The Mets can’t afford another Jeff McNeil disappearing act
NY Post
PORT ST. LUCIE — Jeff McNeil is a rumor.
A Yeti. A UFO. Nessie out in the loch.
The Mets keep hinting at major league spring training action for McNeil, but that was delayed yet again from Sunday to now Tuesday. He has a locker in the Clover Park home clubhouse. But in the windows in which reporters are allowed inside, you might see a back moving from one off-limits area to another. The closest to actually seeing McNeil in the clubhouse is Rylan Bannon, a nonroster who looks a fair amount like McNeil.
But now even Bannon has been reassigned to minor league camp.
Call me overly suspicious, but just to be sure, I checked with Carlos Mendoza, Brandon Nimmo and hitting coach Eric Chavez to make sure McNeil exists and is not Sidd Finch 2.0. Each laughed and assured me that, indeed, McNeil is present and doing everything but playing in major league games as he heals from a torn elbow ligament, though Chavez initially joked, “I am kind of in the same boat. But, really, I actually saw him running earlier.”
It is fine that McNeil is a phantom now, especially because Chavez insists that the lefty swinger only needs “20 at-bats to get ready [for the regular season]. He is a roll-out-of-bed-type of hitter.” But McNeil has to show up for the 2024 Mets.
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