Mets will try to make life sunny as they head to Philadelphia
Mets will try to make life sunny as they head to Philadelphia
The Mets will continue to try and get their season going as they kick-off a series vs the Phillies. Plus, the one struggling Met no one is talking about.
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets enjoyed an off day on Thursday prior to their series beginning in Philadelphia tonight
Struggling RHP Tylor Megill has reportedly been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
SS Francisco Lindor was named as the club’s only finalist in the All-Star voting process
In his latest mock draft for MLB.com Jonathan Mayo has the Mets selecting INF Kevin McGonigle, a high school player out of Pennsylvania
New York will look to improve upon their 5-13 record in the month of June
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (34-40) at Phillies (38-36)
Where: Citizens Bank Park – Philadelphia, PA
Starters: RHP Kodai Senga (6-4, 3.53 ERA) vs RHP Taijuan Walker (7-3, 4.31 ERA)
When: 7:05 PM EDT
Where to Watch: Apple TV+
The struggling Mets player no one is talking about… ✍️
What’s the deal with Jeff McNeil?
Rhymes aside, it has quietly been a pretty disappointing season for the reigning National League batting champion. Following a year where it seemed as if he was getting two hits every single night, things have gone much differently for the Mets second baseman thus far in 2023.
To give us a starting point of reference, McNeil is coming off a season where he hit .326/.382/.454 with 49 extra-base hits, 62 RBI and an .836 OPS. This season, though, McNeil has seen a massive drop in every single statistical category. Through 74 games, New York’s infielder is batting .267/.348/.338 with just 12 extra-base hits, 21 RBI and a .686 OPS.
For those counting that’s a 59-point drop in batting average, 34-point drop in on-base percentage and a whopping 116-point drop in slugging percentage compared to last season.
Why is McNeil struggling so mightily this season as compared to one year ago, you may ask? Well, there could be several components here. Perhaps the restriction of the shift has actually negatively impacted McNeil, who is largely considered to be an all-fields type hitter. Maybe getting the first major contract of his major league career has placed some added pressure on his shoulders. Or maybe he’s just having an off-year because he’s having an off-year.
It’s tough to know what correlation any of these have on McNeil’s performance, or if any of them even do, but one thing we do know: he is not hitting the ball hard this season.
According to Baseball Savant, McNeil is in the 15th percentile (that’s bad) in average exit velocity, in the 20th percentile in hard hit percentage and a staggering third percentile in barreled balls this season. He’s hitting the ball less hard than a season ago, and his soft hits just don’t seem to be finding the holes anymore this year. As the other stats noted earlier, he’s also seen a massive drop in extra-base pop. McNeil has never once been confused with a power hitter by any means but this drop-off in doubles has been pretty noticeable, especially in a season where he isn’t hitting remotely close to his normal .300 clip.
In all honesty, this season is quite reminiscent to McNeil’s 2021 performance. For reference, McNeil hit .251/.319/.360 in 120 games that season – which is largely worse but not too far off from his numbers this season. Nearly every season of Jeff McNeil’s major league career, he’s posted an OPS over .835 and yet this is the second time in the last three years that it’s sitting below the .700 mark.
It’s been odd to see McNeil struggle so mightily this season, and weirdly enough it seems as if those struggles have largely flown under the radar. That’s probably due to ton of different factors, mostly being more significant players on this roster struggling in even more epic ways. Star players like Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte have gotten most of the attention from the fans and media as they’ve continued to struggle, which likely has taken the heat off of McNeil’s underperformance.
And while the offense, though imperfect and inconsistent, is not close to the biggest issue for the Mets this season, they could really use Jeff McNeil turning back into Jeff McNeil sometime soon.
Around the League 🚩
The Giants nine-game winning streak came to an end following a 10-0 loss to the Padres
The Braves defeated the Phillies thanks to a five-run 10th inning for their eight straight victory
The Rays announced they benched SS Wander Franco for multiple games due to disciplinary reasons
The Mariners blew out the Yankees by a score of 10-2 thanks to a four-homer performance from their offense
The Pirates lost their 10th consecutive game, blowing a 4-1 lead to the Marlins in the 8th inning