Mets make bold roster moves ahead of clash vs. Braves ft. Luisangel Acuna, Jose Siri

The New York Mets entered June as one of the best teams in baseball, but they have been on a downward spiral since, losing the top spot to the Philadelphia Phillies amid a wretched run of form.

The Mets headed into Monday's series opener against the Atlanta Braves on the back of five straight losses and eight in their last 10. Given its form, New York made a flurry of roster moves.

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New York signed left handed pitcher Dicky Lovelady to a major league deal and selected Travis Jankowski for the roster. While Jose Siri was placed on the 60-day injured list, the biggest surprise was the move to send Luisangel Acuna to Triple-A Syracuse.

The younger brother of 2023 NL MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. made a promising start to the 2025 season but was demoted after a dip in productivity at the plate over the last few weeks.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza explained Luisangel Acuna's Triple-A move

While Luisangel's performances dipped in June, leading to just 19 plate appearances, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said the demotion was more to do with the young infielder's playing time than performance.

"He had a good April, he was getting consistent time and helped us win a lot of games,” Mendoza said. “Then it was a combination of other guys producing and he became that role guy that helped us win a lot of games with his versatility, his base-running -- he was still impacting games.

“But it got to a point now where it’s getting difficult to find him playing time, and for his development and where we’re at in the regular season, what we want to see is for him to get regular at-bats and play everyday because it’s hard for us to judge him right now.”

Despite the roster moves ahead of Monday's game, the Mets fell to a ninth loss in their last 10 games and fourth in a row against the Braves after being swept in Atlanta last week. The Mets are 46-33 for the season, 1.5 games behind the division leaders, the Philadelphia Phillies.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash