'We've got to keep going': McNeil (right oblique strain) to miss Mets opener

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- In a vacuum, Jeff McNeil’s injury is “a minor hiccup,” as the second baseman put it -- an unfortunate case of a right oblique strain with two weeks to go until Opening Day. It should not sideline McNeil past mid-April.

Only from a wider lens does it become more concerning. McNeil on Thursday became the latest Met to receive significant spring injury news, joining starting pitchers Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas, catcher Francisco Alvarez and backup infielder Nick Madrigal. All five of those players were expected to be on the 26-man roster, representing about one-fifth of the group that was supposed to be in Houston on March 27.

“You hate to see it, but nobody’s going to feel sorry for us,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve got to keep going. At the beginning of camp, we kept talking about our depth, and here we are getting tested way before we got to Opening Day. So it’s part of it. It’s part of it. We know we have a good team not only because of the regulars, but just the depth. … We still feel good about it.”

McNeil’s injury is a low-grade strain, which surprised him given that he has no idea how it happened. Following his last spring appearance on Monday, McNeil began feeling soreness in his oblique, which did not dissipate after a day of rest. The Mets eventually sent him for the MRI that revealed the strain.

McNeil won’t participate in baseball activities for at least 7-10 days. Although Mendoza mentioned that the second baseman could be shut down longer, McNeil expressed confidence in saying: “I barely have any symptoms right now.” Either way, McNeil is slated to miss 3-4 weeks in total, which would take him to early April in a best-case scenario.

“Definitely a little frustrating,” he said. “I felt like I was swinging the bat really well. The Spring Training swing was feeling good. I was excited. But just a minor hiccup right here, nothing I can’t get through. So get through this and build back up and hopefully feel good again.”

McNeil, 32, was coming off a down season that saw him hit .238/.308/.384 but improve significantly in the second half. He won the 2022 National League batting title with a .326 average.

In McNeil’s absence, Brett Baty becomes a much stronger candidate to make the Opening Day roster, either as the starting second baseman or a super-utility type. Seventh-ranked prospect Luisangel Acu?a could also start at second, but he has struggled this spring and might not earn the spot unless the Mets are prepared to play him on an everyday basis. Veterans Donovan Walton and Luis De Los Santos are also candidates to make the team.

The Mets will carry two of Baty, Acu?a, Walton and De Los Santos.

It’s a prime opportunity for Baty, who had been favored to make the roster in a bench capacity, but now could log significant at-bats for as long as McNeil is absent. While Baty has thrived this spring, batting .370 with two home runs through his first 11 Grapefruit League games, he’s shown some rough edges defensively at second base. In the second inning of Thursday’s game against the Red Sox, Baty committed his second error in just 20 innings at the position.

Still, Baty says he feels “good over there” and about his chances in general.

“Camp’s not over,” he continued. “But I feel like I’ve done my best … to give myself the best chance to make the team. I think just going out there and competing every day is what I try to do, and I’ve shown that. And they know that already.”

Even after McNeil returns, Baty, Acu?a and Ronny Mauricio -- the latter of whom is rehabbing from a knee injury -- could challenge for playing time at second base.

“We want to see what he can do,” Mendoza said of Baty. “We’re already comfortable right now. The reports we got last year when he played in Triple-A were good, and what we’ve seen so far, it’s been good. But again, we’ve got three other guys in there that we feel comfortable about too, and we’ll see how that goes.”