There was only one hitter in baseball better than Jeff McNeil last season: Luis Arraez.
When Arraez was traded from the Minnesota Twins to the Miami Marlins ahead of this season, a battle for the NL batting title was expected. But Arraez is running away with the title and it isn’t even very close. Freddie Freeman, who nearly beat McNeil on the final day of the regular season last year, has been about 20-25 points behind the Marlins second baseman this season.
McNeil never really got out of the gate.
Coming into a weekend series against the Atlanta Braves, McNeil was hitting just .253, well below his 2022 average of .326 and even further below Arraez’s .369 clip. McNeil thinks he has hit into bad luck this season and his BABIP would support that. McNeil’s average on balls put in play is only .276 this season, which would indicate that he has been hitting the ball right at people.
“Some of the balls he’s hitting 95-plus, but they seem to get caught,” said hitting coach Jeremy Barnes. “It’s like this in-between world we’ve all been living in this year.”
Barnes isn’t wrong — the Mets’ BABPIB is down from last season. However, the team hasn’t exactly figured out why. This has led to questions about how the new shift limitations have affected their hitters, specifically McNeil.
“That would be a very convenient answer if he ends up hitting .250,” manager Buck Showalter said Friday at Citi Field. “But is it for sure? Is that exactly what happened? I think there is a lot more to it than just one thing.”
McNeil was adept at hitting against the shift before the league placed limitations on where and how infielders can position themselves. The 31-year-old has always been able to use all fields and was so good at hitting the ball where he wanted that it was almost comical to shift on him before this season.
Which is why the Mets are hesitant to point to that as the problem.
“I have no idea. It’s like the weirdest thing ever,” Barnes said. “You’d think that with the shift going away that a lot of us would have gotten more hits. But we’ve had a much lower batting average on balls in play on ground balls, which is wacky. I don’t really know what to make of that right now. But it sucks.”
The Mets worked with McNeil to keep his hands higher in his stance this season but they didn’t want him to overhaul his swing or make any drastic changes. The only thing they wanted was for him to look more like himself again.
In recent weeks, he has. Over his last 21 games, he’s hit .275 with 12 RBI, two home runs, two doubles and a triple.
McNeil played college ball at Long Beach State, a program that prides itself on its underdog prowess and all-out style of play. He was never considered an elite prospect and came to professional baseball with a chip on his shoulder.
Showalter thinks that “Dirtbag” mindset will help him move past this down year.
“Jeff is chasing five hits every night. If he gets one, he wants two. If he gets two, he wants three,” Showalter said. “Jeff is playing with house money. He wants two or three or four. And the team benefits from that. I think he would like to [finish the season] reminding everybody that he was the best hitter for batting average last year.”
Shortstop Francisco Lindor was removed from the lineup shortly before Friday’s game against the Braves began with tightness in his right side. He’ll undergo imaging Saturday.
Lindor prides himself on being an everyday player and didn’t even take his paternity leave when his daughter, Amapola, was born earlier this season. Lindor missed only one game last season and has previously said he intends to play 162 every season.
The Mets can be cautious with him as they play out the string. Showalter is planning on talking to him about mapping out his playing time throughout the rest of the season.
“It’s something that as we get into September, we’ll talk about,” Showalter said. “He’s a guy who plays with great pride, just like Atlanta’s infielders. He takes a lot of pride in being there for his teammates and setting an example.”
The Mets have not announced their starting pitching rotation for the rest of the week but right-hander Denyi Reyes is expected to be called up as the 27th man to start the second game of a Saturday doubleheader. He’ll face former right-hander Allan Winans, a former Mets farmhand.
Left-hander Jose Quintana is expected to face right-hander Spencer Strider in the matinee contest.
Right-hander Kodai Senga will oppose right-hander Yonny Chirinos on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.
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