NY Mets rookie Luisangel Acuna is defying conventional logic with his bat

Luisangel Acuna took home National League Rookie of the Month honors for March/April. A well-deserved honor for what he was able to accomplish in the first month, the New York Mets rookie did so while defying some odds that’ll have stat junkies befuddled.

It hasn’t been an overly amazing start to the season from a statistical standpoint. Slashing .289/.345/.368 with 7 stolen bases, Acuna is falling well short of the surprising power he put on display last year in only 40 plate appearances. He has managed to knock 6 doubles already, but a home run has yet to come off his bat. A big reason for it is he has as many barreled balls as you do: 0.

Luisangel Acuna hasn’t barreled up a single ball all year and it doesn’t seem to matter

This is probably the type of hitter we’re going to see throughout his career. Even last year when he hit over .300 and slugged .641, Acuna had just 3 barreled balls. Considered to be an indication of how well or how poorly a player is actually doing in spite of results, Acuna’s complete lack of hitting the ball on the sweet spot is defying logic.

It’s not completely unheard of, though. Luis Arraez has established himself as a low exit velocity, low barrel percentage, batting title contender. Very different players, we should welcome Acuna’s contributions that fly in the face of what we’re told leads to success.

Acuna is far from a masher and it’s showing up in the analytics. His speed will help turn some softly hit balls into singles and the occasional blooper in the right spot into a double. Meanwhile, Brandon Nimmo is second on the team with 12 barrels and yet he has a batting average 60 points lower than Acuna at .229. His hard-hit percentage is in the top 10% of the and yet he has only 5 more hits in 45 more plate appearances.

Push any criticism aside for Acuna’s lack of power. In fact, tip your cap to him for getting the job done in a way that’ll make some squirm.