The young infielder struggled in spring training but will begin the year in the majors.
Infielder Luisangel Acuña has made the Mets’ Opening Day roster, per Anthony DiComo’s confirmation of a report about the news. The 23-year-old infielder figures to primarily be on the Mets’ bench as the season gets underway tomorrow, as Brett Baty was impressive in spring training and figures to get the lion’s share of the starts at second base.
Given the fact that Baty’s a left-handed hitter and that Acuña is a right-handed hitter, though, Acuña should get some starts. Following several months of struggles at the plate in Triple-A last year, Acuña was called upon to make his major league debut in September and happened to have one of the best stints of his professional baseball career. In 40 major league plate appearances, he hit .308/.325/.641 with a 166 wRC+. Notably, he did not steal a base during that time.
In Syracuse last year, Acuña hit just .258/.299/.355 with a 69 wRC+, but he stole 40 bases. And in spring training games this year, he hit .250/.304/.269 with three stolen bases. It’s important to remember that his excellent cup of coffee at the big league level was an extremely small sample.
With the inclusion of Acuña on the Opening Day roster and the official announcement that several other players made it earlier today, things are all but officially set ahead of the first game of the season in Houston tomorrow,
