New York Mets: Is Jeff McNeil the Future Second Baseman for the Mets?

With an eye towards 2019, the New York Mets may have found their second baseman of the future with the emergence of Jeff McNeil. McNeil’s play resembles a popular former player.

For the New York Mets, August and September have become times of evaluation. While the team is not yet mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, its chances of making a third playoff appearance in the past four years are pretty much nill, short of winning out the rest of their season.

Since the trade of Asdrubal Cabrera, Jeff McNeil, a 26-year-old utilityman, has taken over most of the playing time at second base. His play has turned some heads as his short swing and gritty playing style have reminded fans of a young Daniel Murphy.

The Mets’ youngster has had quite the week.

With the Mets’ win on Tuesday, McNeil became the first player in team history to record two four-hit games through their first 27 appearances. He followed that performance with two hits in his first two at-bats in Wednesday’s game. This brought the lefty to eight hits in eight consecutive plate appearances, one short of an overall Mets’ record, though those eight consecutive hits have set a new Mets’ rookie record.

McNeil continued to impress on Thursday as the Mets faced Madison Bumgarner. Even though McNeil was only one for four, the way he handled MadBum was very impressive. The rookie remained sharp by extending his eight-game hitting streak with a seventh-inning single off the tough lefty. In his two prior at-bats, McNeil lined out but he hit the ball with an exit velocity of 102 and 97 mph.

Going into Friday, the Mets second baseman was 15-31 over his eight-game hitting streak.

Via the New York Post, Mets Manager, Mickey Callaway, discussed McNeil’s performance against Bumgarner following Thursday’s game.

“He just continues to acknowledge that he has great barrel awareness,” Callaway said. “He can put the barrel on the ball. Madison Bumgarner is tough and he’s especially tough on lefties and [McNeil] stays in there and gets his barrel on it somehow.”

McNeil’s grit and bat to ball skills are classic Daniel Murphy traits. They both have excellent knowledge of the strike zone and make solid contact. A scout recently discussed McNeil’s mechanical similarities to Murphy in the New York Post.

“You know how they say a player in the field has a nose for the ball,’’ the scout said. “Well, he has a nose for the ball at the plate.’’

This nose is resulting in a lot of success as the Amazins’ might have found their second baseman for 2019. McNeil has shown that he can hit for a good average, be respectable in the field, and be a possible threat on the base paths.

Daniel Murphy and Jeff McNeil even resemble each other statistically. In 29 games, the Mets have seen their rookie hit two home runs, drive in 10 runs and slash .330/.387/.485 with an OPS+ of 144. In Murphy’s rookie season in 2008, Murph hit 2 home runs, drove in 17 runs and hit .313/.397/.473 with an OPS+ of 130. Murphy’s power developed as he got stronger and learned to hit the ball in the air, McNeil experienced some of these same results in 2018.

Through countless injury-plagued seasons, McNeil never hit more than four home runs in a minor league season. 2018 has been McNeil’s healthiest season to date and we’ve seen his home runs jump from four to 19. The New York Post’s scout source discussed this phenomenon.

“He makes solid contact and now that he has gotten a little stronger, he is starting to drive the ball. He is just a late bloomer because I have seen him through the years” the scout commented.

Late bloomer or not, Jeff McNeil seems like a valuable young talent for the New York Mets. While he may never turn into the Washington Nationals version of Daniel Murphy, McNeil seems to be on track to becoming a solid Major League Baseball player.

If McNeil continues to produce in Queens, it will be interesting to see how the club will handle the continued development of their top prospect, Andres Gimenez. We are continuing to watch Amed Rosario develop on the big league level and Jeff McNeil’s emergence may plant himself in the teams immediate future.

This surplus of infield talent is a great problem to have as you can never have enough young talented players. These youngsters could also be future trade chips, especially with the New York Mets planning to contend in the immediate future.