ATLANTA — In a home clubhouse filled with Braves jerseys, there was one oddity: The enemy’s colors were on display in Ronald Acuña Jr.’s locker.
Hours before Tuesday’s game, Ronald and Luisangel met in the media room at Truist Park, hugged and honored a long-held promise.
As Luisangel worked his way through the minors, he and his superstar big brother envisioned this day and agreed that, whenever it came, they would swap jerseys.
“Honestly it just filled me up with pride and joy,” Luisangel Acuña said, through interpreter Alan Suriel, before his Mets opened a series against Ronald’s Braves. “That’s something that we’ve been talking about since I was in the minor leagues.”
Luisangel estimated there were 15 family members in town to see him play in a 10th career major league game and to see Ronald watch, the 2023 NL MVP out for the season with a torn ACL.
Ronald’s powerful and fluid righty swing has been missing since May, but Luisangel has ensured a similar stroke is seen around the majors. The Mets’ top prospect debuted on Sept. 14 in the wake of Francisco Lindor’s back injury and has not stopped hitting since, entering play batting .379 with a 1.228 OPS while filling in seamlessly at shortstop.
The Mets lost their MVP and called up a player who produced (at least early) at an even better clip.
In Luisangel’s mind, the entire Acuña family (minus Ronald) would be Mets fans this week.
“They’re saying that they’re going to support me because my brother is not playing,” Luisangel said to laughs.
The brothers enjoyed a mutual off day in Georgia on Monday, going out to dinner and Luisangel sleeping over at Ronald’s house.
The bonding continued Tuesday, when they hung out during batting practice and posed with several people, including Mets owner Alex Cohen.
The boys grew up in Venezuela with a father, Ronald Acuña Sr., who played from 1999-2004 in the Mets minor league system and reached as high as Double-A Binghamton. Ronald reached the majors in 2018, won NL Rookie of the Year and was a star immediately.
Luisangel originally had agreed to an international deal with the Braves that was to be signed in 2017, but the club was stripped of its potential signing bonuses as part of the fallout from violating international signing rules that led to then-GM John Coppolella’s firing.
Luisangel instead signed with the Rangers, who sent the infielder to the Mets for Max Scherzer at last year’s trade deadline.
After five minor league seasons, Luisangel has made it. Ronald, who is set to speak to reporters Wednesday, said hello to his little brother with a hug, jersey and social-media threat.
“What he said was if they ended up winning, he was going to post me on Instagram and say, like, ‘Welcome to Atlanta,’ ” Luisangel said. “But I told him we’re not going to lose.”