Luisangel Acuña

Luisangel Jose Acuña

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 5' 8", Weight 181 lb.

Debut September 14, 2024

Born March 12, 2002 in Caracas, Distrito Capital Venezuela

Biographical Information[edit]

Infielder Luisangel Acuña is the younger brother of OF Ronald Acuña Jr., the son of minor leaguer Ron Acuña, the brother of Bryan Acuña and cousin of Joseph Yabbour. He was signed by the Texas Rangers as an international amateur free agent on July 2, 2018.

He began his professional career in 2019 with the DSL Rangers 1, hitting .342 in 51 games and being named a mid0season and pos-season All-Star in the Dominican Summer League. He then had to sit out the 2020 season when the minor leagues were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2021 he moved up to the U.S. and the Down East Wood Ducks of the Low-A East, where he hit .266/.345/.404 in 111 games, with 12 homers, 77 runs and 74 RBIs. After the season, he was named a league All-Star and a Rangers organizational All-Star. He played both second base and shortstop that season.

In 2022, he started the year with the Hickory Crawdads of the South Atlantic League before being promoted to the Frisco RoughRiders of the Texas League, reaching AA at age 20. In 91 games between the two stops, he hit .277/.369/.426 with 11 homers and 47 RBIs. Following the season, he played in the Arizona Fall League where he was an All-Star. In 2022, he had batted .317 in Class A but just .224 in AA, but in 2023, returning to Frisco, he conquered that level in brilliant fashion as he batted .315 in 84 games, scoring 68 runs. On July 29th, he was traded to the New York Mets in return for pitcher Max Scherzer, the Mets throwing a lot of money in the deal to make sure they obtained a top-notch prospect in return for one of the best pitchers of his generation. He finished the season by hitting .243 in 37 games for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies of the Eastern League.

In 2024, Luisangel started the season plying in AAA for the first time, with the Syracuse Mets of the International League. he was the team's regular shortstop, although he also saw significant playing time at second base and in center field, the Mets being well aware that there was an obstacle blocking his potential progression to the majors at short, in the person of Francisco Lindor. In 131 games, he hit .258 with 7 homers, 90 runs and 50 RBIs, also stealing 40 bases. He was called up to New York that September, making his debut with the big league Mets on September 14th. Starting at shortstop while Lindor was dealing with tightness in his lower back and batting 9th, he went 2 for 4 in 6-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. He hit the first home run of his career on September 17th, a solo shot off Joe La Sorsa in a 10-1 win over the Washington Nationals. He batted .308 in 14 games with 3 homers and 6 RBIs and was kept on the roster for the postseason. He only got 3 at-bats in the three rounds the Mets played, however, with no hits and two strikeouts.

Luisangel started the 2025 season with the Mets and had a very good first month as he hit .288 with an OBP of .342 to be named the National League Rookie of the Month for April. He received a lot of playing time that month due to an injury to Jeff McNeil, but it went down after that and he ended up hitting .234 in 95 games and 175 at-bats, as he was mainly used as a defensive replacement after that first month. He did not have a homer and only 8 RBIs. As a result, it was a big surprise when on January 10th, playing winter ball with the Cardenales de Lara, he became the first player in the history of the Venezuelan League to have a four-homer game, doing so in a 21-9 road win over the Bravos de Margarita. He was the first player to have such a game in one of the major winter leagues since 1995, when Alberto Diaz had managed the feat in the Cuban National League. He was playing center field for Lara. Only ten days after that performance, on January 20th, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox along with minor league P Truman Pauley in return for OF Luis Robert Jr. Amusingly, White Sox GM Chris Getz, in talking to reporters about the trade, said that among other things he appreciated Acuña's ability as a switch-hitter - which would be great, except that he is strictly a right-handed batter. After realizing his mistake, Getz apologized: "So I probably have been getting carried away describing his versatility. He can play every position on the field. Why does it have to stop there? I called Luisangel and told him that even though he's just right-handed, we still love him."

Related Sites[edit]

Search

Namespaces

Views

Luisangel Acuña

Biographical Information[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

Related Sites[edit]

Full Site Menu

FAQs, Tip & Tricks