Jeff McNeil's pandemic workout partner? His neighbor, Brandon Nimmo
Waiting out the coronavirus pandemic in Port St. Lucie, where the Mets’ Clover Park facility is closed, Jeff McNeil nonetheless has been working out with a familiar face: his neighbor, Brandon Nimmo.
Nimmo lives three doors down from McNeil, and he has a makeshift gym in his garage. They have access to a batting cage nearby, too, and are doing what they can to stay in shape during baseball’s indefinite hiatus, McNeil said Thursday on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM.
"The main thing for me is keeping my body in shape,” said McNeil, who during spring training worked almost exclusively at third base, where he will be the Mets’ starter if and when the season happens. “It’s been tough. You try to make the best of it.”
Most of the Mets left Port St. Lucie shortly after MLB paused spring training March 12, so McNeil and Nimmo have kept each other company. McNeil said starter Michael Wacha also has stuck around.
“[Nimmo is] positive all the time, always smiling,” McNeil said. “It’s been good living right down the street from him. We’ve had some barbecues. Not a bad person to hang around with when you’re stuck at home all day.”
To help pass the time, McNeil has taken up a new hobby: video games. Or, more specifically, a video game: “MLB The Show.” He is the Mets’ representative in the MLB The Show Players League, in which one player from each team plays as his team against everyone else. The three-inning games start nightly at 9 p.m. on the players’ channels on Twitch, a live-streaming platform.
McNeil’s Mets led the NL East at 6-2 heading into play Thursday. A key to his success: abandoning his real-life free-swinging approach at the plate.
“I don’t swing at everything. I keep it in the zone for the most part — kind of the opposite of who I am in real life, I swing at everything,” McNeil said. “If it’s a strike early in the count, I still swing. I just make sure — if it’s a ball in the dirt, you have no chance of getting a hit in the game. You have to stay in the zone. But if it’s in the zone the first pitch of the game, I’m swinging.”
During a warmup game against Pete Alonso, McNeil didn’t hold back.
“We did Mets versus Mets, and in the eighth inning I’m up, like, nine [runs],” McNeil said. “So I put myself in to pitch.”
Matz getting by, too
Having returned to his offseason home in Nashville, Stony Brook native Steven Matz is getting by with a little help with his friends — Mets reliever Brad Brach, who has been Matz’s throwing partner, and White Sox catcher James McCann, who has been Matz’s batterymate for bullpen sessions.
That trio is part of what Matz called a “crazy amount” of pro ballplayers living in the Nashville area, frequenting local fields to get their work in.
“I really have been able to get everything I need to do, thankfully, under these circumstances,” Matz said. “I’m just trying to stay in shape the best I can, so when we get the call, the buzzer rings, I’ll be ready to rock. We’re all hopeful that will happen soon.”
With Gregg Sarra