Biography
Jeff McNeil (born April 8, 1992), nicknamed "Squirrel" or "Flying Squirrel", is an American professional baseball infielder and outfielder for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Early life
McNeil attended Nipomo High School in Nipomo, California. He played baseball, basketball and golf. McNeil played three seasons of high school basketball and averaged 17 points per game as a senior. McNeil focused primarily on his golf career until his disappointing performance in the 2009 U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championship after which his focus shifted to baseball. Because the high school golf and baseball seasons are both in spring, he did not play high school baseball until his senior year, but was offered a scholarship to play college baseball at Cal State Northridge due to his performance in summer ball. He hit .446 as a senior and committed to play at Cal State Northridge.After Northridge's coach left the school, McNeil changed his commitment to Long Beach State. In 2012, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League. As a junior in 2013, McNeil had a .348 batting average with 11 strikeouts in 221 at bats; he was named to the All-Big West first team.
Career
He was drafted by the New York Mets in the 12th round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft. After signing, McNeil made his professional debut that summer with the Kingsport Mets, hitting .329 in 47 games. He played 2014 with the Savannah Sand Gnats and St. Lucie Mets, hitting .292 with three home runs, 51 RBIs, and 17 stolen bases in 117 games, and 2015 with St. Lucie and Binghamton Mets, slashing .308/.369/.377 with one home run, 40 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases in 123 games. After the 2015 season, he played in the Arizona Fall League.In 2016, McNeil began using an unorthodox knobless bat given to him by Mets minor league hitting coordinator Lamar Johnson; he thenceforth began using knobless bats exclusively. He played in only 51 games combined in 2016 and 2017 with Binghamton, St. Lucie and Las Vegas 51s due to numerous injuries. McNeil started 2018 with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and was promoted to Las Vegas during the season.
New York Mets
McNeil was promoted to the Major Leagues on July 24, 2018. He recorded his first Major League hit that night at Citi Field against Phil Hughes of the San Diego Padres on the first pitch he saw. He hit his first Major League home run off Tanner Roark of the Washington Nationals on July 31. For the season with the Mets, he batted .329/.381/.471 in 225 at bats. He led all MLB hitters (140 or more plate appearances) in batting average against right-handers, at .345. McNeil received one vote in the 2018 National League Rookie of the Year Award polling, placing him in a three-way tie for sixth place with Harrison Bader and Yoshihisa Hirano.McNeil developed a reputation early in his Major League career as a "throwback" player notable for his high contact rate and low strikeout rate.On June 30, 2019, McNeil was selected as a reserve to the 2019 Major League Baseball All-Star Game NL team, his first selection. At the time of his selection, he led the majors with a .348 batting average. On August 5, 2019, McNeil recorded his 200th career hit in his 599th career at bat, becoming the fastest player in Mets history to 200 career hits.In 2019 he batted .318/.384/.531 with 23 home runs and 75 RBIs. He swung at the highest percentage of pitches (59.9%), and the highest percentage of pitches inside the strike zone, of all major league batters (85.0%).