St. Lucie's McNeil makes up for lost time

Sidelined for a little over a year due to injuries, Jeff McNeil announced his return in a big way Tuesday.
The Mets infield prospect, who played just three games last season, made his 2017 debut by going 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs in Class A Advanced St. Lucie's 9-5 loss to Lakeland at First Data Field.

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"It was a tough rehab, a couple of things didn't go quite well in my way, but I was just super excited to get back out there," McNeil said.
The 25-year-old second baseman wasted no time, hammering a 1-0 pitch from Flying Tigers starter Kyle Dowdy over the wall in right-center field for a two-run shot in his first at-bat.
"I was looking for a good pitch to hit," McNeil said. "I was swinging well when I was playing in extended spring training, so I was just looking for a pitch I can drive and got the barrel on it."
The 2013 12th-round pick added an RBI double to left in the third before collecting a pair of singles to right in the fifth and seventh. He grounded out back to the mound for the final out of the game.
"Every game is going to be tough to get through early on," he said. "So just getting through every game and trying to stay healthy the whole season is the goal right now."

Named to the Florida State League's midseason and postseason All-Star teams in 2015, McNeil homered in his 2016 debut with Double-A Binghamton as well, but his season was cut short two games later with a double sports hernia injury. He was scheduled to return during the summer following his surgery, but a torn hip labrum kept him out for the remainder of the year.
"It was frustrating just not being able to play the game. I love it out there," the Long Beach State product. "I was hoping for a big year because I started off pretty quick up there. It's unfortunate what happened, but I'm ready to have a big year this year."
The four-hit game tied a career high for McNeil, who registered four of them in 2015 for St. Lucie. He produced a .312/.373/.382 slash line over 119 games that season prior to his promotion, but said he's content with returning to some familiar surroundings for now.
"It feels great to be here, just to be back on the field is awesome," McNeil said. "It's nice and warm down here, great weather to play in. Hopefully, I can play a few games here and see what [the Mets] want to do."
Joey Pankake paced the Flying Tigers offense, going 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs. Tigers No. 22 prospectZac Shepherd belted a solo home run and No. 18 Arvicent Perez went 3-for-3 with three RBIs.