Don't look now: While Ronald Acuña Jr. is hurt, his brother is raking

At the 2023 MLB trade deadline, the New York Mets acquired an Acuña in a deal that sent Max Scherzer to the Texas Rangers. No, it wasn't Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr., it was his younger brother, Luisangel.

While Ronald might be out for the remainder of the season after tearing his ACL, Luisangel is finally showing Mets fans why the team traded for him after a lackluster start to his Mets minor league career.

Acuña has been hitting the ball tremendously well lately for the Syracuse Mets, New York's AAA affiliate, and the longer this continues, the more David Stearns is going to have to seriously consider bringing him up to the majors.

Luisangel Acuña is picking up the slack while Ronald misses time with injury

Luisangel, much like Ronald, got off to an incredibly slow start this season, posting a .644 OPS through the month of April, but things have been progressively getting better since.

Acuña hit .282 with a .695 OPS in May, and is currently hitting .312 with a .765 OPS in June. He's not the power hitter Ronald is, as evidenced by his four home runs in 318 plate appearances, but he's proving he can hit for a high average, spraying the ball all over the field, and can wreak havoc on the base paths as well. This season he has stolen 26 bases while nobody on New York's MLB team has more than 13. He might not be the all-around monster his brother is, but Luisangel has been showcasing some real MLB talent lately.

This hot streak could not have come at a better time for the Mets as Jeff McNeil continues to struggle. McNeil might have won a batting title in 2022 and might be a two-time All-Star, but he has looked like a shell of himself all season with seemingly no end in sight. Jose Iglesias has already started to take away some playing time from him, and if Acuña keeps his hot hitting up, it'll be tough for the Mets, a team trying to make it to the postseason, to continue to play the struggling McNeil.

Ronald might be hurt, but Luisangel, New York's No. 5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline is doing his best to make sure that the Acuña name is being well-represented.