Yeah, it’s only two games. I know. Two games against the Washington Nationals, this year’s NL East putative doormats. So as is the case every April, all enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that the sun hasn’t really risen on this season yet. But man, the Mets look good! Tylor Megill’s surprise quality start in the opener, followed by an efficient offense in game two in support of Max Scherzer’s return to DC have given the Mets an unblemished record, a two-game winning streak to start the year. Happy days may, indeed, be here again. At the heart of that efficient offense was a player who was largely missing last year, somebody who could have helped stem the tide of negativity that shrouded this team around the 2021 All Star break, had he played to his established norms. I’m talking Jeff McNeil, here.
Before Mets owner Steve Cohen opened his wallet and gave them pitching depth and an outfield in just a couple strokes of the pen, the pre-lockout winter focus was supposed to be on trades. The trio of McNeil, Dom Smith and J. D. Davis were all likely to be wearing different uniforms come Opening Day. He’d had a mostly miserable 2021, rife with strikeouts, impatience at the plate, frustration at then-manager Luis Rojas’s aggressive defensive positioning. In fact, it could be said that McNeil may have even set the tone for the putrid atmosphere in the Citi Field clubhouse by his refusal to go along with Rojas’s plan. One player that we know was at odds with McNeil over this issue was 2021’s shiny, expensive toy, Francisco Lindor. There was the infamous Flushing-Rat-Possum Incident, where McNeil and Lindor got into a scuffle in the runway under the stands over the defensive stuff, but this was whitewashed into some gobbledygook about seeing an unusually large rat there. Then there was debate over whether it was a rat or an opossum. In public, it became a goofy episode for the home folks and fodder for the “#lolMets” legions of non-fans. It wasn’t until deep into the cold months when at least some of the truth came out, that this might have been some actual bad blood between the DP partners. As our fearless leader Brian Joura pointed out in his pre-season McNeil projection, he “didn’t hit like he was supposed to, didn’t field like he was supposed to and didn’t play nice in the sandbox with the team’s big import.” If he was looking for a ticket out of town, then this was an effective way to hit that goal.
Enter new skipper, Buck Showalter. The veteran manager with a no-nonsense reputation was brought in after everyone realized Rojas was in over his head, not quite ready for a big-league manager’s job, let alone in the biggest market in the universe. One of the first stakes Showalter put in the ground was that Jeff McNeil would get most of the reps at second base, his “natural” position. That seemed to wake McNeil up. In the abbreviated spring, he did play the most games of anyone at second base – eight – while runner up Luis Guillorme played four and the veteran Robinson Cano only two. McNeil hit a solid .281 in the run-up to the season, good enough for Showalter’s satisfaction. If the first two games are any indication, it will be good enough for ours, too.
While Smith and Davis are still the guys most likely to be sent away at some point, McNeil’s performance seems to have moved him off the list. He’s started off the year 5-for-8, with a homer, a walk and three RBI, all good for a 1.677 OPS. Aren’t early-season stats fun? Anyway, McNeil’s versatility was also evident in the first two contests. In the opener, he started in left field — due to Brandon Nimmo’s stiff neck; Cano played second – before moving to second in the late innings. With Nimmo back on the field for game two, McNeil started at second while Cano was the DH. He homered in the third, taking back the run Scherzer gave up in the bottom of the second. His single in the ninth brought in the Mets’ final run, their seventh. Oh, and as for his relationship with Lindor? The megawatt shortstop took a pitch to the helmet in the fifth, prompting benches to empty and Showalter to charge his opposite number, Washington manager Dave Martinez and come close to decking him. But one of the first players out of the Mets’ dugout? Jeff McNeil.
Right now, it looks like he’s here to stay.
In basketball, they say that a shooter just needs to see the ball go in the hoop. Maybe it’ll be that way with McNeil – he just needs to see some base hits.
Not once last year did McNeil have a 2-hit game followed with a 3-hit game. Or vice versa. He did have a 4-hit game followed by a 1-hit game. And he did have four straight 2-hit games.
Now we just need to get Dom in there and get some extra-base hits from him.