aloud whether LuisAngel was "bored" out there.  This seemed more like a motivational prod than a serious comment.  Maybe it worked.  Since then Acuna has turned up the heat.

Jeff McNeil finished his rehab by tearing up minor league pitching and the writing was on the wall.  The Mets needed to make a decision between Acuna and Baty as to who would step down to make room.  With Jose Siri injured and Acuna also capable of playing center field, the Mets sent Baty down and kept LuisAngel.  

He has rewarded them for the confidence by playing a very solid second base while McNeil patrolled the outfield in most of his games back.  Acuna has stepped it up at the plate, raising his batting average to .300 as of Tuesday's game.  His .355 OBP is pretty solid as well.

There is one other thing that has worked in Acuna's favor as he takes his shot in the bigs.  He is very fast and very savvy on the base paths.  He has shown flashes of being a game changer who can get on via a walk or single and immediately steal second and score on almost any subsequent base hit.

According to Baseball Savant, LuisAngel Acuna is the twelfth fastest player in baseball right now with sprint speed measured at 29.4 ft/sec.  That is killer speed, and from my eyeball test, he knows how to use it.  This can be a devastating weapon, and if he continues to maintain an OBP around .350 this weapon will be on the basepaths frequently.

So to summarize this story, the Mets have a potentially dynamic player on their roster that is maturing with MLB reps.  He has a solid glove, outstanding speed, and is showing some bat talent as well.   He has gone from the guy in the debate about who gets sent down to the guy in the conversation about rising stars in my book.  I am looking forward to seeing how this develops over time.

Paul Articulates – LuisAngel Acuna

Last year, when Francisco Lindor hurt his back during a non-slide play at second base, the Mets called up LuisAngel Acuna to fortify the infield for a few weeks.  Acuna came up with low expectations because even though he was a highly touted prospect when acquired in 2023, his 2024 season in AAA had not been very spectacular.  But as long as he was up, Carlos Mendoza decided to see what Acuna could do, so he inserted him at short.

Acuna outperformed all expectations in the 14 games that he played in September.  He compiled a .308/.325/.641 slash line and played some excellent defense in some very pressurized situations during the Mets’ stretch run.  He played the game like he had been there for years with poise and confidence.  His batting average in the majors was 50 points higher than it was in the minors and his OPS was 312 points higher.  This of course was just a small sample, and there was not much of a scouting report on him but it certainly showed that this kid could play!  

Acuna was on the playoff rosters for the series in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles but he only saw limited action because Lindor was back and performing like the MVP.  But suddenly he was back on everyone’s radar and if he plays well in the spring, he is a reasonable expectation to be back up in the majors in 2025.

After the playoff run was over, people began to wonder where he was going to continue his work in the off-season.  He chose to play in Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional (LVBP) which is otherwise known as the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.  The league, which features many players from across the Caribbean and South/Central America also hosts several players from MLB and MiLB during its winter season.  Competition is fairly good there, and it is a great way to hone your skills during the winter months.  Critics would say that the league is the equivalent of AA ball, and there is tougher competition in the Dominican Winter League.

Acuna is of Venezuelan descent (Born in 2002 in Caracas), and one would expect him to be very comfortable playing there.  He is rostered on the Lara Cardinals, where he has played 2B, SS, and CF.  He also has been tearing it up in the league, with a slash line of .337/.419/.495 through 29 games.  This is exactly what the doctor ordered for Acuna who is following up his impressive MLB debut with a dominant performance in winter ball.  Does it matter that he is playing “AA competition”?  I don’t think so – he was very welcome in Binghamton in 2023 when he came to the Mets.  He had a rough 2024 start with Syracuse and I’m sure his confidence took a little hit, so he is now rebuilding that in winter ball.

Acuna needs that confidence to put together a strong spring in St. Lucie to convince the MLB club that he should travel north with the team.  That is not an easy assignment, as Mark Vientos would attest.  Vientos had a very strong spring last year but was sent to Syracuse for the first month.  Acuna would like to avoid the same fate, especially after getting a taste of a pennant race and post-season playoff ball with the Mets.

Time will tell what his competition looks like.  Trade rumors are swirling around about Jeff McNeil, no one knows if Jose Iglesias will be back, and Ronny Mauricio will definitely be back.  David Stearns said that Brett Baty has learned to play second base, and he also signed utility man Jared Young.  Jett Williams should be fully recovered from injury to start the spring so there will be several players vying to make the roster.  From what I saw last year, Acuna has a legitimate shot.