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Where Does Jeff McNeil Rank on the List of All-Time Annoying Mets?
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There was a sequence on Monday night when Jeff McNeil tagged out Harrison Bader at second base and the play went to review. He made that stupid annoying face, you know, the squinty one that looks like this:
McNeil is equal parts hate-the-face and a pest, like a baseball Brad Marchand. He’s a utility player with a career .304 batting average against the Phillies, who reaches base at a .366 clip. He’s got 102 career hits against the Phils, but only 20% of them for extra bases. He’s not hammering balls into the second deck like Pete Alonso or getting Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor headlines, but he’s slapping opposite-field singles, fouling off ten pitches in a row, and throwing his helmet around after a bad call. He’s whining like a big baby because he didn’t like the way Rhys Hoskins slid. He’s just a pain in the ass with a dumb nickname.
Where does McNeil rank among the most annoying Mets of all time? Top 10? Top 5? Mount Rushmore? Mind you, there are a lot of candidates, so this is an exhausting exercise if done comprehensively.
A shortlist of challengers, for comparison:
- David Wright: Classy player and a nice guy, but the dude hit more home runs against us than any other team. More than 200 career hits. Felt like he’d always pop up with a big defensive play at CBP back in the day. Chipper Jones-esque.
- Jose Reyes: Feels like this guy would rip off a stolen base every other game against the Phils, then turn a double play.
- Pete Alonso: Wears ridiculous clothing and has a face almost as punchable as McNeil.
- Paul Lo Duca: I just remember this guy never shutting up. Felt like he was always barking at an ump or a hitter.
- Carlos Beltran: Slugged .512 against the Phils. Knocked in more runs against the Phillies than any other team he played against.
- Noah Syndergaard: Long before his cup of coffee here, he was a typically-annoying Met, always chirping and being dramatic on the mound while never really being as good as he thought he was.
- Darryl Strawberry: 253 total bases against the Phils, didn’t face a lot of resistance at Veterans Stadium back in the 80s, nor did anybody else.
- Billy Wagner: For obvious reasons.
So on and so forth. The list could go on forever. Really hard to narrow down.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com