Projected Athletics lineup will give NY Mets fans agita flashbacks with Jeff McNeil

No doubt a rising team, the Athletics from Parts Unknown were the winners in the buy low lottery for Jeff McNeil. Traded by the New York Mets to Sacramento for a 17-year-old prospect, he’ll become a veteran presence on a roster full of youth.

McNeil is projected to play second base and hit in a place Mets fans didn’t much care to see him bat, fifth.

It doesn’t make much sense. Hitting a spot above Jacob Wilson who batted .313 gives them a nice lefty/righty split in the middle. Mets fans who grew tired of McNeil hitting in the middle of the Amazins’ lineup might feel some agita flashbacks seeing this projection.

Jeff McNeil hitting fifth in any lineup shows a shallowness to your starting nine

McNeil hit fifth more than anywhere else for the Mets in 2025. No wonder they missed the playoffs. He did well enough. His .827 OPS was second only to the times he batted eighth and had an .830 OPS.

Lineup placement didn’t explain how well McNeil performed at times or when he wasn’t effective. It might actually come as a shock for some fans to see he hit fifth more than any other time in his career, 615 times. He had 610 plate appearances in the sixth-hole and another 606 batting leadoff which might be even more surprising. Over 400 of those as a leadoff hitter came in 2019 when Brandon Nimmo was hurt for the majority of the year and the Mets had yet to acquire Francisco Lindor.

It made sense for McNeil to hit at the top of the order in his prime. The middle of the lineup never felt like such a good fit.

The team’s clean-up hitter in 2024, it often felt as if McNeil grew into becoming a less-than-perfect match for the construction of the Mets roster. If he wasn’t hitting .300+, he should have been batting no higher than sixth, ideally seventh or lower. Because many of the younger Mets hitters failed to take a leap, he often found himself closer to the middle, in particular against right-handed starters.

McNeil’s career .259 batting average in the number five slot is his third-weakest and worst with 100 plate appearances or more. This is, in large part, because his worst years came with the Mets force-feeding him a little too high in the batting order. Often hoping he’d at least put the ball in play, it might have worked for the Mets (at times). It doesn’t make enough sense for the Athletics.

Where he bats in the Athletics lineup means nothing to us and yet if you’re feeling weak in the knees, you’re not alone.