The New York Mets haven’t gotten the production they expect from a hitter of Jeff McNeil’s caliber.
McNeil is a two-time All-Star, a former batting champion (2022), and Silver Slugger award winner (2022), so to see him struggle to the tune of showing a .227 batting average is shocking, to say the least.
He is a career .293 hitter, but his slump is more than just about batting average.
He boasts a .616 OPS this year, much lower than his career .785 mark.
He will be, according to manager Carlos Mendoza, out of the lineup today as there is another left-hander on the mound.
“‘It gives him an opportunity to continue to work on the things he needs to be working on, which he is.’ Carlos Mendoza talks about Jeff McNeil getting another day off today and working on his swing,” SNY tweeted, with a clip of the manager’s quotes.
Evidently, Mendoza believes McNeil is not quite there with his swing yet, so he is willing to let him sit and work on improving his offensive output.
The thing is that McNeil doesn’t really have a platoon split (.323 slugging percentage against southpaws, vs. .319 against righties), but at this point, going with Jose Iglesias against a lefty is the better choice.
His past achievements are cool and all, but they hardly matter in the here and now: if he doesn’t improve, he stands to lose more playing time even against righties.
It’s the nature of the game.
When healthy, he has the goods and resources to be much better.
Only time will tell if he regains his top form.
