How Luisangel Acuna made a ‘dream’ MLB start
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Luisangel Acuña heard from his star brother almost every day during his rise through the minor leagues.
Keep working hard. You looked good tonight. Stay disciplined.
The kernels of advice and encouragement have helped Acuña push through a career that started in 2019 with the Texas Rangers, where he reached Double-A and was a Fall League All-Star in 2022, then jumped into overdrive. From the moment he signed, expectations had come from that last name, which only mounted when the Rangers traded Acuña to the New York Mets last summer for Max Scherzer. But having Ronald Acuña Jr., an NL MVP and four-time All-Star by age 25, as an older brother became fuel.
“That’s pride, inspiration,” Luisangel said recently. “It feeds my desire to work. He’s at the peak. I think that’s the best thing a baseball player in the minor leagues can have, a brother in the major leagues and one who is a superstar. That’s motivation.”
The brotherly advice instilled Luisangel Acuña with confidence he needed after he unexpectedly joined the Mets two weeks ago in the middle of a heated playoff race. The younger Acuña has flourished as the injured Francisco Lindor‘s replacement at shortstop: He’s batting .379 with three home runs and a 1.228 OPS in nine major league games while impressing his peers with his demeanor in the high-stakes contests.
“He’s just calm, poised,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s just like he belongs in the big leagues.”
Acuña has helped the Mets remain two games ahead of his brother’s Atlanta Braves for the final NL wild-card spot, and for the next three nights, the brothers will be in opposite dugouts at Truist Park for a series that could decide their clubs’ postseason fates. Ronald, out for the season with a torn ACL, traveled to Atlanta to watch his little brother play at the major league level for the first time.
If all had gone according to plan for the Mets, Acuña would not be on the trip.
The plan wasn’t for him to make his major league debut two Saturdays ago during a pivotal road series against the first-place Philadelphia Phillies. The 5-foot-8 Acuña was expected to spend the season with Triple-A Syracuse, where he was batting .258 with seven home runs and a .654 OPS. Still just 22, he was not beating down the door to join a veteran playoff-caliber club, and that was OK.
But as magical as the Mets’ in-season turnaround has been, a reversal that launched the club from 11 games under .500 to 18 games over in less than four months, they have not been immune to injuries. Two in the past month left them short in the middle infield. First, second baseman Jeff McNeil was lost for the remainder of the season with a broken left wrist. Less than a week later, a much bigger blow: Lindor left a game on Sept. 13 with a lower back injury.
Acuña received the call that night, and the next afternoon, he was in the Mets’ lineup in Philadelphia, batting ninth and playing shortstop. He went 2-for-4, recording his first career hit in his second plate appearance. The Mets lost that day and the next before going 6-1 during a crucial homestand, culminating with a series win against the Phillies.
Acuña started six of those games at Citi Field. He recorded hits in five of them. In his first home game, he bounced back from an early run-costing error with three hits, including an RBI double and his first career home run, in a 10-1 rout of the Washington Nationals. He homered again the next night and off All-Star Ranger Suárez on Saturday in a 6-3 win over the Phillies with “Hakuna Matata” — a play on his last name — as his walk-up song.
“That’s sort of the major league start anyone would dream of, right?” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said last Friday.
In the Mets’ dream scenario, Lindor is back at shortstop Tuesday and Acuña, who has extensive professional experience at second base and in center field, is moved around the diamond. But that appears unlikely.
On Sunday, Lindor indicated he might not return to play in the regular season, which means he might not return at all if the Mets miss out on the postseason. Lindor, who was considered Shohei Ohtani‘s strongest challenger for NL MVP before the injury, said he expects to play in pain if he does return.
Lindor suffered the injury Sept. 13 in Philadelphia, which forced him to exit the game in the seventh inning. He has since played just one inning. The Mets are 6-3 during that stretch.
“I’m super happy,” Lindor said of the team’s play without him. “I knew that they could do it. I’ve believed in the team since Day One. I believe in what Stearns, Mendy, and the whole front office did from Day One. We have a really good team.”
Acuña has been part of it for less than two weeks, producing at a level unexpected after his struggles in Triple A. Acuña said regularly playing in cold weather for the first time was a factor in his struggles earlier in the year. He credited Syracuse bench coach JP Arencibia for suggesting a mechanical adjustment at the plate in late April — raising his hands instead of having them low like his brother — that produced better contact and improved his ability to hit the ball in the air with power. But plate discipline remained a flaw — he compiled just 32 walks in 587 plate appearances in Syracuse, good for a career-low 5.5% walk rate — and the results remained underwhelming.
“I think it’s always tough to predict that someone is going to perform even better at the major league level than they performed at the minor level,” Stearns said. “I think what we had confidence in was the pulse and that the moment wasn’t going to be too big for him. He’s not going to get nervous. He’s excited to be here, and he believes he can perform in this environment. And, clearly, he has.”
This week, Acuña will play the most important games of his career with a familiar face across the way. At some point, the brothers from Venezuela plan on swapping jerseys. It’ll make for a memorable moment. Between the lines, little brother, equipped with his brother’s wisdom, will look to create a few more.
“He always told me it’s the same game,” Acuña said. “Just do what I know.”
Mitch Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights — with an eight-year extension in place, sources told ESPN on Monday. Forward Nicolas Roy will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.
Marner’s new deal has a $12 million average annual value, according to sources. Marner, 28, was the biggest name entering Tuesday’s NHL free agency, and multiple teams were hoping to make pitches. Marner was the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer last season with 102 points — 36 more than the next-closest free agent. The winger was drafted by his hometown Maple Leafs with the No. 4 pick in 2015.
The Maple Leafs knew that Marner was looking to test free agency at the end of the season. Over the past few days, Toronto worked with Vegas, which was Marner’s preferred destination, on a trade. The Maple Leafs held Marner’s rights until just before midnight Tuesday.
Had Marner become an unrestricted free agent, he couldn’t have signed a deal for more than seven years.
Marner finished a six-year deal that paid him $10.9 million annually. Marner, who played for Team Canada at Four Nations and likely will make their Olympic team, has 221 goals and 741 points in nine NHL seasons.
Toronto general manager Brad Treliving has stayed busy this week, re-signing John Tavares and Matthew Knies while trading for Utah forward Matias Maccelli earlier Monday.
Roy, 28, is a center who is entering Year 4 of a five-year deal that pays him $3 million annually.
Ahead of the Marner trade, the Golden Knights created cap space by sending defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Nashville Predators on Monday.
The deal makes Marner the highest-paid player on Vegas, however, center Jack Eichel ($10 million AAV) is entering the final year of his contract and is eligible to sign an extension this summer. The Golden Knights might not be done this offseason. According to sources, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is expected to go on long-term injured reserve, which could create more flexibility.
Sign-and-trades ahead of free agency are becoming a trend for NHL teams that know they will not sign their coveted player; last season, the Carolina Hurricanes dealt Jake Guentzel‘s rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning before he signed a seven-year deal.
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Ryan S. Clark
Hours after re-signing Aaron Ekblad, the Florida Panthers kept another integral piece of their Stanley Cup team by re-signing Brad Marchand to a six-year contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
Marchand’s deal has an average annual value of $5.25 million, sources told Kaplan.
Coming to terms with Ekblad on an eight-year extension worth $6.1 million annually left the Panthers with what PuckPedia projected to be $4.9 million in salary cap space.
There was the possibility that Marchand, 37, could have left the Panthers for a more lucrative offer elsewhere considering there were teams that had more than enough cap space to sign him.
Instead? Marchand, who arrived ahead of the NHL trade deadline from the Boston Bruins, appears as if he will remain in South Florida for the rest of his career.
Acquiring defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then adding Marchand were two decisions made by Panthers general manager Bill Zito with the intent of seeing the Panthers win a second consecutive Stanley Cup as part of a run that now has included three straight Cup Final appearances.
Marchand, who was a pending UFA entering the final day before free agency begins Tuesday, used the 2025 postseason to further cement why the Panthers and other teams throughout the NHL would still seek his services. He scored 10 goals and finished with 20 points in 23 playoff games.
For all the contributions he made, his greatest came during the Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Marchand, who previously won a Cup with the Bruins back in 2011, opened the series with a goal in the first three games. That includes the two goals he scored in the Panthers’ 5-4 double-overtime win to tie the series with his second being the game-winning salvo.
He scored two more goals in a 5-2 win in Game 5 that allowed the Panthers to take a 3-1 series lead before returning to Sunrise, Florida, where they closed out the series with an emphatic 5-1 win.
Capturing a consecutive title created questions about whether the Panthers can win a third in a row. But there was the understanding that it might be difficult given there was only so much salary cap space to re-sign Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand.
Knowing there was a chance they could lose one, or more, of them, Zito laid the foundation to retain the trio. He began by signing Bennett to an eight-year contract worth $8 million annually on June 27 before using Monday to sign Ekblad and Marchand.
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Ryan S. Clark
Ivan Provorov decided to forgo free agency, with the veteran defenseman finalizing a seven-year extension Monday worth $8.5 million annually to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets, sources told ESPN, confirming earlier reports.
With free agency slated to start Tuesday, the 28-year-old was one of the most notable defenseman who had a chance to hit the open market.
Provorov’s decision to stay with the Blue Jackets comes shortly after it was reported that Aaron Ekblad also avoided free agency by agreeing to an eight-year extension to remain with the Florida Panthers. That now leaves players such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Ryan Lindgren, and Dmitry Orlov among the more prominent pending UFAs who could be available should they fail to strike a deal with their current teams.
Retaining Provorov comes months after a season that witnessed the Blue Jackets shed the title of being a rebuilding franchise to one that could challenge for the playoffs in 2025-26.
Four consecutive seasons without the playoffs created the idea that the 2024-25 campaign could be another challenging one. But a six-game winning streak in January saw Columbus post a 22-17-6 record to create the belief that a turnaround could be in order.
The Jackets closed the season with another six-game winning streak but fell short of the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot, which went to the Montreal Canadiens by two points.
Provorov would finish with seven goals and 33 points in 82 games while his 23 minutes, 21 seconds in average ice time was second behind Norris Trophy finalist Zach Werenski.
Re-signing Provorov comes in an offseason that saw the Blue Jackets also strengthen their bottom-six forward corps by adding Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche.
PuckPedia projects that the Blue Jackets now have $20.957 million in cap space ahead of free agency.
TSN was first to report news of Provorov’s decision.
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