McDeal with McNeil

[Edgy MD]

At times, Jeff McNeil's among the top handful of contact hitters in team history, but none of those times have come around in the last five weeks or so.



For periods this season, he's gotten his hits. For periods, he's gotten his walks. Those periods have not happened of late, and for no period at all this season has he been rattling the ball past the outfielders for extra-base hits on anything like a consistent basis.



To his credit, despite him clearly being an intense, emotional dude, his fielding and baserunning haven't been affected for the most part. But you can get fielding from other sources, and the baserunning isn't really happening all that often, and it was never gonna win you too many games as it is.



So what do you do? A multiple-day Voglebreak while he clears his head? Reduce his playing time moderately as he fails until he stops failing? A trip to Syracuse? Only wear his favorite uniform combination? What's the story with this two-time All-Star?



[FIMG=300]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/06/sports/06mlb-swearing-2/merlin_174948018_c3a63506-0466-4047-b191-8b5459a3264e-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale[/FIMG]

[kcmets]

Edgy MD wrote: So what do you do? A multiple-day Voglebreak while he clears his head? Reduce his playing time moderately as he fails until he stops failing? A trip to Syracuse? Only wear his favorite uniform combination? What's the story with this two-time All-Star?

He'll be fine, except for the Deliverance haircut.

[Benjamin Grimm]

He had a pretty bad July in 2022 but rebounded big time in August, so who knows?

[ashie62]

I have more confidence in him than most of the others



A Mcbreak could help. One weekend to unwind

[ashie62]

If the Mets could win four or five in a row I could see squirrel and the others rising out of their collective funk en masse

[MFS62]

Is it going to take a year for him to climb out of his funk, like 2021 to 2022?

I hope it will be closer to what Ben said - a good month will find him back on track.



Later

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I'm probably wrong but fire the hitting coach seems like a good idea to me.



(I don't even know who that is).

[Edgy MD]

Jeremy Barnes is your Mets hitting coach, in his first season after being elevated from the assistant job after the Mets moved Eric Chavez to the bench coach role.



I guess an alternative is to turn him back over to Chavez, under whom he won a batting average title last year. For all I now, though, Chavez has remained fully engaged in the hitting instruction regime.

[A Boy Named Seo]

My expert analysis is Jeff loves golf way too damn much. He even wears golf polos all the time. Chill on that shit, bruv. The polos and the golf playing.



I also think Jeff would be the most resistant to normal constructive criticism on baseball or golf shirts or anything due to his uncompromising red-assery.

[MFS62]

Bat him second and just leave him there.

Let him concentrate on hitting the ball to all fields.

He doesn't have the power to bat middle/down in the order. (well maybe on this team he does. But...)

I think moving him up and down in the order makes him question his role. Is it average or power?

Let him concentrate on one role until he gets his swing straightened out.



Later

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

A Boy Named Seo wrote: My expert analysis is Jeff loves golf way too damn much. He even wears golf polos all the time. Chill on that shit, bruv. The polos and the golf playing. I also think Jeff would be the most resistant to normal constructive criticism on baseball or golf shirts or anything due to his uncompromising red-assery.

All true 👍

[kcmets]

Did Lindor ever buy McNutty the car he promised him? Maybe he's all

red-assed that Francisco welched on his gift. Maybe there's another dust

up on the horizon for our all-star middle infield...

[ashie62]

Joel Sherman wrote on Sunday that the Mets are considering trading Jeff McNeil



Reasoning. that the rift with Lindor is not fixable



Lindor was asked about the car and basically blew off the question



Opined that Jeff is have trouble with the no shift rule. Harder to find his spots I guess

[G-Fafif]

Joel Sherman wrote on Sunday that the Mets are considering trading Jeff McNeil Reasoning. that the rift with Lindor is not fixable Lindor was asked about the car and basically blew off the question Opined that Jeff is have trouble with the no shift rule. Harder to find his spots I guess

Didn't see any of this in Sherman's column.



https://nypost.com/2023/07/16/mets-may-make-max-scherzer-justin-verlander-trade-options/https://nypost.com/2023/07/16/mets-may-make-max-scherzer-justin-verlander-trade-options/

[metirish]

The whole car thing is is annoying and dragged out when things are going bad , was it said in jest? Does Jeff expect a car ? Whole thing is dumb

[MFS62]

Didn't see any of this in Sherman's column.

This is the Post article that talks about McNeil's down numbers wrt the new shift rules:



https://nypost.com/2023/07/17/jeff-mcneils-mysterious-slump-might-stem-from-mlb-shift-change/https://nypost.com/2023/07/17/jeff-mcneils-mysterious-slump-might-stem-from-mlb-shift-change/



Later

Edited July 18, 2023 by Guest

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Yeah but there's nothing there about the Lindor sitch.

[metsmarathon]

mcneil needs to watch some luis arraez and just put the fucking ball in play instead of trying to aim for smaller holes that aren't there.

[smg58]

I thought McNeil was playing hurt two years ago, and I think he's playing hurt now. He's getting nothing on his swings, and I can't help thinking that something connected to his swing is bothering him. Given the similarity in the stats, I think whatever the problem was two years ago is what it is now. Personally I think a month off would do him some good, and bring up Mauricio in the meantime. But whatever the issue is, the Mets have worked under the assumption that it would go away on its own and it hasn't.

[Edgy MD]

ashie must have his own source.

[G-Fafif]

Nor is it written by Sherman or suggest the Mets are shopping McNeil.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If they traded him right now, they'd be selling low. He does have a friendly contract, but only if he's playing like he did in 2022.

[Centerfield]

I don't remember another playing being this hit or miss.



He's never had an OPS in the .700s. He's either in the 800/900s, or 600s. Nuts.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Maybe, in 2021, he lost the ability to hit in odd-numbered years. This is known, clinically, as "Reverse Howard Johnson Syndrome".

[ashie62]

The car saga was discussed in Mookie Betts podcast



The trade part I don't recall where I saw it so that's on me. I will look again

[A Boy Named Seo]

I'd never heard the car thing before. He should get him Joc Pederson's old beater and call it a day.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This reminds me of Carlos Beltran and his promise to Jon Niese's nose.

[A Boy Named Seo]

I found a great car Francisco can get for McNeil. It's American made and on sale for only $1899 right down the street from Citi Field.



https://images.autotrader.com/scaler/500/375/hn/c/4b88c3aaebaf42bead1e58406dc4eb5f.jpg>



https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=686732343&city=Corona&isNewSearch=false&listingTypes=USED&marketExtension=include&maxPrice=2000&numRecords=24&referrer=%2Fcars-for-sale%2Fcars-under-2000%2Fcorona-ny%3FisNewSearch%3Dfalse%26marketExtension%3Dinclude%26numRecords%3D24%26searchRadius%3D10%26showAccelerateBanner%3Dfalse%26sortBy%3Drelevance%26zip%3D11368&searchRadius=10&showAccelerateBanner=false&sortBy=relevance&state=NY&zip=11368&clickType=listinghttps://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=686732343&city=Corona&isNewSearch=false&listingTypes=USED&marketExtension=include&maxPrice=2000&numRecords=24&referrer=%2Fcars-for-sale%2Fcars-under-2000%2Fcorona-ny%3FisNewSearch%3Dfalse%26marketExtension%3Dinclude%26numRecords%3D24%26searchRadius%3D10%26showAccelerateBanner%3Dfalse%26sortBy%3Drelevance%26zip%3D11368&searchRadius=10&showAccelerateBanner=false&sortBy=relevance&state=NY&zip=11368&clickType=listing

[Edgy MD]

Sweet ride.



I'm not advocating trading McNeil, but sometimes, looking at a player's contract strictly as an asset, trading low can be justified — if you don't have faith that low will rebound to high, or if you don't think waiting on a rebound is worth the roster spot and appearances that the player uses up while you wait.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Yeah $10M next year in his age 32 season and $15M in '25 and '26 (with club option for another $15M or $2M buyout in '27) is pretty affordable if you believe he'll bounce back questionmarkquestionmarkquestionmark shrugemoji shrugemoji???



I would be shopping him pretty damn hard to put some arms in our top prospect drawers.