Jeff McNeil

Coming off a National League batting title, McNeil needed a strong finishing kick in the final two months just to get his average up to .270, which was 37 points lower than the career .307 mark he carried into the season and 56 points lower than the .326 he hit in 2022. McNeil's contact skills were as good as ever with a strikeout rate of just 10 percent, but his already-weak quality of contact was even worse last season with a hard-hit rate in the fifth percentile and barrel rate in the second percentile. He also hit more flyballs, which helped him reach double digits in home runs for just the second time but also, when combined with feeble contact, led to a lot of lazy flyouts. It's possible McNeil was pressing after signing a long-term deal, and his .303/.342/.466 line from August on is probably closer to what we should expect in 2024. McNeil did end the season on the injured list with a partial tear of the UCL in his right elbow, but all signs point to that healing with rest.

McNeil entered the season with little job security after he posted a .679 OPS in 2021 while the Mets signed Eduardo Escobar during the offseason and returned Robinson Cano from suspension, but McNeil turned things around in a resounding way and led MLB with a .326 average. He hit .319 across his first three big-league campaigns before he dropped to .251 in 2021, and in 2022 he showed the previous poor season was an aberration. The second baseman still didn't hit for much power with nine home runs, but he struck out at only a 10.4 percent clip. McNeil's counting stats were nothing special at 73 runs and 62 RBI, but that could be attributed to the fact he spent most of the year in the bottom half of the order. Leadoff man Brandon Nimmo is headed for free agency, and if he continues his career elsewhere McNeil would be a logical candidate to take over atop the order for the Mets.

McNeil posted an .884 OPS across his first three big-league campaigns but struggled at the plate in 2021 with a .251/.319/.360 slash line in 426 plate appearances. He hit 23 homers in 133 games during the 2019 campaign, though that power stroke looks like an aberration since he otherwise has 14 home runs in 235 major-league contests. McNeil will open the season as the Mets' primary second baseman, but Robinson Cano returning from suspension and Eduardo Escobar signing as a free agent, McNeil may not have a ton of job security if his 2022 production is similar to last season.

Many players will have a breakout in their third season in the big leagues, but it could be said that came in McNeil's second year with his big sophomore power season. His third season at the big-league level was a disappointment if you viewed 2019 as his new performance level, but a satisfactory performance if you viewed him against the backdrop of most of his minor-league career. In this day and age of low-contact and low-average hitters, McNeil shines as someone who makes excellent contact, hits the balls to all fields and will accept walks. He has a career .319 batting average and a .383 OBP spanning over 1,000 plate appearances. The expected stats do not love him, but the actual results are tough to overlook, as long as he continues to feast on fastballs (.354 BA in 2020). As good as his batting average was, it could have been even better were it not for his .146 average against breaking balls.

Even after batting .329 over his first two-plus months of MLB action in 2018, McNeil was slated to open last season in a utility role until injuries intervened. Suffice it to say, McNeil now owns a full-time lineup spot after demonstrating that the exceptional contact skills he exhibited as a rookie weren't a fluke. More surprisingly, McNeil showed he wasn't merely a slap hitter, either. He raised his barrel rate from 2.4% to 4.8%, allowing him to tap into power (62 extra-base hits) that was mostly absent from his minor-league profile. The 2019 baseball undoubtedly helped McNeil, but his high batting-average floor and spot near the top of the order are enough to make him a quality building block for fantasy teams even if the power production proves unsustainable. McNeil's eligibility at three spots (second base, third base and outfield) only burnishes his value further.

McNeil has stellar bat-to-ball ability, as evidenced by the minuscule 9.7% strikeout rate he posted with the Mets last season. Those skills helped McNeil to a .329 average after his late-July callup, which was a top-10 mark among second-half qualifiers. McNeil had a K-rate above 13.3% at only one stop on the farm (16.4% in 30 games at High-A). While there isn't a ton of pop to be found here (.142 ISO, 30.2% hard-hit rate), he uses the entire field with balanced batted-ball distribution. McNeil can also run a little. His recorded average sprint speed of 27.8 ft/sec actually wasn't very good, but he was caught stealing just once in eight attempts, giving him 13 steals total across three levels. New general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said early in the offseason that McNeil was "penciled in" as the starter at second base, but that changed after the team's acquisition of Robinson Cano. Look for McNeil to open in a utility role.