Mets shock the fans by calling up veteran utility man added in Red Sox trade

Carlos Mendoza, you clever cat. After days of hinting that the New York Mets would finally pull back the curtain and introduce Luisangel Acuna to the major leagues, they went in another direction.

September is here and with it comes two additional roster spots. One goes to reliever Alex Young who’ll join a rotating force in the bullpen. The other, shockingly, gets handed over to veteran utility man Pablo Reyes who turns 31 this week.

Many suspected Mendoza’s desire for speed guaranteed Acuna would get the promotion. Speed is one thing Acuna has continued to show even in what has been a down year for the Syracuse Mets in Triple-A. Reyes’ roster spot isn’t permanent and once the minor league season has wrapped up, perhaps they DFA him and promote Acuna.

Making sense of the Mets calling up Pablo Reyes over Luisangel Acuna

We can’t put too much stock into minor league numbers for Reyes this year to justify the promotion. He did hit .287/.339/.377 last year in 185 plate appearances for the Boston Red Sox. This year, prior to getting traded to the Mets for cash considerations, he slashed just .183/.234/.217 in 64 chances. He’s a career .248/.309/.349 hitting in 572 trips to the plate.

In Triple-A this season combined with his time as a member of the Red Sox organization, Reyes robustly put together a .294/.376/.491 slash line with 11 home runs in 252 trips to the plate. He is in no way a power hitter, though. The 12 hit in 2015 in Single-A is the most in any tenure with a team.

This decision could come down to major league experience which Reyes has some of. Acuna could benefit from as much playing time as possible in Triple-A. But what’s a few more weeks? Far gone from next year’s Mets roster plans, he’ll enter the 2025 season with only one minor league option left. Picking Reyes does give the Mets some speed, but not the kind Acuna would have provided. What gives?

Reyes is a former David Stearns player having been with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2021 and 2022. He missed all of 2020 for a PED suspension. He was a free agent having been cut by the Pittsburgh Pirates in January of that year.

Reyes won’t give the Mets the kind of speed we imagined. Only 13 stolen bases in his MLB career in 232 games doesn’t suggest this is what they were looking to accomplish with the roster move. While certainly quicker than others on the roster, we can wonder if this was more about the desire to add Reyes as much as it was a disinterest in Acuna. If it’s the latter, it’s an incredibly unfortunate turn in the career of a guy who 13 months ago came to the Mets with a whole lot of hype.