The New York Mets owner, Steve Cohen, quickly confirmed his new management group roster ahead of to the trade deadline in late June.
As the Mets approached the trade deadline in late June, owner Steve Cohen told the media during an unscheduled news conference that he was getting his management team ready for anything. It seemed as though he was trying to use this media session to inspire the players to turn around a struggling season.
Sadly, the turnaround was not significant, and those backup plans were activated when the Mets unexpectedly traded David Robertson to the Marlins on July 27 amid a rain delay. This meant that the Mets were, in fact, sellers, but how much? Most assumed this would mean a move for the rental types associated with Tommy Pham and Mark Canha. The situation was elevated in the Imagine what the Mets would do with Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, two $43 million arms.
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 waive and a no-trade clause. The rumors that Scherzer was close to joining the Rangers began to circulate two days after the trade of Robertson.
This resulted in many people, including myself, searching through the Rangers minor league affiliates’ Twitter/X feeds to see 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. When the lineup for Double-A Frisco was revealed, infielder Luisangel Acuña, 21, was absent. After Scherzer waived his opt-out and no trade clause a day later, Acuña became a Met and Scherzer became a Ranger.
Acuña was having 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 numbers. Despite having a much lower.288 BABIP, his baseline numbers with Double-A Binghamton were not nearly as good, with a.243/.317/.304 slash line. Since he only 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 much better in his first half.
Examining his tenure with Frisco and Binghamton in more detail reveals that while his walk rate was almost the same in both clubs, it was nearly one percent lower in Binghamton.
and a somewhat reduced groundball percentage. 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 for 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.
According to a scout I spoke with, “I’d really have him focus on trying to spray line drives gap to gap so he can score runs,” home run power is not anticipated to be a major component of his game.
He comes from a wealthy baseball family and is a plus athlete with a high baseball IQ, which shows on the field and in the base paths. He has mostly played shortstop and second base on defense, though 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 plus 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 currently on the 40-man roster of the Mets, is expected to start the 2024 season with Triple-A Syracuse. Last week, I wrote about what to anticipate from Drew Gilbert.
Along with Gilbert and Jett Williams, two other top 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.
