AN INTERVIEW WITH METS MINOR LEAGUER JEFF MCNEIL
I love Mets minor league
achievers and climbers, those who show REAL talent and then clearly make
adjustments to get even better and ultimately get to the big leagues.
Undrafted righty hitter TJ Rivera was one who hit very well in
the minors early on, had position versatility, but lacked superior speed and did
not produce much power in his game. Bloggers,
seeing that, wondered if he’d ever get his shot.
In 2016, Rivera fixed the power
portion of his resume with a significant uptick in power. Good for him, as when injuries struck the
Mets in 2016, the new and improved TJ got his chance with the Mets and he took
full advantage of his opportunity, impressively hitting .304 in 319 major
league at bats so far.
Jeff McNeil has followed a similar path, while exhibiting more base-stealing
propensity than TJ. At the end of 2015,
if I had to pick between the two, I would have picked McNeil – both were lower on
the power scale, but otherwise had real similarities hitting-wise.
I’d go with the quicker, lefty hitting McNeil
was my thought then.
Jeff fell behind TJ, however, in
2016 and 2017, due to several injuries that limited McNeil to a mere 51 games
over those 2 seasons.
All told, McNeil is at .304/.374/.424
in his career after 380 games, with 50 of 65 in steals. Nice! Here's how he's progressed:
He was drafted by the Mets in the
12th round in 2013 with a reputation as a good, versatile hitter
without much power. He had a great rookie
ball debut in 2013, hitting .329/.413/.409 with no homers and 11 of 13 steals.
He then tore up A ball Savannah
in the first half of 2014, hitting .332. Once promoted to St Lucie at midseason,
he hit .246 over the remaining 58 games.
Overall, a fine season.
He spent most of 2015 in St Lucie, showing great progress, hitting .312 over 119 games, and in 2014 and
2015, stole 31 of 42.
He also made excellent contact, averaging
about 1 strikeout every 2 games in his career to that point.
But in 287 games from 2013
through 2015, he hit just 3 homers.
In a
major league game today, where teams averaged over 200 homers per season, being
a non-HR hitter is a disadvantage, I imagine, as a team ultimately decides who
is heading to Queens.
Jeff did, however, hit 5 homers in 188 at bats spanning
2016 and 2017, so signs of added power began to emerge.
In 2018, McNeil, with 30 pounds
of muscle added above his weight when drafted, has shown that a major power
transformation, from “slap” hitter to “slam” hitter, is well underway.
Despite playing well in 18 games
in 2017 in AAA, Jeff started out in AA in 2018, most likely because with Luis Guillorme, Phillip Evans, Gavin
Cecchini and David Thompson manning 2nd, short and 3rd
in Vegas, McNeil was only going to get regular playing time in Binghamton, and
after missing about 230 games in 2016 and 2017, playing every day in AA was
clearly the necessary, right decision.
Through Tuesday, Jeff has played
in 42 games this year, and what has he done?
A whole lot.
As in, 39 runs scored, 11
doubles, 3 triples, 12 homers, 32 RBIs, and a .311 average, while still maintaining
that excellent 1 strikeout every 2 games pace.
Outstanding.
In my opinion, when a guy is
hitting, hitting with power, scoring like mad, driving in lots of runs, making
great contact, and hitting very well and getting on base at a high rate, that
is a heck of a resume for the player promotion decision makers in Queens to be considering. I’m sure those same resume readers in Queens are
hoping very much to read more of the same from Jeff as the season progresses.
I had the pleasure of interviewing
Jeff McNeil - follows here:
Brennan: Hi, Jeff, how are you doing, great to
speak to you today. I’ve been a big fan of
yours ever since you’ve been drafted. How
do you feel about your breakout year this year you’re having after 2 tough
years missing a lot of time with injuries?
McNeil: Doing real good.
Being out for most of two years is tough, and
it is great to be out there now. After missing almost all of 2016, last year I
was getting back into baseball shape in 2017, and while doing do, experienced
some compensation injuries, such as with the quad, as my left side of the body
was weaker. It was really unfortunate,
but I’m feeling very healthy now, and doing real good.
Brennan: Great to hear. Before this year, I saw in you a fine 4 tool
player – lacking a power tool - but this year, you’ve added tremendous power
production to your game. No homers in
college, slow career start with homers, and now this big change. Please tell our readers about that.
McNeil: My college field was
one of the most difficult to hit homers at.
Adding power to my game was something I knew I needed to work on, really working
on hitting the gaps more.
So I hit the
weights real hard, and am continuing to do so, bulked up, and now I am healthy
and it’s good to be barreling balls up and having balls going over the fences.
Brennan: And how. It caught
my attention that, besides just the number of your extra base hits this year, your
power increase is substantial and real when I heard announcers calling the
play-by-play on a few of your homers saying “that one was WAY out”.
McNeil: It has been good to be hitting some balls real well, and I
am happy to see the results.
Brennan: I was a kid loving to watch Mantle and Maris have their
home run race in 1961, and you two have kind of a similar home run race of
sorts going on so far this year, which is cool for fans to watch. It’s been fun watching you and Peter
Alonso hitting homers the way you both have. But how do you two compare on the
power grade, is Peter Alonso still a little ahead of you?
McNeil: Yep, Peter’s got stupid, raw power – his
homers are absolute no doubters - when he squares it up and gets the right
launch angle, it goes a long way. Peter’s
done real well – he’s fun to watch.
Brennan: Former Mets Daniel Murphy (13th rounder), Justin
Turner (7th rounder) – both started lower on the “power grid” and then
added power, with great results. You were
a 12th rounder – you appear you might be following after their
changed approach.
McNeil: Yeah, Daniel Murphy’s last few years have been awesome. For me, I feel like I’m real close, and hope
to be up there sometime soon.
Brennan: If you will, please share with Mack's Mets readers what you
consider your strengths - I see you are versatile, playing 2nd, 3rd,
and short as a pro, but have played very little outfield in the pros to further
diversify. What are your thoughts on
that?
McNeil: My strengths are that I put the barrel on the ball and put
it in play to all fields, have a very solid strike out to walk ratio, get on
base a lot, make things happen, and look to put together good, solid ABs.
I have
the versatility to play out there just about everywhere. I played a lot of center field early in
college before moving to 2nd base and the infield. I feel very comfortable playing the outfield.
Brennan: What player do you feel in the majors your style of play most
resembles?
McNeil: Ben Zobrist – Ben puts up quality ABs, is versatile, plays
anywhere, puts the bat on the ball, makes things happen.
Brennan: Ben's been great. Your brother Ryan
is in pro ball – you ever think about playing him in the NCLS someday?
McNeil: Ryan was a 3rd
rounder of the Cubs who had surgery at the end of last year and is pitching
again now. It would be great to face him
in pro ball, I look forward to that someday.
Brennan: What’s your favorite position?
McNeil: Probably 2B, although I am also comfortable at other
infield positions, and I’d be real comfortable in the outfield too.
Brennan: A little off subject Mets-wise, but what do you think of
Vlad Guerrero, Jr., who your team has played several times?
McNeil: He’s an awesome hitter, pretty great, hits pretty much
everything we throw at him, fun to watch him.
Brennan: After the Mets’ great start, with all of the injuries in
Queens again this year, perhaps you and some other guys might have an excellent
chance be up here in Queens sooner rather than later.
McNeil: I just hope to keep hitting
the ball, control what I can control, and see what happens.
Brennan: Thanks so much for your time. Please wish Pete, Tim and the rest of the
guys in Binghamton our best and we hope to see you and other teammates up here in
Queens soon.
McNeil: Thanks, I appreciate
that.
I’ll just wrap it up by saying
that I hope Jeff continues to successfully progress and that we get to see him
in action in Queens this year or next. I
think we will like what we see.
