The New York Mets have a couple of young infielders who are currently playing winter ball, and LuisAngel Acuna and Ronny Mauricio are having very different experiences. To put it simply, Acuna is tearing it up in the Venezuelan Winter League, while Mauricio is struggling.
These numbers just became a lot more important, because the Mets just traded a veteran infielder, second baseman Jeff McNeil, to the Athletics in return for a rookie league pitcher in what was basically a cash/player dump.
Trading McNeil is basically the other shoe dropping in an explosive report from the New York Post that had McNeil engaging in an embarrassing clubhouse argument with star shortstop Francisco Lindor back in June, with the argument supposedly about defensive execution.
Whatever McNeil said during their exchange must have been bad, because now the second baseman has been sentenced to baseball’s version of Siberia, i.e., Sacramento, where he gets to play in a minor league bandbox with subpar facilities. On top of that, the Mets actually paid to get rid of him.
So how does this connect back to Acuna and Mauricio? GM David Stearns sent out signals last week that he might be willing to move one or more of his young infielders, but now Acuna and Mauricio probably won’t be going anywhere now that the Mets infield is set and the ranks of veteran problem players have been further thinned.
Their baseball fate remains a mystery, however. Acuna is slashing .285/.399/.555 (.954 OPS) with 18 extra-base hits and 32 RBIs according to James Villani of MetsMerized Online, and he has 25 walks to go with 32 strikeouts across 137 at-bats. His OPS ranks sixth in the league, and he’s ranked eighth in the league in homers with eight.
Mauricio, meanwhile is scuffling. He’s slashing 186/.265/.349 with a .614 OPS, although he’s only had 43 at-bats so far. He played in the Venezuelan League back in 2023-24, when he hurt his knee, which has sent the third baseman’s career into a curious tailspin that no one's been able to figure out given his obvious talent level.
With regard to Acuna, it should be noted that he’s done this sort of thing before. He hit .337 with a .914 OPS in Winter League last year, then struggled with the Mets, and winter stats are notorious for not translating to big league summer baseball. He’ll get a chance to play a utility role, though, while Mauricio probably needs to pick up his numbers to keep his Mets career off the ropes.