Jose Acuna was an international signing by the New York Mets in July of 2019. With the 2020 season being cancelled he had to wait until the 2021 season to make his professional debut. The Mets sent him to their complex in Florida to begin his career and he made three starts and one relief appearance that July, but those were the only games he would pitch all year.
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When the 2022 season began, the then 19-year-old had to wait until June to get things started as the Mets once again opted to have him begin the year with the complex level club in Florida. In the first month he would make four appearances – two starts and two games out of the bullpen – where he threw 16.1 innings with a 1.65 ERA, just three walks, and he struck out 25 batters.
His first two starts in July didn’t go as well, giving up six earned runs in 9.1 innings to go along with four walks. Those would be his final two starts at the complex level. The next time he took the mound was on July 17th for Single-A St. Lucie. Taking on Dunedin, Jose Acuna struck out eight batters and allowed just one run in 5.0 innings. Nine days later he took the mound again, throwing 3.0 shutout innings against Palm Beach. Two days later he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds along with outfielder Hector Rodriguez in a deal that sent Tyler Naquin and Phillip Diehl to the New York Mets.
Cincinnati kept Jose Acuna in Florida, sending the right-handed pitcher to Single-A Daytona. His first two starts came against his former team, the St. Lucie Mets, and Acuna was dominant. Over his 9.0 innings he allowed four hits and was charged with an unearned run while striking out 10 of his former teammates and walking no one. After a solid start against Lakeland, the righty struggled against Clearwater, who put up five runs in 4.1 innings against him. The two starts that followed saw him give up just one run in 9.2 innings. In the final start of the season he would strike out eight batters, but he also allowed four runs in just 3.1 innings against Tampa.
For all 2022 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).
Jose Acuna Scouting Report
Position: Right-handed pitcher | B/T: R/R
Height: 6′ 2″ | Weight: 197 lbs | Acquired: International FA 2019 (Trade 2022, Mets)
Born: October 20, 2002
Fastball | A pitch that works in the low 90’s and will touch 95 on occasion.
Slider | It works in the high 70’s to low 80’s and has some cutter tendencies to it.
Change Up | A low-80’s pitch with good sink to it, but not much movement on the horizontal plane and shows as a below-average offering.
Jose Acuna has been quite good in his professional career so far, but he’s also only thrown 72.0 innings in his two years. He’s limited hits, giving up just 42 of them, and he’s limited walks. Acuna throws strikes with all three of his pitches. The righty is noted for his ability to mix things up (both his pitches as well as his timing) with scouts liking his pitchability.
His fastball has high spin rates, which allows it to play up beyond mediocre velocity and is an average offering overall. The slider flashes average, but is currently a below-average offering. His change up is a very low-spin offering that has separation on the vertical plane from the fastball but not much at all on the horizontal plane.
There’s not a bunch of projection left for Acuna on his fastball. But if he can improve his secondary offerings a little bit as he continues to develop and find some more consistency with them he has the makings of a back of the rotation kind of starter.
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Interesting Stat on Jose Acuna
He held hitters that were younger than he was to a .127/.200/.164 line on the season in 60 plate appearances. Older batters hit .187/.284/.310 against him in 197 plate appearances.