Luisangel Acuña emulating All-Star big bro in journey to the bigs 

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. -- Around the time he was traded from the Rangers to the Mets last month, Luisangel Acuña logged onto WhatsApp to post a video of himself stealing a base. This was nothing unusual for Acuña, a speedy prospect who had swiped more than 40 bags in barely half a season in Double-A. But when Luisangel’s famous brother, Ronald, saw the clip, he challenged him to a competition. The terms were simple: Whoever finishes the season with more steals wins $5,000.

Luisangel apparently never stopped to realize that he may have been hustled. Over his past 14 games, Ronald has stolen nine bases to build a commanding lead over his brother.

“I want to get to that level, the one that my brother’s at,” Luisangel said Tuesday from TD Bank Ballpark before his Double-A Binghamton team opened a series at Somerset. “Everything he does is super impressive.”

For most of Luisangel’s career, comparisons to his brother have followed him. In a sense, they are unfair; Ronald Acuña Jr. is one of the most dynamic talents of his generation, a player accomplishing the sorts of things that no one else -- not even Shohei Ohtani -- can. But Luisangel, who at 21 is more than four years younger than Ronald, does not shy away from such analogies.

To the contrary, he embraces them. Luisangel wears bright yellow accessories, including batting gloves, elbow and shin guards that help him look the part. He spends his offseasons training with Ronald in Barquisimeto, a city near Venezuela’s northern coast. The two talk every day about their baseball lives -- Ronald with the Braves, Luisangel with Binghamton -- and then decompress by playing Call of Duty. (Ronald usually wins.)

“I look up to my brother,” Luisangel said through an interpreter. “I’ve obviously learned a lot from him being a superstar in the game. I consider him being a part of my career because he’s always been there for me.”

If Luisangel develops into even some fraction of the player that Ronald is, the Mets will be as ecstatic as when they acquired him for Max Scherzer prior to the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline. Acuña, who will rank as the organization’s top prospect when MLB Pipeline releases its midseason update later this week, was the headliner of a Deadline haul that also included outfielders Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford, infielders Jeremiah Jackson and Marco Vargas and quite a few others. Several of those prospects are already with him at Double-A.

In general manager Billy Eppler’s words, it’s been a “repositioning” of assets from the Major League roster to the farm system. Eppler’s hope is that the upside of players like Acuña can turn this not just into an improving organization, but an elite one.

“We’re excited from a player development standpoint,” Binghamton manager Reid Brignac said. “I know it was a hefty price for those guys.”

In Acuña’s case, the Mets are banking at least partially on his baseball genes. Part of an extended family that includes his father, Ronald Acuña Sr. (a longtime Mets farmhand who also played for Binghamton) as well as cousins Alcides Escobar, Kelvim Escobar and Maikel García, Luisangel grew up around those who understand the sport. He called it motivating to see Ronald Jr. train in the hopes of earning a professional contract as a teenager. As his older brother developed from an unheralded international signing into one of the sport’s true superstars, Luisangel tried to mimic him.

“He always tells me, ‘We’ll see each other in the big leagues,’” said Luisangel, a natural shortstop who profiles as a second baseman at the highest level.

If Luisangel’s wallet becomes a little lighter along the way, it won’t be for lack of effort. Leading off Tuesday at Somerset, he worked the count full in the first, drew a walk, then began dancing aggressively off first to begin a manic night on the basepaths.

Within minutes, Acuña had stolen second, and he would have had third easily if not for a foul ball. In the seventh, Acuña reached base on a hit-by-pitch, stole second, stole third, then beat a throw home on an infield grounder -- that, despite the infield playing in. By game’s end, he had 46 steals in 53 attempts. Ronald entered Tuesday with 53 in 62 tries.

“I’ve seen that a lot on social media where people want to say, ‘You’re better than your brother,’ [or] ‘Your brother’s better than you,’” Luisangel said. “But those are things that I don’t control. I just continue to go out there, play my game and do what I do.”