With the Mets in the thick of the playoff race and less than a month to go until the trade deadline, much of the focus is on what the club might do to address the bullpen.
Some serious internal help will come when Edwin Diaz‘s suspension ends on July 6 and Sean Reid-Foley returns from the IL (as early as July 5).
But while most of the attention is on the bullpen, the Mets have a potential situation developing in the lineup — and a very intriguing option who could be plugged in.
With Starling Marte out for at least a month due to a knee injury, the Mets have been piecing the starting outfield together by playing either DJ Stewart or Tyrone Taylor most days.
And at second base, it’s been the struggling Jeff McNeil getting the bulk of the starts.
Taylor has had his moments, including hitting home runs against the Yankees and Astros last week, but has struggled for the most part.
In 63 games this season, Taylor has hit just .228/.276/.370. And he’s been scuffling especially badly against left-handers, slashing only .190/.217/.241 with zero homers against them.
Meanwhile, Stewart has not done much to build on the success he had last season.
His on-base percentage (.333) is decent, which is one of the reasons why his OPS+ (97) is near league average, but Stewart is slugging just .333. He has five homers in 60 games after blasting 11 in 58 games in 2023. Stewart has also been a negative defensively in the outfield.
As bench players, both Stewart and Taylor could be assets. As starters? They could put a crimp in a lineup that has been excelling over the last month-plus.
Regarding McNeil, he hasn’t t been able to bottle the jolt he provided this past Friday against the Astros, when he had three hits — including a missile of a three-run homer. He’s gone 1-for-10 since.
Overall, McNeil is hitting a paltry .217/.276/.304 in 75 games this season.
Put it all together, and it’s time to consider Luisangel Acuña as a possible addition to the lineup — whether it means sliding McNeil to the outfield on a regular basis and seeing if he turns it around, or using McNeil as a backup infielder/outfielder. That second scenario would likely mean Stewart getting optioned to the minors.
After a very slow start to the season for Triple-A Syracuse — a start that has his overall numbers looking not so great — Acuña has been on fire.
He turned it on in May, and is coming off a June where he was tremendous.
In 24 games last month, Acuña hit .298/.348/.413.
Along the way, he had nine multi-hit games. And he hit safely in 15 of 16 games to close the month.
Acuña’s strikeout rate has been impressive, too.
From June 12 to June 30 — a span of 16 games — he fanned just eight times. For the season, Acuña’s strikeout rate is 16.5 percent. For reference, it was 18.0 percent last season for Double-A Binghamton, and 21.3 percent when he was in Double-A in the Rangers system in 2022.
Meanwhile, Acuña has swiped 26 bags in 75 games this season after stealing 57 in 121 games last year.
The big question with Acuña is an obvious one: do the Mets think he’s ready, or do they need to see more from him at the Triple-A level to believe he’ll be able to adjust to and handle big league pitching?
If the Mets think Acuña is ready for the jump, now would be a good time to give him his first shot.
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