Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Jeff McNeil

Mets Expect To Activate Francisco Alvarez, Jeff McNeil On Friday

By | at

The Mets are planning to reinstate catcher Francisco Alvarez and infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil from the 10-day injured list on Friday, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to reporters (video link via SNY). Both players will be making their 2025 debuts. Each will play in one final rehab game today.

Alvarez, 23, has appeared in nine rehab games thus far and taken 40 plate appearances. He’s out to a middling start, but the nature of his injury — a fractured hamate bone that required surgery — has a tendency to dull offensive performance early on when hitters return. The slugging backstop has been the Mets’ primary catcher over the past two seasons, hitting a combined .222/.294/.422 with 36 home runs in 765 plate appearances. Alvarez has also emerged as a top-tier pitch framer, though his blocking and throwing abilities lag behind.

So far in 2025, the Mets have gone with journeyman Luis Torrens as their starter and homegrown 28-year-old Hayden Senger as their backup. Torrens hit quite well through his first 11 games but has fallen into a deep slump. The 28-year-old is just 3-for-27 over his past nine games, making Alvarez’s expected return all the more timely. It’s likely that Torrens will continue on as the backup in order to preserve catching depth; he’s out of minor league options, whereas Senger has a full slate of option years left and can be sent directly to Triple-A Syracuse without first needing to clear waivers.

McNeil has been out all year due to an oblique strain. The Mets have gotten him some looks in center field during this rehab stint, although he’s not likely to play the position regularly. Still, with Jose Siri sidelined for upwards of 10 weeks due to a fracture in his leg, the Mets took advantage of McNeil’s rehab stint and versatile defensive profile to get him a start in center.

In all likelihood, McNeil will return and see time at second base, at designated hitter and perhaps in an outfield corner. The Mets opened the year with Luisangel Acuña and Brett Baty sharing time at second base. Acuña has handled things well, hitting .275/.351/.373 and contributing solid glovework.

Baty, after a torrid spring performance, had a brutal two-week stretch to begin the season but has begun to turn things around. The 25-year-old former first rounder crushed a second-deck homer off Zack Wheeler in the Mets’ currently ongoing game against the Phillies and entered play today on a .280/.357/.440 heater over his past eight contests. He’s still hitting just .204/.246/.354, but it’ll take some time to recover from the .111/.111/.148 line he totaled through his first 27 trips to the plate.

Jose Siri To Miss 8-10 Weeks

By | at

The Mets will be without Jose Siri for 8-10 weeks, president of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters on Monday (link via Tim Healey of Newsday). It was clear that the center fielder would be out for a while after he was diagnosed with a left tibia fracture last week. He suffered the injury when he fouled a ball off his leg.

It had been a frustrating start for Siri even before the injury. The righty-hitting outfielder collected just one hit in his first 20 at-bats. He has drawn four walks and stolen a couple bases, but he’d punched out eight times over 24 plate appearances. Siri’s glove is much more his calling card. He’s coming off a .187/.255/.366 showing over a career-high 130 games as a member of the Rays. The Mets acquired him in an offseason trade despite those numbers because he’s one of the best defensive center fielders in the game.

Tyrone Taylor has taken over as the primary center fielder. He’s out to a very tough start offensively, batting .211/.237/.298 through 59 trips to the plate. Taylor is a solid defender, albeit not to Siri’s level. The Mets called up speedster José Azocar as a fifth outfielder. While Azocar isn’t likely to push for regular playing time, the Mets could turn to one of their middle infielders on the outfield grass. Luisangel Acuña has been a full-time infielder in the majors but topped 250 innings in center field in Triple-A last season.

More interestingly, the Mets are toying with the idea of getting Jeff McNeil some center field reps. He’s getting work in at the position during his minor league rehab assignment. McNeil could be back from his season-opening IL stint by the end of this week. He has 16 career innings as a center fielder. He’s unlikely to play there on a regular basis but could be part of a larger timeshare.

“I imagine Jeff is going to do what he always does,” Stearns told reporters (via Healey). “He’s going to bounce around. He’s going to play some second. He’ll fill in for the corner outfielders when needed. We’ll see how the center field thing goes; I think he’s excited about that. So there are plenty of at-bats to go around here, and Jeff will certainly get his share.”

Siri is on the 10-day injured list for the time being. The Mets can move him to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot whenever that need arises.

Mets Getting Jeff McNeil Reps In Center Field

By | at

The Mets recently lost outfielder Jose Siri to a fractured tibia that will sideline him for a yet-to-be-determined (but obviously significant) period of time. That leaves Tyrone Taylor, Brandon Nimmo and infielder Luisangel Acuña as the three players on the roster with center field experience. Taylor and Nimmo have both played the position extensively in the majors, of course. Acuña has logged 299 minor league innings in center but has primarily been a middle infielder. Outfielder Jose Azocar, who has nearly 6000 professional innings in center (442 in the majors), is down in Triple-A but not on the 40-man roster.

Though they have plenty of candidates to help cover Siri’s absence, the Mets are apparently considering an outside-the-box possibility to further bolster their center field depth. Manager Carlos Mendoza announced today that Jeff McNeil’s next start during his minor league rehab assignment will come in center field (video link via SNY).

“He’s off today. He’s going to play center field tomorrow in Port St. Lucie,” Mendoza said. “This is nothing new for him. He’s played there before. We wanted to take advantage of this opportunity in the minor leagues. He’s on board with it. … We’ve also got Acuña, we’ve got Tyrone, but we just felt like since he’s down there now, why not use this opportunity to get him some exposure?”

McNeil does indeed have some experience in center, but it’s fleeting at best. He’s logged three partial big league games at the position — a total of 16 innings. He handled all six fly-balls that went his way without issue. McNeil has had some sporadic center field appearances in the minors as well, but he’s totaled only 28 innings there in his entire professional career. He’s surely had additional reps in non-game settings, but it’s not exactly a familiar position for him. McNeil has more than 2200 total innings of corner outfield work under his belt between the minors and the big leagues, however.

Asked if getting McNeil some occasional time in center with the big league club was a real consideration, Mendoza replied: “Well, there’s a reason we’re doing it.” It seems unlikely that McNeil would be installed for regular center field work, but there’s little harm in expanding an already versatile position player’s skill set in the wake of a notable injury — particularly when it can be done organically while on a minor league rehab assignment.

McNeil has missed the entire season thus far after straining his right oblique late in spring training. The two-time All-Star and 2022 NL batting champion is coming off a pair of down seasons, at least relative to his prior standards. McNeil has been a league-average hitter dating back to 2023, slashing a combined .257/.323/.381 over his past 1120 trips to the plate in the majors.

In place of McNeil, the Mets turned to Acuña and Brett Baty to handle second base in the season’s first few weeks. Baty had enjoyed a monster performance in spring training but has gotten out to a dismal start while playing second — a position that’s still largely unfamiliar to him. The 25-year-old former first-rounder is a third baseman but has begun to see time at second in the wake of Mark Vientos’ breakout last year. However, Baty is struggling once again in what’s now his fourth season with at least some time in the majors; he’s received 36 plate appearances but turned in a .139/.139/.222 slash. Acuña, despite being on the short side of a would-be platoon, has seen an uptick in playing time as a result and is batting .265/.359/.353 in his own small sample of 39 plate appearances.

Jeff McNeil To Begin Season On Injured List Due To Oblique Strain

By | at

Mets infielder Jeff McNeil has been diagnosed with a strained right oblique that will sideline him for Opening Day, manager Carlos Mendoza announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). He’ll be shut down entirely for seven to ten days, and the expectation is that McNeil will be out a total of three to four weeks.

McNeil, 33 in April, is coming off a .238/.308/.384 performance in 472 plate appearances last year. He popped 12 homers, tallied 26 doubles and went 5-for-6 in stolen base attempts while continuing to display excellent bat-to-ball skills (14.4% strikeout rate). He played his customary brand of solid defense in more than 800 innings of work at second base and also chipped in nearly 200 frames of corner outfield work, where he drew average grades from Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average alike.

Over the past two seasons, McNeil has turned in a roughly average .257/.323/.381 batting line (99 wRC+) with 22 homers in 1120 plate appearances with solid defense at three spots on the diamond. It’s a far cry from the combined .307/.370/.458 slash (130 wRC+) posted by McNeil through the first five seasons of his career in 2018-22, but an average hitter and defender with plus contact skills is still a nice contributor on any club. His injury subtracts a reliable if unspectacular bat from the lineup and will likely prompt the Mets to lean on a younger option with less track record in the majors.

New York has plenty of infield options, but McNeil’s injury could pave the way for Luisangel Acuña to get the Opening Day nod at the position. He could face competition from Brett Baty (though he’s more of a third baseman) or non-roster invitees in camp like Donovan Walton and Luis De Los Santos. Infielder Ronny Mauricio has yet to play in a spring game while finishing off his rehab from last spring’s ACL tear, but at last check the Mets said he was targeting mid-March for his Grapefruit League debut. Just based on his lack of reps so far, he feels like a stretch. Outside of Baty, none of the options in camp have performed particularly well in their small sample of spring plate appearances.

McNeil is the latest in a mounting number of injured Mets. He’ll join Francisco Alvarez (hamate fracture), Sean Manaea (oblique strain), Frankie Montas (lat strain) and Nick Madrigal (fractured shoulder) as spring training IL casualties. That set comes with a varying range of expected return timelines. Madrigal is out for the entire season. Montas will likely be sidelined into late May. Manaea and McNeil could return in mid-to-late April, assuming there are no hiccups in their recovery.

Mets Keeping Jose Butto In Relief

By | at

The Mets are keeping José Buttó in a multi-inning relief role, skipper Carlos Mendoza told reporters (including Newsday’s Tim Healey). Righty Tylor Megill will stay stretched out as a starter and compete for a rotation spot in camp.

Buttó opened last season in the rotation. He started seven games and managed decent results, working to a 3.08 ERA across 38 innings. Buttó’s command was worrisome, though, as he walked nearly 14% of opposing hitters. New York optioned him to Triple-A in the middle of May. He started eight games and turned in a 3.05 ERA before being recalled at the beginning of July.

Upon his return to the majors, Buttó worked exclusively in relief. He was a quality bullpen piece for the season’s final few months. Buttó allowed only two earned runs per nine with an excellent 29.7% strikeout percentage over 36 frames. His walk rate remained elevated at a 12.3% clip. It’s difficult to stick as a starter with that kind of command, so it’s not especially surprising that the Mets will keep Buttó in a 2-3 inning role.

New York is likely to run a six-man starting staff. Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, David Peterson, Frankie Montas and bullpen conversion Clay Holmes will be in the Opening Day rotation if healthy. The sixth spot could involve a camp battle between Megill, Paul Blackburn and free agent signee Griffin Canning.

Megill started 15 of his 16 appearances a year ago, pitching to a 4.04 earned run average while fanning 27% of batters faced through 78 frames. Canning started 31 times for the Angels last season, struggling to a 5.19 ERA with a 17.6% strikeout rate. Blackburn, whom the Mets acquired from the A’s at last year’s deadline, had a 4.66 mark while striking out 18.7% of opponents over 14 starts. Blackburn underwent postseason surgery to address a spinal injury, but the Mets are hopeful that he’ll be ready by Opening Day.

Mendoza also provided some details on the team’s infield mix. Free agent pickup Nick Madrigal will get shortstop work this spring, relays Mike Puma of The New York Post. The former fourth overall pick has not played shortstop in his MLB career and only has six innings of minor league work there. He saw some action at shortstop in college, though he was mostly a second baseman in amateur ball as well.

The Mets have less of a need for a true backup shortstop than most teams do. Francisco Lindor rarely takes days off. They’d ideally have someone capable of playing the position available off the bench, though. If Ronny Mauricio opens the season on the injured list, Luisangel Acuña is their most experienced shortstop depth. The Mets would presumably rather have the 22-year-old (23 next month) playing every day at Triple-A Syracuse than spending most days on the major league bench.

New York has three players locked into the starting infield: Pete Alonso at first base, Lindor at shortstop, and Mark Vientos at the hot corner. Second base is arguably the biggest question in a deep lineup. While Acuña and Brett Baty should each get time there in camp, Mendoza indicated that Jeff McNeil has the leg up on the job going into Spring Training.

“There’s competition but Jeff is pretty much right there,” the manager said (link via Tim Britton and Will Sammon of The Athletic). McNeil rebounded from a terrible first half to hit .289/.376/.547 over 40 games in the second half. A broken wrist cut his regular season short. McNeil made it back for the NL Championship Series. He had a rough series, which is understandable for a player returning from a month-long absence from game speed, but the excellent second half and his broader track record should make it an easy call for the Mets to keep him in the lineup to start the year.

NLCS Roster Notes: Rojas, McNeil, Vesia

By | at

The Dodgers and Mets have announced their 26-man rosters for the NLCS this afternoon. Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas was a notable omission from the L.A. roster, while Mets infielder Jeff McNeil is notably joining the club’s roster after a wrist fracture sidelined him throughout the final month of the regular season and the early part of the playoffs. Rojas was replaced on the club’s roster by outfielder Kevin Kiermaier, while right-hander Adam Ottavino was dropped from the Mets’ roster to accommodate McNeil. Left-hander Alex Vesia was also left off the Dodgers’ latest roster, with right-hander Brent Honeywell Jr. added to the roster as Vesia’s replacement. Rojas, Ottavino, and Vesia will be eligible for the club’s World Series roster because they were not removed from the roster mid-series.

Rojas departs the club’s postseason roster after suffering a partially torn adductor muscle late in the regular season. The 35-year-old veteran was able to rest up during the Wild Card Series, which the Dodgers did not participate in after capturing a bye through the first round, and participate in the NLDS against the Padres. He re-aggravated the injury while playing in the series, however, and appeared in just three of the five games while going 2-for-8 at the plate. While Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times notes that Rojas believes that he’s currently healthy enough to play, the Dodgers were evidently concerned that if Rojas aggravated the injury further he would be unavailable for the World Series in the event that the club advances. By leaving him off the NLCS roster entirely, the Dodgers hope to give Rojas the opportunity to rest up for the World Series.

With the Dodgers’ primary shortstop no longer available, Tommy Edman now figures to slide from center field to shortstop on a regular basis. That opens up center field for utility bat Enrique Hernandez, who impressed during the NLDS with a three-for-nine performance that included a home run. The strong showing added to Hernandez’s lengthy postseason resume, as he’s a career .277/.351/.548 hitter in 211 trips to the plate across 75 playoff games, 64 of which have come in a Dodgers uniform. Kevin Kiermaier and Andy Pages are both on the roster as potential backup options in center field should an injury occur, while Mookie Betts, Chris Taylor, and Hernandez himself all have experience at shortstop should a replacement for Edman be necessary at any point during the series.

While the Dodgers are losing a key member of their middle infield ahead of the series, the Mets are returning one of their own from the injured list in McNeil. The 32-year-old struggled through a second consecutive down season at the plate this year, posting just a .238/.308/.384 slash line (97 wRC+) in 128 games before going on the shelf due to a fractured wrist in early September. Five weeks after hitting the injured list, McNeil now returns to the roster to provide the Mets with a versatile lefty bat capable of slotting into second base, third base, and the outfield corners as needed. Journeyman Jose Iglesias has handled the keystone in McNeil’s absence but could take a seat on the bench for the NLCS after hitting just .207/.233/.207 in 30 trips to the plate across seven games this postseason. Rookie Luisangel Acuna is also on the postseason roster as a middle infield option but has primarily found usage as a defensive replacement to this point in the club’s playoff run.

The addition of McNeil’s lefty bat to the lineup could be particularly valuable for the Mets given the Dodgers’ loss of Vesia. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters yesterday that Vesia was unlikely to make the NLCS roster due to an intercostal injury, and that eventuality has now come to pass. While Roberts floated the possibility of right-hander Tony Gonsolin (who missed the entire 2024 regular season while rehabbing Tommy John surgery) replacing Vesia on the club’s NLCS roster, it seems that L.A. ultimately decided to turn to Honeywell rather than lean on Gonsolin to get postseason outs in his first big league appearance in over a year. The 29-year-old Honeywell has posted a solid 2.63 ERA in 37 2/3 innings of work for the Pirates and Dodgers this year despite a lackluster 4.28 FIP and figures to provide L.A. with a much-needed multi-inning option as the club weighs the possibility of multiple bullpen games during the course of the seven-game series.

Poll: Who Will Win The NLCS?

By | at

The Dodgers punched their ticket to the NLCS last night. Solo home runs from Enrique Hernández and Teoscar Hernández were enough to push L.A. to a 2-0 victory over the Padres in the rubber match of their Division Series. The Dodgers blanked San Diego in consecutive games to take the series in five.

They’ll welcome the Mets to Dodger Stadium tomorrow. New York has waited for its destination since finishing off the Phillies in four games on Wednesday. Almost no one would’ve seen this coming when the Mets bottomed out at 11 games under .500. The nadir of their season coincidentally came at the hands of the Dodgers, who swept New York at Citi Field to drop them to 22-33 in late May. The Mets caught fire after that, playing above .500 ball in each of the final four months of the season.

L.A. and New York closed the regular season as the hottest teams in the National League. Their 20-10 record over their final 30 games tied them with the Tigers for best in MLB. The Dodgers secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs by finishing with an MLB-leading 98 wins. New York clawed back to 89 wins and clinched a Wild Card spot on the last day of the regular season. They’ve had a flair for the dramatic in October, coming from behind in four of their five playoff wins.

Both teams have already come back from the edge of elimination. The Mets needed Pete Alonso’s ninth-inning heroics against Devin Williams to escape the Wild Card series in Milwaukee. The Dodger pitching staff silenced San Diego’s bats in consecutive elimination games in the Division Series.

New York has the slight benefit of two extra days of rest. They’ve had three off days since their last game, while the Dodgers get one rest day before starting the series. Each team’s entire bullpen should be in play for Game 1. The Mets will have their rotation outside of Jose Quintana on regular or extended rest at the beginning of the series. The Dodgers turned to Yoshinobu Yamamoto for five scoreless innings last night. They used a bullpen game on Wednesday.

Neither team has revealed a probable starter for Game 1, but the Dodgers are almost certain to turn the ball to Jack Flaherty before going with Walker Buehler in Monday’s Game 2. The Mets could turn in a few different directions. They have Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Kodai Senga all ready to go. Andy Martino of SNY tweeted yesterday that Senga was likely to get the ball in Game 1, though the Mets won’t finalize that decision until today. The righty is on tight workloads after losing the second half of the season to a calf injury. He’ll probably be limited to two or three innings before turning the ball over to the bullpen. Senga threw two innings and 31 pitches in Game 1 of the NLDS, his first appearance since late July.

The teams have until tomorrow morning to finalize their rosters for the series. The Mets could have an important change. Jeff McNeil has been on the injured list for over a month with a right wrist fracture. Manager Carlos Mendoza said a couple days ago that McNeil had a good chance to be activated. The left-handed hitter started what’ll hopefully be a two-game stint in the Arizona Fall League last night to readjust to game speed.

McNeil made it through the first game with no issues, he told reporters last night (link via Jesse Borek and Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). While the Mets probably won’t make the decision until tomorrow, it seems McNeil will be active. That’d probably push Luisangel Acuña off the roster unless the Mets decide to drop to 12 pitchers despite the longer series.

On the Dodgers’ side, the main injury to monitor concerns reliever Alex Vesia. (There’s also the ongoing question about Freddie Freeman’s ankle but no doubt that Freeman will be on the roster.) Vesia entered with two outs in the seventh inning last night. The left-hander fanned Jackson Merrill to end the inning. He came back out for the eighth but reported soreness in his right side while warming up. The Dodgers lifted him for Michael Kopech, who combined with Blake Treinen to close out the game.

Manager Dave Roberts said postgame that Vesia would go for an MRI today (X link via Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic). The team is hopeful that the discomfort was just a cramp but wants to rule out an oblique injury. If Vesia did tweak his oblique, that’d probably shut him down for the season. Anthony Banda was the only other left-hander in Roberts’ bullpen for the Division Series. Justin Wrobleski and Zach Logue are the other healthy southpaws on the 40-man roster. Nick Ramirez remains in the organization but was outrighted last month and seems unlikely to be considered for a playoff spot.

How will the NLCS play out? Which team is headed to the World Series, and how competitive will this series be?

 

Latest On Jeff McNeil

By | at

The Mets have been without infielder/outfielder Jeff McNeil for over a month now, as he fractured his wrist in early September and has been out of action since. But he could be nearing a return to the club, per Tim Healey of Newsday on X. McNeil is going to play in the Arizona Fall League on Friday and Saturday with manager Carlos Mendoza hoping for McNeil to play a full nine-inning game on both of those days.

During the regular season, it’s routine for injured players to join a minor league club as part of a rehab assignment, spending a few days or weeks getting back into game shape before being activated from the IL. But the minor league seasons have all been completed by this time of year, so the AFL will have to do. The competition tends to be a mixed bag, as some top prospects will be involved but clubs also often send guys who missed a lot of time due to injury and need reps to play catch-up. A full overview of the rosters was recently provided by Jim Callis, Sam Dykstra and Jonathan Mayo in a piece for MLB.com.

In the meantime, the Mets will be trying to get through the Phillies and move on to the NLCS. They are currently up 2-1 in the series and could finish the series tonight. If the Phils emerge victorious in game four, the fifth game is scheduled for Friday. If the Mets eventually win the NLDS, they would square off against either the Padres or Dodgers in the NLCS starting on Sunday.

If McNeil is able to showcase his health by then, and the Mets are still alive, the club will have to make some decisions about their NLCS roster and playing time. Luisangel Acuña has only received two plate appearances in the playoffs so far, striking out both times, and could perhaps be the logical guy to be left off next round’s roster.

The more interesting question might be how McNeil is used once on the roster. He won the batting title in 2022 but has been roughly league average at the plate over the past two years. He’s hit .257/.323/.381 since the start of 2023 for a wRC+ of 99.

He got out to a rough start this year, hitting .217/.278/.306 through the end of June for a wRC+ of 69. He then caught fire for a couple of months, hitting .271/.353/.506 for a 140 wRC+ from July until he was hit by a pitch and suffered his fracture.

Getting that red-hot version of McNeil back on the field would be great but it’s also possible there will be some rust after his layoff. Jose Iglesias took over the second base job and had a great season, hitting .337/.381/.448 for a 137 wRC+. He’s gone cold in the playoffs, however, with a .231/.231/.231 line through 26 trips to the plate. McNeil could also perhaps take some time from Starling Marte in an outfield corner, as he is hitting just .222/.304/.222 in the postseason so far.

Both Iglesias and Marte hit right-handed while McNeil is a lefty, so a platoon could be a consideration for Mendoza. He’s already platooning the designated hitter slot, with Jesse Winker and J.D. Martinez both performing well. NLCS roster announcements will be made Sunday morning.

NL Postseason Notes: McNeil, Marte, Edman, Freeman

By | at

The Mets could potentially get a big boost to their lineup if they advance to the NLCS. Manager Carlos Mendoza revealed to reporters (including Tim Britton of The Athletic) that Jeff McNeil will join the team’s taxi squad today, two days after welcoming his second child. The second baseman/corner outfielder has not played since September 6, when he fractured his right wrist as he pulled back a bunt attempt on a high-and-inside curveball from Reds’ left-hander Brandon Williamson. It’s possible McNeil will be ramped up and ready to play in time for the NLCS, should the Mets win two more games against the Phillies in the NLDS. However, Mendoza made it clear that it’s too soon to offer a definitive timeline for McNeil’s return.

McNeil, 32, got off to a dismal start over the first three months of the 2024 campaign. Then, he turned a corner in July, hitting eight home runs and 15 doubles with an .859 OPS and 140 wRC+ over his final 55 games. The veteran looked much more like the version of himself that won a Silver Slugger and a batting title in 2022. Even if he can’t get back to quite that level of performance, his lefty bat should be a valuable addition to a righty-heavy Mets lineup; he could take over from Jose Iglesias at second base or Starling Marte in right field with a right-handed starting pitcher on the mound.

Speaking of Marte, the 35-year-old outfielder took a Zack Wheeler fastball off his left forearm yesterday. As Britton pointed out, the pitch hit Marte in almost the exact same spot where Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman plunked him with a sinker three weeks earlier. Marte remained in the game yesterday, running the bases and taking a couple more at-bats, but he was removed in the bottom of the eighth amid a flurry of late-game defensive switches and substitutions. There’s no reason to believe he’s nursing anything more than a minor contusion, but it’s possible he could use a day to rest. After Hoffman beaned him in September, Marte took the next game off. He started the game after that on the bench before entering as a pinch hitter.

More notes from the NL postseason teams…

  • Tommy Edman started in center field for the Dodgers last night, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. His most interesting at-bat, however, was the double play he grounded into with runners on the corners in the bottom of the fifth. Facing the right-handed Jeremiah Estrada, the switch-hitting Edman chose to hit from the right side (h/t to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). It was the first time all season Edman attempted to bat right-handed against a right-handed pitcher. To that point, he batted as a lefty against the other two right-handers he faced last night: Dylan Cease and Bryan Hoeing. It was an unconventional, but not entirely unreasonable, choice for Edman, who hit .181 with a .523 OPS and 51 wRC+ in 117 plate appearances as a lefty batter this season. Conversely, he went 14-for-34 (.412) with four home runs, a 1.299 OPS, and a 250 wRC+ in a tiny sample size of plate appearances as a righty. Indeed, Edman has hit better as a righty in every season of his career. However, when he tried batting right-handed against right-handed pitchers on occasion last season, the results were poor. He produced a .665 OPS and 77 wRC+ in 61 trips to the plate. Even worse, he went 0-for-4 batting righty against righties over two games in 2021. It will be worth watching to see if Edman continues this experiment against Estrada or any of the Padres’ other right-handers.
  • Nursing a sprained right ankle, Freddie Freeman’s status was questionable heading into the NLDS. Yet, the Dodgers first baseman played all nine innings of Game 1, going 2-for-5 at the dish. He also stole a base. Later on, Freeman revealed to reporters (including Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic) that he is also dealing with a bone bruise in his ankle. He says the bruise started to bother home around the fourth inning last night. Nevertheless, the famously durable superstar believes he can do it all again today – with the help of the Dodgers training staff. After the game, manager Dave Roberts joked that Freeman was “certainly medicated” (per Rosenthal), while Freeman expressed his gratitude to the training staff for getting him game-ready despite his significant injuries.

Jeff McNeil To Miss Rest Of Regular Season Due To Wrist Fracture

By | at

September 8: The Mets officially placed McNeil on the injured list this morning, and recalled outfielder DJ Stewart to replace McNeil on the big league roster. Stewart has slashed .175/.326/.299 in 190 trips to the plate with the club this year.

September 7: Mets second baseman/outfielder Jeff McNeil had to leave Friday’s game after being hit by a pitch on his right wrist, and tests revealed a wrist fracture, as manager Carlos Mendoza told the New York Post’s Joel Sherman and other reporters today.  McNeil will be sidelined for the next 4-6 weeks, so he’ll miss the rest of the regular season and potentially the playoffs unless the Mets reach the postseason and make a deep run.

McNeil will be placed on the 15-day injured list at some point today or tomorrow, though the official news of the injury came close enough to the Mets’ 3:10pm CT start time today that Mendoza said the team will play a man short against the Reds.  Jose Iglesias figures to take over second base for the remainder of the season, and Mendoza said infield prospect Luisangel Acuna is one of the candidates to be called up to take McNeil’s spot on the active roster.

New York is right in the thick of the wild card race, sitting in a tie with Atlanta for the third and final NL wild card slot but also within three games of San Diego for the first wild position.  Passing any of the Braves, Padres, or Diamondbacks will be a lot trickier for the Mets without a lineup regular like McNeil, who has gotten the bulk of time at second base this season while also playing at both corner outfield slots.

McNeil will finish his 2024 season with a .238/.308/.384 slash line and 12 home runs over 472 plate appearances, translating to a 98 wRC+ that matches his seesaw of a year.  Hitting just .214/.271/.308 over his first 300 PA, McNeil’s bat finally caught fire in July, and he proceeded to hit .294/.368/.566 in his next 163 PA before cooling off again in September.  McNeil has remained one of baseball’s toughest hitters to strike out, though not much his contact has resulted in hard-hit balls, and a .256 BABIP also hasn’t helped his cause.

It is possible McNeil’s numbers could be related to the partial UCL tear in his left elbow that was revealed near the end of last season, though McNeil only received a PRP shot rather than surgery and was able to be part of the Mets’ Opening Day lineup.  Or, it could be that a traditionally soft-contact hitter like McNeil is reliant on batted-ball luck to be especially productive at the plate, and it isn’t any surprise that his best seasons have involved BABIPs all north of the .330 mark.  When McNeil isn’t finding holes in the field, he has been closer to a league-average bat, as evidenced the 99 wRC+ he has posted since the start of the 2023 season.

This downturn followed the signing of McNeil’s four-year, $50MM contract extension, so the Mets haven’t gotten what they were expecting following McNeil’s All-Star season in 2022.  However, as a left-handed hitter who can play multiple positions, McNeil has still been a useful player to have as a regular part of the lineup, and his absence forces New York to fill a couple of holes.  Iglesias has been excellent in part-time duty this season and now faces an extra challenge in an everyday role, while Tyrone Taylor and Jesse Winker figure to get more outfield time.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top