NEW YORK — The reminder stays on Luisangel Acuña’s bat, just below where his name appears, handwritten in black marker.
Less is more.
Those words wound up on Acuña’s bat a couple of weeks ago, before the New York Mets called him up from Triple A, before he began competently filling in for injured star shortstop Francisco Lindor during a playoff push.
The message helps Acuña relax. He’s 22 years old. He’s one of the club’s top prospects. The Mets acquired him last year in a trade with the Texas Rangers for Max Scherzer, a future Hall of Famer. His older brother is Ronald Acuña Jr., the Atlanta Braves star outfielder, the National League’s reigning MVP. The younger Acuña badly wants to be good. In Triple A, his coaches and rival scouts found him guilty of trying too hard.
That’s why Triple-A Syracuse bench coach JP Arencibia wrote those words on Acuña’s bat, to refresh his memory before every plate appearance about everything they’ve worked on.
“That’s what has ended up helping me,” Acuña said through interpreter Alan Suriel during a recent interview. “I am able to keep that in mind, and breathe.”
With a few mechanical changes and work with a mental performance coach, Luisangel Acuña found his comfort zone. (Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)
A couple of significant adjustments accelerated Acuña’s readiness for the major leagues. They help explain how he produced an unremarkable .654 OPS with seven home runs in 131 games at Stracyse and promptly went gangbusters his first week in the majors. By Thursday, Acuña became the first Mets player ever to record a single, double, triple and home run in his first five games with an at-bat.
Most recently, Acuña rid himself of some anxiousness through his work with Arencibia and one of the Mets’ mental performance coaches.
But first came mechanical improvements within his swing and pre-pitch bat positioning at the plate.
Acuña doesn’t get mistaken for his brother, who stands a few inches taller and carries a couple dozen more pounds of muscle. But Acuña’s stance, he said, has always resembled his brother’s if not completely mimicked. Hands low. Bat vertical. It worked just fine for him — until he slumped a few weeks into the Triple-A season.
Acuña’s groundball rate increased while his quality of contact decreased. He tended to crash forward, often lunging at balls and chopping down on them. Arencibia, a former major-league catcher who is bilingual, told Acuña, “Let’s see your hands a little higher up and your bat a bit farther back. Let’s see how you feel.”
Things started to click.
“When I started practicing swinging like that,” Acuña said, “I started to feel comfortable.”
Acuña’s stance and swing still evoke comparisons to his brother, but the new differences matter plenty. Acuña now holds his bat more horizontally, with his hands higher. The change allows Acuña to get his bat through the strike zone earlier, leading to a better quality of contact and an ability to lift the ball with power.
After fixing Acuña’s bat angle, Arencibia also helped address Acuña’s problem with overstriding. With mechanical issues addressed, the results started to improve. From April 23 to the end of June, Acuña slashed .286/.341/.399 with four home runs. After that period, however, Acuña again struggled, this time for different reasons.
“I could see the game speed up on him at times,” Arencibia said.
Rival scouts love Acuña. He works hard, they say. But at the height of his struggles, observers noticed a pattern: If Acuña, who rarely walks, failed to record a hit in his first at-bat, he’d spend his next plate appearances visibly anxious, wanting to make something happen. Notably, he’d chase more. When down in the count, the problem only worsened.
“If I was in an 0-2 count,” Acuña said, “I used to always jump forward and was a little bit too aggressive.”
Late in the Triple-A season, Acuña started working with Maria Bogaert, one of the Mets’ minor-league mental performance coaches. While on video calls with Bogaert and Arencibia, Acuña learned more about the relationships between arousal, effort and performance. For instance, being too amped up, trying too hard to force a result can sometimes turn out counterproductive. The ideal balance requires finding a sweet spot.
A ritual followed.
In subsequent batting practice sessions, Arencibia would ask Acuña for a self-assessment of his effort level after swings. Arencibia would say, “From one to 10, what number are you on?” Typically, after balls hit foul, Acuña said he found himself using maximum effort. On booming liners to the outfield gaps, he’d tell Arencibia a lower number: Siete.
Seven. Less than 10. Seven was good. Seven was better. Inside Syracuse’s dugout ahead of every first pitch, Arencibia instructed Acuña, “Siete.” The routine didn’t last long; soon after, the Mets called up Acuña.
Acuña’s first six games with the Mets have featured several highlights. Twice, he has recorded a hit after falling 0-2 in the count with one of those hits a home run. After beginning Thursday hitless through his first three at-bats of that day’s game, he hit a triple. Through 19 plate appearances, Acuña is 8-for-19.
Before Acuña arrived in the major leagues, Arencibia texted Mets manager Carlos Mendoza: “Make sure you tell him, ‘Siete.’ It will make a difference coming from you.”
Less has led to more.
(Top photo of Luisangel Acuña: Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)
