New York Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil traveled to Florida on Tuesday to ramp up the rehab on his injured oblique as he inches closer to a 2025 season debut, as first reported by MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo.
McNeil suffered the injury late in spring training. An initial timetable suggested that he could return to action in late April, and that still appears to be the case.
Celebrating his 33rd birthday on Tuesday, McNeil had a batting practice session before the Mets’ home opener on Friday and was seen doing on-field work at Citi Field on Monday afternoon.
Before his injury, McNeil was slated to be New York’s everyday second baseman despite having the worst season of his career in 2024. A batting champion just two years prior, he batted .238 with a .692 OPS in 129 games. His spring training numbers were on par with that down year, as he batted .241 with an identical .692 OPS in 11 games before the injury.
Still, his track record is proving to be an upgrade at the position, considering Brett Baty once again failed to take advantage of a major-league chance. Following another strong spring training, the 25-year-old is just 2-for-21 with eight strikeouts to start the season.
“They keep throwing fastballs by him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Baty. “Maybe a little off time-wise. He’s either swinging through the fastball or chasing balls out of the strike zone. He’ll continue to fight, he’ll continue to work, and he’ll get through it.”
Luisangel Acuna, who also made the Opening Day roster to create a platoon at the position alongside Baty, has not fared much better. He entered was 2-for-17 entering Tuesday’s middle game against the Miami Marlins.
Their combined .303 OPS ranks dead-last amongst all second-base tandems in Major League Baseball.
“I think both players haven’t gotten off to the starts they would have liked,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “…If we can have some hits fall for both of those guys, I think hopefully we can get one of them on a roll here and allow us to have a really healthy complement when we get fully healthy.”
