The White Sox took a flier on Luisangel Acuña, but his struggles at every level of the game are forcing a reality check. It's time to move on and cut his playing time.
Chicago sports legend Michael Jordan once said, “You don't learn from success, you learn from failure.” It's past time the Chicago White Sox adopt that line of thinking and decide to learn from one of their offseason mistakes.
When the White Sox first acquired Luisangel Acuña as the return from the New York Mets for outfielder Luis Robert Jr., the front office did a lot of heavy lifting to sell the fan base on Acuña's upside. They talked about how he came at the recommendation of Ozzie Guillen. They emphasized his defensive versatility and speed. GM Chris Getz even got a bit carried away and inaccurately referred to Acuña as a switch hitter on multiple occasions.
The overarching message came down to “runway,” a buzzword commonly used by the White Sox this offseason to describe their approach to free agency and trades. Chicago was trying to find bargain-bin options by providing regular MLB playing time to toolsy players who had previously been blocked in better organizations.
It's not an uncommon line of thinking, nor is it necessarily a bad one. And as we've already seen this year with a player like Everson Pereira, if you can identify traits and trust your player development staff, it's possible to get real value out of players who haven't had much MLB opportunity elsewhere.
But when it comes to Luisangel Acuña, I've seen through the noise and the narratives for quite some time now.
Did Getz's offseason mistake, believing Acuña was a switch hitter, expose him as an incapable talent evaluator? Not to me, no. But it did reveal the truth, which is that the White Sox simply hadn't paid much attention to the player they were getting in return for Luis Robert Jr.
That deal was made strictly to save money. Had the White Sox not traded for him, Acuña would have been waived by the Mets as a player out of minor league options that was unlikely to make the Opening Day roster.
The numbers have always been pretty revealing, and not just because Acuña had a .404 OPS over his final 66 MLB games last season.
In the case of somebody like Pereira, you were looking at a really productive minor league hitter who hadn't figured it out against big league pitching and hadn't had enough opportunity to learn. But when you see Acuña has a .667 OPS in 159 games at the Triple-A level, and you realize he hasn't been able to hit even in the minor leagues, there's not much there to suggest that's going to change with regular playing time against advanced MLB pitchers.
That's proving to be the case with the White Sox in 2026. And it's about time the White Sox admit defeat, learn from their failure, and in some capacity move on from Acuña.
Acuña Is Detrimental to the White Sox
In 27 games this season, Acuña has 86 plate appearances and a .417 OPS. He's batting just .169 with only one extra-base hit on the season. To make matters worse, the defense has also been poor. He has -3 OAA (outs above average) this season and a total fWAR of -0.6.
Of the 1,008 players to play in Major League Baseball this season, Acuña is 1,000th in fWAR. There are quite literally 1,000 players better than him, and yet he still gets regular opportunity with the White Sox.
This is what Luisangel Acuña is. He's a player who can't hit, doesn't get on base, and isn't special defensively.
The only aspect of the game that he does well is run the bases. So if the White Sox want to keep him on the 26-man roster as a late-game pinch runner, so be it. Though we could argue the merits of using a roster spot on this, with players like Derek Hill and Tristan Peters already on the team who are more than capable of stealing a base.
Either way, there's very little reason Acuña should ever have a bat in his hand. Even the 10 or so at-bats per week he’s been getting recently are too much.
Acuña is 4-for-39 at the plate in high or medium leverage situations with an OPS of .245 (yes...OPS). That's so bad that I had to double-check to make sure I didn't botch the math. He's simply not a playable MLB player.
The White Sox tried it and it didn't work. I don't even need or care to go back and rehash the Luis Robert Jr. trade. That's not the point here.
I'm focused on the here and now, and the White Sox have been playing surprisingly good baseball over the last few weeks and have pulled themselves within striking distance of a .500 record. They're 16-18, coming off a sweep of the Angels and a series win against the San Diego Padres. The AL Central is wide open, and the American League as a whole is middling.
I don't say that because I believe the White Sox are realistic contenders in 2026, but for an organization that emphasized improvement, winning more games, and trying to take a deliberate step forward in this rebuild, having Luisangel Acuña get playing time hinders their ability to do so. And if this season is about maximizing your win total and positioning the organization for the future, how can you continue playing someone who's so detrimental when there's anything on the line?
It's time for the White Sox to cut their losses and admit defeat.