Ronald Acuña Jr. is ready for the rivalry between the Mets and the Atlanta Braves to heat up as soon as extra.
The Braves outfielder and considered one of many youthful faces of baseball is eagerly awaiting the day that his brother, Mets excessive prospect Luisangel Acuña, will get generally known as as a lot as the massive membership in Queens. The youthful Acuña obtained right here to the Mets numerous weeks up to now from the Texas Rangers group in a commerce that observed right-handed ace Max Scherzer going to the Lonestar State.
He’s at current participating in for Double-A Binghamton, nonetheless he could attain the Main Leagues as rapidly as subsequent season. Subsequent season nonetheless isn’t quick enough for his massive brother.
“If it was as much as me, he would already be up right here,” Ronald said by way of a translator this weekend at Citi Area by the Mets sequence in direction of the Braves.
It hasn’t been lots of a rivalry between the two NL East foes in newest seasons. Atlanta is 8-1 in direction of the Mets this season. The Braves have obtained 14 of their last 16 video video games in direction of them relationship once more to last season and have outscored their supposed rivals 118-54 in that span.
The Braves infamously swept the Mets out of first place throughout the closing weekend of the frequent season in 2022, relegating them to the Wild Card spherical. The Mets haven’t been the an identical since. However the youthful Acuña brother is more likely to be a silver lining. A historically disappointing season triggered a the rest of varieties and the membership used its best helpful useful resource — money — to build up Luisangel with the hope that his affect bat will help the Mets score higher than 54 runs in 16 video video games.
“I feel we’re going to have an excellent rivalry as a result of there are such a lot of elements of our sport which can be related,” Ronald said. “Watching him play feels type of like watching myself play, to be trustworthy.”
If that’s the case, then the Mets might have landed themselves a star.
There are some primary variations between the two players, significantly their positions — Luisangel is a middle infielder — and their prime — Ronald is listed at 6-0 and Luisangel at 5-foot-8. Expertise evaluators don’t suppose Luisangel will possess the an identical power as his older brother nonetheless he’s nonetheless projected to hit 15-20 homers a season.
Nonetheless, they every purchased the tempo gene.
Ronald, the 2018 NL Rookie of the Yr, led the league with 54 stolen bases last season, turning into the first participant since 2017 to take motion and turning into the first participant in MLB historic previous to doc 20 home runs and 50 stolen bases sooner than August. Luisangel has already stolen 44 this season in Double-A.
“He’s already a greater participant (than I’m),” Ronald said. “A few of the issues he’s doing at his age, I wasn’t doing after I was his age.”
Luisangel is predicted to maneuver from shortstop to second base with shortstop Francisco Lindor signed by way of 2031. He has a sturdy arm and good range.
His brother is taken into consideration a franchise cornerstone. His 6.3 fWAR ranks second behind Shohei Ohtani this season and when healthful, he’s top-of-the-line complete players throughout the league. Ronald talks to his brother daily and provides him suggestion. If Luisangel has even half the experience as his brother, they’ll have a franchise cornerstone on their fingers too.
“I look as much as my brother,” Luisangel said by way of Mets translator Alan Suriel last week when the Rumble Ponies had been in Bridgewater, New Jersey. “I clearly discovered quite a bit from him, him being a famous person within the sport. I think about him an enormous a part of my profession as a result of he’s all the time been there for me.”
Ronald should wait a little bit of longer to face his brother throughout the massive leagues, nonetheless presumably not quite a bit.
“I feel they traded for him as a result of they’ve plans for him right here,” Ronald said. “I’m hoping and anticipating him to maintain placing within the work within the minor leagues. I hope to see him right here sooner fairly than later.”
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