In a season where fans of the New York Mets are looking for something and anything to cheer for, Jeff McNeil’s war on the equipment establishment may be a good place to start.
On Saturday, Anthony diComo of MLB.com offered a look at the quirky bat that the Mets infielder uses. The bat has no knob and simply gets wider the closer it is to the end. While McNeil’s bat is still the standard weight, he feels that it is lighter and more evenly distributed.
Here's a look at Jeff McNeil's unusual bat, which does not have a knob. Although it's a standard 32 ounces, McNeil says the model feels lighter to him because the weight is more evenly distributed. pic.twitter.com/4rZybaBMp4
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) August 4, 2018
“It just feels lighter because it’s so balanced,” McNeil told diComo. “The weight’s throughout the bat. It’s not all in the barrel.”
McNeil also said that he has been using the knobless bat since 2016 when a Mets hitting coordinator handed them out to a group of minor leaguers. He hit a home run in one of his first at-bats with it and has used it ever since.
The results speak for themselves — the 26-year-old McNeil hit .342 in the minors this season and was called up by the Mets for his major league debut in July, smacking a base hit on the very first MLB pitch he saw.
Now the only question is whose bat is quirkier: McNeil’s or Bryce Harper’s.
