The New York Mets have a reconfigured infield, but that doesn’t mean the new configuration is carved in stone. The Mets still have some good young players who will challenge for playing time, and infielder, Luisangel Acuna is making an especially strong case for himself.
Acuna’s latest achievement happened in a Venezuelan Professsional Baseball League, where the Mets infielder has been tearing it up for the Cardenales de Lara. On Saturday, Acuna went deep with a vengeance, hitting four home runs and driving in seven runs , according to a report by Mark Suleymanov of the New York Post.
Acuna actually started this game playing out of position in center field, but that didn’t matter much. His first homer was a three-run round-tripper in the second inning that drove in a pair of former Mets, catcher Ali Sanchez and fellow outfielder Rafael Ortega.
His next home run was a solo blast in the sixth off former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Darien Nunez, and Acuna added yet another solo shot in the seventh. Acuna’s final shot was a two-run blow that came off a positional player, according to Suleymanov, but it gave Lara a 21-9 win while making Acuna the first player in league history to hit four home runs in a single game.
The Mets won’t be expecting that kind of power display this season, of course, but they’d love to see a rebound year from Acuna. He was tracking to be a starter and possibly even a cornerstone player when he fell into a deep slump in May and June that got him demoted to Triple A Syracuse.
His final slash line of .234/.293/.274 with no home runs and eight RBIs in 95 games, and Acuna is out of minor league options. He may actually be showcasing himself as trade bait, given that he’s showed out in winter league before without being able to duplicate that level of performance at Citi Field.
“Acuña is such a unique player because the floor is so high of what he can provide,” GM David Stearns said when asked about Acuna’s future at the winter GM meetings. “He’s such a good defender, a gifted defender at multiple positions, and an elite baserunner. So the offensive contribution doesn’t need to be elite for him to solidify an everyday role on a major league team.
“I still have very high hopes for him. We need to see a little bit more offensive contribution than we’ve probably seen previously, but he is a very, very good defensive player and there’s a real role for that on a good team.”