What stretch Jeff McNeil is enabled.
O Mets The second baseman/outfielder entered Tuesday’s matchup with the Yankees slashing .221/.278/.344, a far cry from his days as a batting champion, but something has clicked with McNeil seemingly since he and the team returned from the All- Star break.
In those five games since the break, McNeil is 6-for-15, but most impressive are his four home runs, another of which he launched on Tuesday in the Bronx to help the Mets win 3-2.
“Another good day,” McNeil said of his performance after Tuesday’s game. “Any day you come home with a win is a good day.”
After a season of being one of the least popular Mets and seeing his playing time taken up by the game of José Iglesiasthe Mets are certainly happy to see their former batting champion get into a groove as he competes for a playoff spot.
But manager Carlos Mendoza goes on to say that he saw the change in McNeil before the break and it was only a matter of time before the results showed.
“I was saying before halftime that I was enjoying the at-bats, he just had bad luck,” Mendoza said of McNeil. “He was playing baseball with nothing to show for it. He’s a good player.”
It is well documented that these current results are due to a change of approach for 32-year-old McNeil. He is no longer “guiding” his bat like he did in the minors and majors, which helped him win his batting title in 2022. However, since those results do not exist, he is not used to hitting the ball with the greatest strength possible. .
And the results are there, four home runs in his last five games helped the Mets team maintain the third and final Wild Card spot, and McNeil himself feels the difference in his hitting.
“[I feel] more confident. I feel like my swing is exactly where it needs to be,” he explains. “I was looking at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t have spring training to find him. I feel much better, I feel like myself and I’m happy to have the results.”
McNeil explained that his change in approach came in the first game of the Mets-Pirates series in early July. He was facing the fireballer Paulo Skenes and took it deep. As McNeil said, he was just trying to hit as hard as he could and that stuck with him.
But it would be a few more weeks before he and the Mets saw results. However, the patience to follow this new approach paid off for McNeil.
“It is a results-oriented business. It sucks when you don’t get them, even if you’re doing the right things,” McNeil said. “It’s a lot easier to persist when you’re hitting the ball hard. It’s a lot harder when you’re hitting weak balls to stay positive, to stay steady. It’s a little easier when your swing is good and the ball comes right off the bat and the results are happening.”
And while it’s too early to proclaim he’s back, this new, more confident McNeil is providing the Mets with the spark they need.
