On Tuesday night, the SNY broadcast booth of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez got together to once again call a virtual simulation of MLB The Show 20.

When it comes to The Show, Jeff McNeil is no stranger, as he just finished playing the game in the Player’s League this past week. McNeil joined the SNY broadcast midway through the simulated game and gave an entertaining interview talking about things such as his approach to batting second in the lineup and his ability to get ready for the upcoming season.

Here are five things we learned from McNeil through his conversation with Gary, Keith and Ron.

Player’s League Experience

As a way to engage fans during this time without sports, the MLB created the ‘Player’s League’ in which all 30 teams had a representative to play in a head-to-head MLB The Show online league. McNeil played for the Mets and not unlike his work on the real diamond, he fared very well on the virtual field.

McNeil finished the regular season with the fourth-best record in the league at 21-8. In the playoffs, McNeil beat Dwight Smith Jr. in the first round, before losing to the eventual champion Blake Snell in the semifinals.

When Cohen asked McNeil about having to manage the Mets through that league, the All-Star explained how it gave him a newfound respect for mangers.

“It’s not easy. I had to kind of make some decisions… (I have) a lot of respect for the managers in the National League who have to make these decisions all the time.”

Maybe after going through that process of managing the Mets through the Player’s League, McNeil will be a little bit easier on Luis Rojas if he’s ever given an unwanted day off.

Approach to Batting Second

During Keith Hernandez’s career with the Mets, his home in the lineup was often in the three-hole, but in today’s game he would probably bat second.

As an elite contact hitter, Hernandez surely sees the similarities between him and McNeil. Hernandez believes McNeil belongs in the two-hole and asked him about his approach to batting in that spot, particularly with a runner on.

McNeil spoke about how he is usually on top of the plate looking to pull the ball early in the count when there is a runner on. If someone leads off with a double, McNeil can then move him over to third or drive in the run if he gets a pitch he can handle. When he gets two strikes, the approach changes to hitting to all fields.

“I do everything I can to make it 1-0 in the first inning, it’s huge to get that first run.” McNeil said.

Where His Power Came From

Across the first five years that McNeil was in the Mets farm system, he only hit nine home runs. Then in 2018, McNeil developed a power stroke, hitting 19 home runs prior to his promotion to the big leagues and then three more once he got to the show.

In his first full season in 2019, McNeil crushed 23 home runs and was third on the team with 62 extra-base hits. When asked about where that newfound power came from, McNeil credited his bulking up as the reason for improving that part of his game.

“I put on a lot of strength and a lot of size and weight, and I think with that the power numbers jumped.”

When he was drafted, McNeil says that he was no more than 150 pounds. Now the Mets have McNeil listed at 195 lbs. All of that weight surely helps him on the virtual field as well, as the slugger hit two home runs in that simulated game.

How Long Will it Take to Get Ready for the Season

While the MLB has not come out with any concrete reports of when the season will begin, it sure seems like the plan is to get things going in June with a July start date in mind.

Because of the near three-month layoff that will have taken place since the shutdown, the MLB will have to do some form of a truncated spring training to get ready for the new season.

As far as getting ready to play, McNeil expects to receive notice two-to-three weeks ahead of the start of that spring training. He believes that will be plenty of time to get a lot of swings in, and then with a few weeks of spring training he should be ready to go.

“The main thing for me right now is just to keep my body in shape,” McNeil said.

How McNeil is Staying in Shape During Quarantine

After working so hard to put on weight over the past couple of years, McNeil surely does not want to lose all that progress sitting around at home during quarantine.

To keep himself in shape, McNeil said that he has been going to Brandon Nimmo‘s place where they have an at-home gym. Between lifting some weights and staying on a running program, McNeil is keeping himself in good playing shape. Especially considering the difficult circumstances that isolation has presented everyone with.

As far as keeping his bat in shape, McNeil has been going down the road to Tomas Nido‘s house, where he has a net and tee set up to do some light hitting work. McNeil is hoping that the Port St. Lucie facility will be re-opened soon so that they can start taking real batting practice again.

Mets fans have surely enjoyed getting to know their star infielder a little better during this period without baseball. Yet what everyone is looking forward to most is seeing him get back in the box at Citi Field.