Mets’ Jeff McNeil doesn’t take his shaking spring lightly

JUPITER, Fla – Jeff McNeil doesn’t take his disappointing spring training lightly.

The contender within the fiery infielder of the Mets wants to succeed whatever the stakes and, according to manager Luis Rojas, has focused on finding the root of his problems in the Grapefruit League. In 15 games this spring, McNeil cut .116 / .269 / .256 with a homerun and two RBIs.

“It had a different spring,” Rojas said before the Mets lost 10-2 to the Marlins in an exhibition game on Sunday. “I thought his approach at the start was not the same.

Rojas added that McNeil was not as “preloaded” to the plate as usual, which gave him good release and better contact. The manager said he saw a better approach from McNeil last week.

“He’s very media-oriented so he’s watched a lot of videos,” Rojas said. “I see him after the game, studying, looking at himself, comparing positions from the past and he made the adjustment, but it was good.

Rojas said he was happy with McNeil on the second base defense. McNeil started a game third earlier this spring and made three errors, but he expects to receive the majority of his playing time in second. The Mets consider second goal their best position, followed by left field and third.

Many established players would dismiss poor spring training stats, but that’s not in McNeil’s DNA.

“He’s very competitive,” Rojas said. “He wants to win, whatever it is. The game of baseball, he’s just going to be like that, but even in other things, he wants to win and he gets very fiery. He’s a competitor and he’s really tough on himself.

“He’s who he is and that’s what brings out the best in Jeff McNeil. We’re working on this so that he can handle and be hard on himself and stuff like that, but that’s how he works.

McNeill cut .311 / .383 / .454 last season with four home runs and 23 RBIs.

“He’s going to be pretty hard on himself if things don’t go right,” Rojas said. “He’s very results-oriented so he’s going to go crazy even if he hits a ball and someone does a dive hold. But if he hits a broken bat blooper, he’ll party. We will try to channel this to make sure we relay what was done right even if the results are not what he wanted.