As the offseason winds down and spring training is just weeks away, Jeff McNeil has his sights set on the Mets making a big jump into the postseason in 2020.
McNeil, who had an extremely efficient season in 2019 with slashes of .318/.384/.531 that came with 23 home runs and 75 RBI, believes the team has the right personnel to make a run.
"I think we have really high expectations," McNeil said on SiriusXM's PGA Tour Radio with Michael Breed. "I expect to make the playoffs, you know, we came up a little short last year but I expect to make the playoffs. We got the pitching staff to do it. We got the best pitcher in baseball in [Jacob] deGrom. We got Pete [Alonso]. We've got a bunch of young guys, we've got a good mix of young guys and veterans, so I think we're just going to build off what we did last year. We had a good second half, I think we had one of the best records in baseball in the second half, so just kind of build on that and hopefully once we get in the playoffs anything can happen, especially with our pitching staff with deGrom, [Noah] Syndergaard, it's a pretty good top of the rotation. Basically we just have to get to the playoffs and go from there."
After trading for Jake Marisnick from the Astros and adding pitcher depth with Rick Porcello, Michael Wacha and Dellin Betances, the Mets seem ready to make that final push back into the playoff picture after missing the postseason the last three years.
McNeil will be a vital piece in accomplishing that goal, too. He sets the tone at the top of the lineup, and as long as he's healthy, those slashes mentioned before should be replicated given his simple, contact-first approach at the plate.