Mets' Jeff McNeil isn't trying to reinvent himself anymore, and it has paid off
Mets' Jeff McNeil reacts after hitting a two-run home run against the Yankees on July 4 at Citi Field. Credit: Noah K. Murray
WASHINGTON – Jeff McNeil needed to change. Jeff McNeil needed to stay the same. Mostly, Jeff McNeil just needed to hit.
The first half of the 2024 season was something of a nightmare for the Mets super-utility man. Two years removed from winning a batting title, it felt like the game was starting to leave him behind. The player with the elite bat-to-ball skills that saw him hit .326 in 2022 was batting just .212 in late June of that season – chasing contact in a sport that banned the traditional shift the year prior.
The same thing that made him among the best in the game just wasn’t working anymore.
“There were crazy shifts, and they had big holes [in the infield] and his bat-to-ball skills are so elite, he was able to just hit a squibbler over to the left side of the infield and it was a hit sometimes,” hitting coach Jeremy Barnes told Newsday Wednesday. “And then the shift kind of went away – they still shifted [but not as much] – so it was a weird in between where they weren’t falling in as much.”
And McNeil knew it, telling Barnes that this was “as worse as I’ve ever been.” The Mets, though, believed otherwise: If he could streamline his swing, stay closer to the ground, rotate his body more, and concentrate on hitting line drives to the pull side, the hits would come. The result?
“He’s done a really good job of reinventing himself,” Barnes said. “Before, he would like slide and try to manipulate his hands and try to find hits and now he’s trying to hit the ball hard, so it’s one swing as opposed to a million different swings.”
In a season that’s been pockmarked by extensive droughts from some of the Mets heaviest hitters, McNeil has often been immune. Despite starting the season with an oblique injury, he's slashing .253/.345/.425 with 124 weighted runs created plus (a measure of a player’s relative offensive production, with 100 being league average), which is fourth on the team. In the Mets’ first 16 games this month, he’s hitting .302 with six extra-base hits; he was a triple short of the cycle in Tuesday’s 8-1 win over the Nationals.
He's also walking more than ever – 11.3% of the time - he’s hitting the ball harder, and some of his expected numbers outstrip those of his 2022 season.
The reason is twofold:
First, he knew he needed to change.
“I won the batting title, which is incredible, but then I feel like sometimes I was searching for hits,” McNeil said earlier this year. “I think that could be a little tough when they’re not falling. You want to be who you are and I feel like this is who I am.”
And second, he knew he needed to stay the same.
The McNeil we’re seeing today is more closely related to the one that got him to the big leagues in 2018, he said, adding on Tuesday that this year, “I feel like I haven’t been tinkering too much.
“I came into spring training with a really good idea of what I wanted to do with my swing and it's just carrying over what I did at the end of last year.”
It’s not easy, coming to terms with the fact that who you were at your “best” just doesn’t play anymore. But it’s paid dividends: Since July 5, 2024, McNeil’s OPS is fourth-highest on the team, just a hair behind Pete Alonso. His approach also tends to protect him from extended offensive swoons.
“He’s been super consistent for us,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “The bat-to-ball skills are off the charts. Sometimes pitchers execute, especially early in counts [and before] he was just trying to put the ball in play. I feel like this year, the last couple of months, he’s looking for pitches where he can do damage.”
And above all, “he’s convicted,” Barnes said. “It’s a credit to him. He realized he needed to evolve, and he evolved. Sometimes, it’s hard to take that step.”
He changed. He stayed the same. And now, he's hitting.
Notes & quotes: Jose Siri (fractured tibia) will start playing in minor-league games next week…Tylor Megill (right elbow sprain) will make another rehab start on Sunday; the Mets hope to build him up to 70 pitches then…Jesse Winker (back) is still not doing much baseball activity and having difficulty recovering. “We’re still playing it slow with him” Mendoza said, though the Mets are hopeful to have him back this year.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
