Every team has that one player who quietly shifts from cornerstone to question mark, and for the New York Mets, Jeff McNeil is starting to look like the case study. Once the ultimate glue guy — a batting champ who could slide anywhere on the diamond — he now feels less like a necessity and more like a figure clinging to relevance. The spark that once defined him hasn’t disappeared, but it no longer guarantees tomorrow.
His season hasn’t been a disaster, yet it hasn’t been the kind of campaign that silences doubts either. With time, circumstance, and competition beginning to stack against him, the future doesn’t look nearly as secure as the past once did.