Dumb Idea Department: Mets should ‘consider’ promoting Luisangel Acuna
After a very slow start to the season for Triple-A Syracuse — a start that has his overall numbers looking not so great — Acuña has been on fire.
He turned it on in May, and is coming off a June where he was tremendous.
In 24 games last month, Acuña hit .298/.348/.413.
Source: Danny Abriano, SNY
Context is everything. Raw numbers don’t come close to telling the whole story. If I told you that a guy in the majors had a .326/.392/.477 line, you’d think that was pretty good. But once you were provided some context – this line was produced by Jeff Cirillo for the Rockies at the height of the Silly Ball era in 2000 – you’d be less impressed. And that .869 OPS was only good for a 100 OPS+.
Now, NBT Bank Stadium isn’t exactly Coors Field and we’re not in the age of random guys hitting 50 home runs in a season. But no way on this earth is a .761 OPS for a guy playing in Syracuse in 2024 “tremendous.”
For some context, the team OPS for Syracuse this year is .797 or 36 points above what Luisangel Acuna is doing in this “tremendous” stretch of his. And not only does the team number include stats from multiple guys with no hopes of ever sniffing the majors, it also includes stats for the month of April, which is typically the worst-hitting month of the year. So, let’s look at Syracuse numbers for the month of June.
There were 15 hitters to get ABs in June for Syracuse and Acuna’s .761 OPS ranked 11th. If we look at the 10 hitters with the most ABs, Acuna ranks seventh. Syracuse as a team in the month of June posted a .278/.347/.491 line for an .838 OPS. Anyone who’s being honest with themselves would recognize that Acuna’s .761 OPS is miles from “tremendous” when looked at in the proper context.
Without a doubt, Acuna is playing better in June than he did in April. But that’s a pretty low bar to clear, as he was awful to start the year. And with his speed and defense, Acuna will bring value beyond his slash line. But the old wisdom – “you can’t steal first base” comes to mind here. Also, we have to factor in that Acuna had a .349 BABIP in the month of June. What happens when the hits stop falling in for him? He’s not really doing a whole bunch at the plate besides hitting singles. That is, unless a .115 ISO gets you excited. For a comparison, Tomas Nido had a .133 ISO for the Mets before he was DFAd.
We should all be happy that Acuna did better in June than he did in April. But when we look at what he did in June in its proper context – it’s underwhelming. Acuna is young for his level and we have to keep that in mind. But while that means it won’t be terrible if he has to spend two full years in Triple-A – it does not mean in any way, shape or form that he’s ready for the majors right now.
Saying that Acuna is ready for a promotion now – even with the extremely wishy-washy qualifier of “consider” – is talk that should make you walk away from the drunk at the bar who said it. That it’s coming from the lead writer at the most popular Mets site on the internet is enough to make a single tear roll down one’s cheek.