In the latest (and potentially final) component of the controlled demolition of the holdover Mets’ core, Jeff McNeil was traded to the Athletics last week for RHP Yordan Rodriguez. The Mets are also covering
$5.75M of McNeil’s 2026 salary as well as his buyout to 2027 to incentivize the Athletics to take on his deal.
Since his debut in 2018, McNeil has been the third most valuable Met per fWAR, trailing only Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor – yes he’s actually been more valuable than Pete Alonso in that timeframe. Unfortunately, he’s not been able to replicate the same high-level offensive impact he demonstrated early in his career has faded somewhat. There’s still a high-end talent for putting the bat on the ball, but selling out for pull-side spray has not worked out in McNeil’s favor; his middling exit velocities limit his ability to put the ball over the fence, while his pulled ground balls too often turn into easy outs.
McNeil is also a 34-year-old infielder with a lengthy injury history; back, knee, hand, hamstring – name a body part and there’s been at least one ailment there at some point over the last couple years. He also underwent surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) this offseason, an injury that is often extremely challenging to come back from (though it’s easier for hitters than pitchers). Needless to say, there’s significant risk of a wholesale collapse, and getting out before that happens makes some sense.
In addition, McNeil is an odd fit for the 2026 roster at this point. He’s still a strong defender at second, but the acquisition of Marcus Semien – an elite 2B defender and infamous iron man making big money – greatly narrows the runway there. McNeil has never been a viable 3B defender, nor does he have the experience or offensive output to be a real first base option. That leaves the OF, where McNeil’s bat (and more than likely his glove going forward) will again be stretched, and the Mets will almost certainly add another option on the grass as well. That reduces McNeil to an expensive, aging bench option.
There’s another, more thorny dimension to discuss here, and that’s McNeil’s fit within the clubhouse. McNeil infamously got into a physical confrontation with Francisco Lindor in 2021, the infamous rat-raccoon fiasco. Apparently those two clashed again during the 2025 season as well as part of more widely reported clubhouse strife. A lot of the reporting around this stuff is sensationalized nonsense, particularly with the rabid New York media. However, the smoke signals suggest that the Mets’ clubhouse has not been particularly harmonious in recent years. This is not to say that McNeil is solely responsible, but he’s a veteran player who has been a major player in multiple incidents.
By moving McNeil, the Mets save $10.5M in direct payroll expenses and potentially up to $11.55M in additional taxes (presuming they pass the third threshold above $304M, which they most likely will). Beyond that, the Mets will also receive an additional credit for the back calculation of McNeil’s AAV. This is a somewhat complicated topic which you can read about here, but the end result is that the Mets can credit $5.425M against the salary cap at some point in the future, a number that could help them slip below the third threshold in 2027.
None of us should weep for Steve Cohen’s wallet, but that is a significant savings, particularly when the team is still on track to be one of the league’s biggest spenders. Combine that with the constellation of baseball and clubhouse factors above and the logic behind this move becomes more clear.
The return is also not a total nothingburger. Rodriguez is a 17-year-old RHP signed by the Athletics for $400K out of Cuba last offseason. He was quite good in his first professional season in the DSL, tossing 15.1 innings of 2.93 ERA ball in the DSL while striking out more than 30% of the batters he faced, working mostly out of the bullpen. There’s already been a velocity jump to the mid-90s here and Rodriguez has the physical traits of a starter (read as: tall and lanky), but the selling point here is his slider; it’s a potentially plus pitch with high spin rates that absolutely falls off the table.
Rodriguez is obviously nowhere near a top-100 prospect, nor would he have appeared on our forthcoming top-25 list. It’s still an interesting lottery ticket plucked out of the DSL though, and sometimes those turn into real valuable pieces.
In the end, this is an unfortunate conclusion to what started as a very fun Met career for Jeff McNeil. He rose from no-name prospect to key contributor for several years and earned an extension that seemed reasonable but ultimately didn’t work out. Moving off of him to clear roster space and reduce (hopefully) the level of clubhouse drama is a logical, if unsatisfying, decision, earning this trade a B.
