Luisangel Acuña isn’t a switch hitter, but White Sox GM says he loves him anyway

Posted February 12, 2026 4:19 pm

By Jon Greenberg

No, Luisangel Acuña is not a switch hitter, despite what you might’ve heard from Chicago White Sox GM Chris Getz in the recent past.

In a viral post on X on Wednesday, Chicago sports blogger Sam Phalen pointed out four times when Getz referred to Acuña as a switch hitter. The 23-year-old Acuña, whom the team acquired last month from the New York Mets in a trade for Luis Robert Jr., bats exclusively from the right side.

Getz addressed the verbal hiccup, which went viral on social media, with a good-humored statement delivered by Sox media relations Thursday morning.

“So I probably have been getting carried away describing his versatility,” he said, according to the team. “He can play every position on the field. Why does it have to stop there? I called Luisangel and told him that even though he’s just right-handed, we still love him.”

Acuña, who is expected to contribute to the infield and outfield for the Sox, played 109 games for the Mets since 2023 but struggled offensively with a .234 batting average and a .567 OPS in 95 games last year.

Getz is in his third full season as the GM of the White Sox, who followed their 2024 record-setting 121-loss season with a more respectable 60-102 record in 2025. He took over for Ken Williams and Rick Hahn in August 2023 after chairman Jerry Reinsdorf fired his longtime front-office executives amid a disastrous 101-loss season.

Getz, a former player for the White Sox, is always available to speak to the media and is an easygoing presence for a team suffering through some really bad baseball. He occasionally makes news with his comments, like in his first offseason when he said, “I don’t like our team,” regarding the roster balance. He was prescient as that team set a major-league record for losses. Occasionally, the Michigan grad is good for a malaprop, like this offseason when he kept mixing up “overstate” and “understate,” which he is now aware of.

But more importantly, Getz’s actions have begun to show results. The farm system is ranked in the top 10, according to The Athletic’s Keith Law, and should bring in more high-end talent via this year’s draft, where the White Sox have the No. 1 pick. Several former prospects are already everyday starters for the team.

The first PECOTA projections have the White Sox at 69 wins, which is still the second worst in the American League but slightly more optimistic than the figure has been in recent years.

The Sox should see some continued on-field improvement after a solid offseason that saw them surprisingly sign Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami to a two-year contract. But of course, the Sox still have a penchant for going viral for all the wrong reasons.

When he reported to spring training, Murakami posted on Instagram that his first name was misspelled on his locker. Murakami later shared that the error was fixed.