The Mets probably shouldn’t be participating in nationally televised games with the way they’re playing right now. It’s going to happen anyways this weekend. New York will be hosting the Cleveland Guardians on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post is reporting that Jeff McNeil will be providing an in-game interview, as well.
For Sunday Night Baseball, Jeff McNeil will be the in-game interview on ESPN when the Mets face the Guardians.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) May 17, 2023
In case you forgot, Brandon Nimmo did one the last time New York played on a Sunday night.
With the Flying Squirrel set to chat with the booth on the national stage, I can’t help but wonder how hard it’ll be for him to keep himself from dropping F-bombs. We know he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and with that comes lots of swearing when things don’t go his way.
A hot mic caught McNeil voicing his displeasure about a strike-three call while playing the Detroit Tigers recently. But that’s really nothing new. The pandemic-shortened 2020 season shined a light on the fact that he absolutely hates — HATES — making outs when he’s hitting.
Here’s an example. It obviously includes some salty language, so put on headphones if you’re in the office. Or, if you have kids around and they somehow haven’t heard you use these words yet:
Here’s another example from the 2021 season:
@sportsbettingtiktok Reply to @cashmanjunior The New York Mets Jeff McNeil has the greatest reaction after an umpire cheated him and called him out on strikes
ESPN is already making a bold move to mic up McNeil thanks to his reputation for expressing how he feels while on the field. It’s even more of a bold move because the chances of an F-bomb or two coming out of his mouth are higher since his performance at the plate hasn’t been terrific recently.
The reigning MLB batting champion finished March/April with a .298/.416/.415 line in 94 plate appearances. But across 62 trips to the plate so far in May, McNeil’s triple slash is down at .242/.262/.290. In case you’re keeping score at home, that’s a decrease of .831 to .552 in OPS and 143 to 56 in wRC+ between these two periods of time.
So, we’ll see how it goes. Whatever happens, though, it’s sure to be entertaining. And, we can imagine that some of the bigwigs at ESPN will be holding their breath throughout it all.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
