Photo By Logan Barer/MMO

Mets minor league infielder Jeff McNeil continued his scorching hot season last night for Triple-A Las Vegas, launching his 19th homer of the campaign while tallying a double and going 3-for-5 overall at the dish.

Since joining Vegas, he has hit to a .398/.452/.677 clip. Sure, he is playing in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, but it’s not a mirage.

Earlier in the year with Double-A Binghamton, the 26-year-old hit .327/.402/.626 with a 1.029 OPS.

Being 26-years-old, McNeil is no spring chicken, but it shouldn’t negate his performance. At points in his pro career, he was hampered by injuries, but is now fully healthy and is raking.

Earlier this week, manager Mickey Callaway said that the reason McNeil wasn’t called up when Todd Frazier landed on the disabled list was because he was strictly a second baseman.

However, the narrative has changed as McNeil has played outside of second in his career, but even more so recently. Callaway even said McNeil could be a “super-utility man,” after he played left field for Vegas last night.

“There’s a lot of guys that think he can be very solid in the outfield, and there’s a lot of our player-development people that think he can be a super-utility guy moving forward because his bat is so good,” Callaway said. “He’s a valuable asset at this point, so we think moving him around is gonna give him the best chance to help us up here and help us be the best team we can possibly be.”

McNeil will likely be promoted after the Mets trade away impending free agent Asdrubal Cabrera, and Callaway now says he is an asset.

“(McNeil) is a valuable asset at this point,” Callaway said. “We think moving him around is going to give him the best chance to help us here and be the best team we can be.

“With the way the season has gone we have to get him playing some different positions, and the way his season has gone, his ability to swing the bat, put together good at-bats, he’s probably earned the right to have a chance up at the big leagues at some point. And for him to have the best possible chance we think him moving around would be valuable.”

For McNeil, only time will tell exactly when he’s going to be called up. At the end of the day though, he has deserved it for awhile.