Luisangel Acuña emulating All-Star large bro in journey to the bigs

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Around the time he was traded from the Rangers to the Mets final month, Luisangel Acuña logged onto WhatsApp to publish a video of himself stealing a base. This was nothing uncommon for Acuña, a speedy prospect who had swiped greater than 40 luggage in just half a season in Double-A. But when Luisangel’s well-known brother, Ronald, noticed the clip, he challenged him to a contest. The phrases had been easy: Whoever finishes the season with extra steals wins $5,000.

Luisangel apparently by no means stopped to appreciate that he might have been hustled. Over his previous 14 video games, Ronald has stolen 9 bases to construct a commanding lead over his brother.

“I want to get to that level, the one that my brother’s at,” Luisangel stated Tuesday from TD Bank Ballpark earlier than his Double-A Binghamton staff opened a collection at Somerset. “Everything he does is super impressive.”

For most of Luisangel’s profession, comparisons to his brother have adopted him. In a way, they’re unfair; Ronald Acuña Jr. is likely one of the most dynamic abilities of his technology, a participant undertaking the kinds of issues that nobody else — not even Shohei Ohtani — can. But Luisangel, who at 21 is greater than 4 years youthful than Ronald, doesn’t shrink back from such analogies.

To the opposite, he embraces them. Luisangel wears vibrant yellow equipment, together with batting gloves, elbow and shin guards that assist him look the half. He spends his offseasons coaching with Ronald in Barquisimeto, a metropolis close to Venezuela’s northern coast. The two speak day by day about their baseball lives — Ronald with the Braves, Luisangel with Binghamton — after which decompress by enjoying Call of Duty. (Ronald normally wins.)

“I look up to my brother,” Luisangel stated by an interpreter. “I’ve obviously learned a lot from him being a superstar in the game. I consider him being a part of my career because he’s always been there for me.”

If Luisangel develops into even some fraction of the participant that Ronald is, the Mets might be as ecstatic as after they acquired him for Max Scherzer previous to the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline. Acuña, who will rank because the group’s high prospect when MLB Pipeline releases its midseason replace later this week, was the headliner of a Deadline haul that additionally included outfielders Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford, infielders Jeremiah Jackson and Marco Vargas and fairly a couple of others. Several of these prospects are already with him at Double-A.

In common supervisor Billy Eppler’s phrases, it’s been a “repositioning” of belongings from the Major League roster to the farm system. Eppler’s hope is that the upside of gamers like Acuña can flip this not simply into an enhancing group, however an elite one.

“We’re excited from a player development standpoint,” Binghamton supervisor Reid Brignac stated. “I know it was a hefty price for those guys.”

In Acuña’s case, the Mets are banking not less than partially on his baseball genes. Part of an prolonged household that features his father, Ronald Acuña Sr. (a longtime Mets farmhand who additionally performed for Binghamton) in addition to cousins Alcides Escobar, Kelvim Escobar and Maikel García, Luisangel grew up round those that perceive the game. He referred to as it motivating to see Ronald Jr. prepare within the hopes of incomes knowledgeable contract as an adolescent. As his older brother developed from an unheralded worldwide signing into one of many sport’s true superstars, Luisangel tried to imitate him.

“He always tells me, ‘We’ll see each other in the big leagues,’” stated Luisangel, a pure shortstop who profiles as a second baseman on the highest stage.

If Luisangel’s pockets turns into just a little lighter alongside the best way, it gained’t be for lack of effort. Leading off Tuesday at Somerset, he labored the rely full within the first, drew a stroll, then started dancing aggressively off first to start a manic evening on the basepaths.

Within minutes, Acuña had stolen second, and he would have had third simply if not for a foul ball. In the seventh, Acuña reached base on a hit-by-pitch, stole second, stole third, then beat a throw residence on an infield grounder — that, regardless of the infield enjoying in. By recreation’s finish, he had 46 steals in 53 makes an attempt. Ronald entered Tuesday with 53 in 62 tries.

“I’ve seen that a lot on social media where people want to say, ‘You’re better than your brother,’ [or] ‘Your brother’s better than you,’” Luisangel stated. “But those are things that I don’t control. I just continue to go out there, play my game and do what I do.”