Jeff McNeil is an underrated star

Jeff McNeil is having a tremendous year, both at the plate and in the field. He’s batting .322/.371/.452, with the BA being third in the League and the OBP is fourth. He has smacked 36 doubles, tying him for sixth in the NL. Turning to defense, mostly playing second base, he has accumulated a DRS figure of positive four. Please note all statistics cited are current through Sunday’s action.

Yet in Sunday’s New York Post, sports columnist Jon Heyman stated, concerning Mark Canha, that he’s “An underpublicized star who has come up with more big hits than any Met not named Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor or Starling Marte.” The startling omission in the list of Mets with big hits is of course McNeil. We have a good stat for determining big hits, specifically BA with RISP. Lets look at the figures of those players named in the article. Canha himself has a RISP of .288, Alonso is at .296, Lindor .288, and Marte at .289. All good figures, but take a look at what the unmentioned McNeil has done. His BA with RISP is a lofty .341, and pretty much any hit with runners in scoring position is a big hit.

McNeil was also somewhat underrated in the All-Star voting this year. Ozzie Albies of the Braves was voted the starting second baseman for the National League squad, despite the fact that he is having something of a down year and was injured at the time of the voting. McNeil ended up starting, but only because of the injury to Albies that rendered him unavailable for the contest.

You could say Mets’ manager Buck Showalter has somewhat underrated McNeil, by generally batting McNeil well down in the batting order. Far too often this year McNeil has been buried down in the seventh or eight spot, usually under the unproductive DH’s that the Mets have trotted out this year.

Now, some would claim the low batting order slot for McNeil is by his own choice. I have seen fans on various Mets forums claiming that he prefers to hit lower in the order. I have never seen any citations for that, so a little digging was in order. The only relevant statement found from McNeil himself was on the SNY website, in a story back early in the 2021 season. McNeil was quoted as saying, “This lineup is so deep, that batting sixth, nothing’s going to change for me.”

That quote does not seem to indicate that he actually prefers hitting low in the batting order, it simply means that if he does bat low, he is not going to change his approach at the plate. By batting so low it means he gets fewer PA over the course of a year, fewer runners on in front of him to bat in, and lesser hitters behind him to drive him in.

McNeil has been moved around the diamond quite a bit during his career with the Mets with considerable time at second and third bases as well as corner outfield positions. Flexibility can be a good thing, but maybe it was over done with McNeil. For this latter part of the season he has been a fixture at second base. He has thrived with the positional stability. The results have been good, with McNeil posting a .380 BA for the month of August, with the September figure being nearly as good at .361.

In a sense the whole Mets team has been underrated this year. The latest CBS MLB power ratings have the Mets fourth, with the Braves ranking above them even though they are behind the Mets in the standings. The Mets are having a great season, and McNeil has been a big part of it. With the prospect of a deep run into the postseason for the Mets, maybe even a World Series trophy, we might be able to see the underrating of McNeil and the team come to an end.