Buck Showalter reluctant to move Jeff McNeil up in order
The Mets' Jeff McNeil looks on after Atlanta RF Heredia Guillermo caught his fly ball in the bottom of the second inning at Citi Field on May 4. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
WASHINGTON — Buck Showalter has dealt with daily temptation, he said, to move hot-hitting Jeff McNeil up in the Mets’ batting order. But he so far has resisted making that move regularly for the sake of lineup balance and depth.
“Depending on the need of the team and how our batting order works and the challenge it presents to a bullpen and to an opposing pitcher,” Showalter said. “It creates a lot better matchups after the sixth inning if you can space some things out and aren’t top heavy or bottom heavy. You want to create the biggest challenge for a guy to grind through. And then if he moves up, somebody else moves down.”
Heading into the Mets’ game against the Nationals on Wednesday, McNeil was hitting .333, tops on the team and tied for seventh in the majors. He has bounced back in a big way from his .251 average last year to be more in line with his career norm (.301).
But over the past three weeks, he has hit fifth or higher on just four occasions (and seventh or lower nine times).
In all, McNeil has occupied six of the nine spots in the order at points this season.
“It's just nice to have such a versatile piece,” Showalter said. “If we needed a leadoff hitter or a three-hole hitter, he can go about anywhere. He's really an asset for us.”
A pair of offseason additions, Starling Marte and Eduardo Escobar, have underwhelmed offensively in their first month-plus as Mets and could merit a demotion in the order. Marte returned to second on Wednesday, with Escobar sixth and McNeil seventh.
“I don’t think he’s got an ego about it,” Showalter said of McNeil. “As long as there is a ‘3’ next to his name on the board, he’ll hit 10th. Well, I don’t know about that.”
Another first baseman
Mark Canha recently has been working at first base with infield coach Joey Cora, at the request of Showalter. He has experience there — 118 games in eight seasons — but just one inning in the past year. The manager wants him to stay ready.
First base happens to be where the Mets are most stacked, with Pete Alonso and Dominic Smith.
“He mentioned he likes to have the ability to put me over there, because he likes to do a lot of different [defensive] things late in games, as you see,” Canha said. “I would expect the more you can get out of me in terms of versatility, the more I can help out in certain situations. We have a first baseman. Good ones. I imagine it’s for an in-a-pinch situation.”
Noah who?
After the Angels’ Reid Detmers threw a no-hitter, new Angel Noah Syndergaard seemed to take a shot at the Mets, writing on Instagram: “This is what a ‘real’ no hitter looks like.” The Mets threw a combined no-hitter on April 29 against the Phillies.
“Throwing a 1 pitcher No-Hitter (is) a rarity by today's game standards,” he wrote on Twitter after his remark received significant attention, adding in a separate tweet: “Oh and to be clear, I don't think a combined no hitter is the same as ‘real’ 1 pitcher no hitter.”
Asked if he had seen Syndergaard’s comments, Showalter first said: “Who?” Then he acknowledged that he had.
Was there anything Showalter wanted to say about it?
“Yes,” he said. “But I won’t.”
Extra bases
J.D. Davis will play again Thursday after ripping four batted balls at 100 mph or harder on Tuesday. “I’m not going to let him sit around very long,” Showalter said . . . Marte, a prolific base-stealer in years past, hasn’t swiped a bag since April 24 and hasn’t even tried since May 3. He has four steals in eight attempts — a poor success rate — on the season. Showalter said he still has the green light to go whenever he wants . . . Sean Reid-Foley had “successful” Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, the Mets said. He will go to Florida in the coming days to begin his rehab.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
