Francisco Lindor delivers a wake-up call to his NY Mets teammate who could use it

Luisangel Acuna has been one of the biggest stories of the spring. Not necessarily for all of the right reasons either. The young New York Mets prospect entered camp in a competition for a bench spot earned by Brett Baty. Due to injuries and a lack of results from some more seasoned infielders, he moved up the depth chart and a little closer to continuing his big league dream.

It’s not all hunky-dory in Mets land. An exciting player who has made his share of mistakes early on, a word you’d never want connected to you continues to leech onto Acuna’s style of play. His Triple-A struggles last year were explained as “boredom.” Francisco Lindor is doing the same when describing the way Acuna has played this spring.

A very subtle way to call out Acuna while also complimenting him by stating Acuna is someone who wakes up under the bright lights, Lindor’s assessment feels true and should be the last nudge Acuna needs.

The word “bored” is following Luisangel Acuna and he needs to change the adjective

Acuna seems to want meaningful baseball. He hit .308/.325/.641 with 3 home runs in only 40 plate appearances in the middle of a playoff race last year for the Mets. It came after batting a meager .258/.299/.355 in 587 trips to the plate in the minors. He hasn’t dominated this spring, slashing .225/.255/.245 in his 51 chances.

We’ve yet to see the full effect of what Acuna can do. He didn’t steal a bag in his time with the Mets last September. Capable of swiping 40, something he has done at minimum in each professional season, Acuna ran amuck in the Venezuelan Winter League. He swiped 18 bags in 19 attempts in just 30 games. Oh, and he also hit .337/.419/.495.

One would think Acuna would be awake for these spring games because of how meaningful they are for him to finally exit the minor leagues for good. It took a back injury to Lindor for the Mets to call him up last year. The absence of Jeff McNeil to begin 2025 is the lone reason he could see significant playing time early on this time around.

Acuna is the first in his class of Mets prospects to make it to the big leagues. He comes after the wave of Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, and Mark Vientos. Even if he can see what happened with them, it just doesn’t seem to have clicked that if this season goes awry, he could be gone and maybe even enter journeyman status way too soon.

Acuna has one minor league option remaining and if used, the Mets will need to carry him on the big league roster through all of next season in order to keep him within the organization. An early start to his professional career and 40-man roster placement while with the Texas Rangers has pushed him a little too close to the roster crunch. If boredom really is a problem, Lindor’s public acknowledgment should be the wake-up call he never should have needed in the first place.