Painful hit by pitch for Luisangel Acuna feels like recent NY Mets history repeated

Ouch!
New York Mets v Miami Marlins
New York Mets v Miami Marlins | Calvin Hernandez/GettyImages

Ronny Mauricio lost out on what could’ve been an impactful year in 2024 for the New York Mets. An ACL injury in the Dominican Winter League wiped out the rising prospect’s opportunity to play at all in 2024 in the majors or minors. He returned in 2025 a little behind schedule and seems to be trapped in Four-A.

Just as the Mets seem to be recovering from that injury, one of the players we expected to play a role on the 2026 team went down, too. Luisangel Acuna was hit by a pitch on Friday night in the Venezuelan Winter League. No diagnosis yet, it looks painful.

Any amount of missed time for Luisangel Acuna can impact his future with the Mets

A serious enough injury does a few things for Acuna. It’ll spoil his trade value and also have the Mets looking elsewhere for the speedster off the bench. Mauricio, ironically enough, is a candidate for a role although his legs weren’t nearly as quick as Acuna who was among the fastest in baseball last season.

Acuna is already on the roster bubble. Out of options but with some valuable skills he can bring to the team with his speed and defense, any amount of missed time for him will put the Mets in the market for a bench upgrade. The idea of having him play some more center field to begin next year makes sense if they’re not adding anyone and eventually plan to have Carson Benge on the MLB roster in the earlier part of the season if not on Opening Day. So far, Acuna has only 3 MLB innings in the outfield.

A worst-case scenario for Acuna shouldn’t have him missing extensive time like an ACL injury would. Opening Day is still more than four months away and a broken bone (if that’s what this ends up being) should be fine by then. 

Acuna's Winter League performance hadn't exactly been inspiring much confidence up until the hit by pitch. A .208 batting average but with 2 homers (he didn't hit any in the majors or minors this past season) remind us of his offensive limitations. Regardless, no one wants to see a player of any caliber get hurt.

The big takeaway: whenever you see a player show up in the Winter League, hold your breath. Specifically, cross your fingers Juan Soto never follows through with his Winter League plans to appear in a game for anyone but the Mets.

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations