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Mets’ Jeff McNeil cleared for baseball activities as potential injury return takes next step

By
Mike Puma
Published Oct. 5, 2024, 5:47 p.m. ET

PHILADELPHIA — Jeff McNeil’s ramp-up for a potential retܫurn in the postseason is about to begin.

The Mets utilityman is scheduled to rejoin the team Sunday, following🌼 the birth of a child, and has been cleare🔯d to resume baseball activities, according to Carlos Mendoza. The manager added that McNeil has already been hitting off a tee.

McNeil spent the final three weeks of the regular season on the injur🌼ed list ✨with a right wrist fracture after he was hit by a pitch.

Jeff McNeil gets hit by a pitch during a Sept. 6 game against the Reds.
Jeff McNeil gets hit by a pitch during a Sept. 6 game against the Reds. Charles Wenzelberg

Mendoza said it’s still unclear if McNeil would be a possibility for a return in the NLCS if tꩲhe Mets were to advance.

“We’re going to put our eyes on him and follow that progression,” Mendoza said before the Mets rallied to beat the Phillies, 6-2, in Game 1 of the NLDS at Citizens Bank Park.

With McNeil sidelined, Jose Iglesias has been the team’s everyday second baseman. Iglesiaꦗs, who got the start at second before moving to third base in🧜 the eighth inning Saturday, was 1-for-4.

The Mets’ eighth-inning rally Saturday made them just the third team in MLB history to win back-to-back pl♎ayoff games when trailing in the eighth inning or later, joining the 1999 Mets squad and the 1980 Phillies.

Jeff McNeil reacts after getting hit by a pitch during a Sept. 6 game against the Reds.
Jeff McNeil reacts after getting hit by a pitch during a Sept. 6 game against the Reds. Charles Wenzelberg

The Mets ha💯d a day off Friday (players were excused from working out) that might have been as welcomed as any all season.

It follow☂ed a stretch in which the Mets traveled from Milwaukee to Atlanta back to Milwaukee with multiple tight turnarounds in playing five games over four day൲s.

Follow The Post’s coverage of the Mets’ playoff run:

“We needed it,” Mendoza said of the day off. “Mentally, physically, we got in late [Thursday] and the high intensity games that we’re playing. It was good for the guys th⛄at they just got to♑ kind of hit the reset button.”

Satu✤rday marked the first time since 2006 that the Mets and Yankees played a postseason game on the sameღ day.

“I don’t know much about football,” Luis Severino said. “But as far as baseball, New Yor🐻k is doing a great job.”

Mendoza, like Severino, has been to the postseason with the Mets and🔴 Yankees.

The Mets manager was a ꧙coach on Aaron Boone’s staff for six seasons.

“It’s a great day,” Mendoza said. “You have got both teams playing𒁃 in October in a city like New York, it should mean a lot.”

Huascar Brazoban and Max 🍸Kranick, who were both active players in the wild-card series, were excluded from the NLDS roster.

Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill were added. Tไhe Mets taxi s🦩quad includes Brazoban, Kranick, Brett Baty, Pablo Reyes, Hayden Senger and McNeil.

Senga was the first pitcher 🍬to start a postseason game after appearing one or fewer times during the season since Virgil Trucks for the Tigers in the 1945 World Series, after he returned from World War II, according to MLB Network statistician Sarah Langs and the Elias Sports Bureau.