Ronald Acuña Jr. is prepared for the rivalry between the Mets and the Atlanta Braves to warmth up once more.
The Braves outfielder and one of many younger faces of baseball is eagerly awaiting the day that his brother, Mets high prospect Luisangel Acuña, will get known as as much as the large membership in Queens. The youthful Acuña got here to the Mets a number of weeks in the past from the Texas Rangers group in a commerce that noticed right-handed ace Max Scherzer going to the Lonestar State.
He’s at present taking part in for Double-A Binghamton, however he may attain the Major Leagues as quickly as subsequent season. Next season nonetheless isn’t fast sufficient for his large brother.
“If it was up to me, he would already be up here,” Ronald stated via a translator this weekend at Citi Field through the Mets sequence towards the Braves.
It hasn’t been a lot of a rivalry between the 2 NL East foes in latest seasons. Atlanta is 8-1 towards the Mets this season. The Braves have received 14 of their final 16 video games towards them relationship again to final season and have outscored their supposed rivals 118-54 in that span.
The Braves infamously swept the Mets out of first place within the closing weekend of the common season in 2022, relegating them to the Wild Card spherical. The Mets haven’t been the identical since. But the youthful Acuña brother is likely to be a silver lining. A traditionally disappointing season triggered a remainder of kinds and the membership used its finest useful resource — cash — to accumulate Luisangel with the hope that his influence bat will assist the Mets rating greater than 54 runs in 16 video games.
“I think we’re going to have a great rivalry because there are so many parts of our game that are similar,” Ronald stated. “Watching him play feels sort of like watching myself play, to be honest.”
If that’s the case, then the Mets could have landed themselves a celebrity.
There are some main variations between the 2 gamers, particularly their positions — Luisangel is a center infielder — and their top — Ronald is listed at 6-0 and Luisangel at 5-foot-8. Talent evaluators don’t suppose Luisangel will possess the identical energy as his older brother however he’s nonetheless projected to hit 15-20 homers a season.
However, they each bought the pace gene.
Ronald, the 2018 NL Rookie of the Year, led the league with 54 stolen bases final season, changing into the primary participant since 2017 to take action and changing into the primary participant in MLB historical past to document 20 house runs and 50 stolen bases earlier than August. Luisangel has already stolen 44 this season in Double-A.
“He’s already a better player (than I am),” Ronald stated. “Some of the things he’s doing at his age, I wasn’t doing when I was his age.”
Luisangel is predicted to maneuver from shortstop to second base with shortstop Francisco Lindor signed via 2031. He has a robust arm and good vary.
His brother is taken into account a franchise cornerstone. His 6.3 fWAR ranks second behind Shohei Ohtani this season and when wholesome, he’s top-of-the-line total gamers within the league. Ronald talks to his brother day by day and offers him recommendation. If Luisangel has even half the expertise as his brother, they’ll have a franchise cornerstone on their fingers too.
“I look up to my brother,” Luisangel stated via Mets translator Alan Suriel final week when the Rumble Ponies had been in Bridgewater, New Jersey. “I obviously learned a lot from him, him being a superstar in the game. I consider him a big part of my career because he’s always been there for me.”
Ronald must wait a bit of longer to face his brother within the large leagues, however possibly not a lot.
“I think they traded for him because they have plans for him here,” Ronald stated. “I’m hoping and expecting him to keep putting in the work in the minor leagues. I hope to see him here sooner rather than later.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com