Hitting coach believes McNeil has looked like the 2022 breakout version of himself

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — There haven’t been the Grapefruit League atbats to verify early-season strides for Jeff McNeil. He’s encountered the different hurdles that a partially torn left UCL and left biceps soreness create, and in recent days, that meant only a gradual hitting progression. Dry swings. Tee work. Batting practice, too.

But to Mets hitting coach Jeremy Barnes, the second baseman has looked “like Jeff McNeil right now in a good way.” That’d mean work from the Mets — and McNeil — across the past 10 months has started to pay off. It’d mean McNeil has inched closer to erasing the slide in his swing, to staying on top of the ball longer and, most importantly, to slashing line drives around the middle infielders, which helped unlock his 2022 breakthrough.

“He knows that, and that was the secret sauce for him in 2022,” Barnes told The Post about McNeil’s line drives before the Mets faced the Nationals on Tuesday at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches.

That’s what his production will revolve around after he returns. Barnes said McNeil hit more fly balls and pop-ups last year, and especially at Citi Field, those can be “tough” for manufacturing hits. McNeil’s line drive percentage dipped from 23.8 in 2022 to a career-low 20.1 last year, according to FanGraphs. His fly ball percentage rose from 35.0 to a career-high 38.2, respectively.

His exit velocity was up, Barnes said, which marked a development, but the vintage McNeil at-bats — where he threaded contact over the head of the shortstop or the second baseman — mostly disappeared.

McNeil regressed into a shell of the player that won the National League batting title on a postseason team. He hit .326 in 2022. Produced

an .836 OPS. There were nine homers — the occasional bursts of power than any hitting coach and any team will take from a player that doesn’t necessarily need to produce them — and 62 RBIs, but most importantly, McNeil was a threat to get on base.

Instead of navigating a traditional spring to rediscover those results, though, McNeil’s camp has been abbreviated. He paused hitting March 2, and just Saturday, he started taking dry swings and hitting off a tee. That turned into batting practice Tuesday. Eventually, it’ll become Grapefruit League games before camp breaks at the end of the month.

So his in-game cameos have occurred on the back fields at Clover Park. McNeil started by playing defense and running, and Monday, he bunted during at-bats in the game — just so he could start tracking pitches again in that setting, manager Carlos Mendoza said.

“Another positive day, moving in the right direction and all good,” Mendoza said Monday.

His average hovered at .302 after a May 1 doubleheader against the Braves, but it cratered until it reached .246 by the middle of July. There were still flashes, especially leading up to his UCL injury, when he hit .303 after Aug. 1 and compiled a .809 OPS.

Those numbers, Barnes trusts, will return. The swing looked “really good” Tuesday when he took regular batting practice, and the Mets will continue to ramp up his recovery until it culminates with full games and no restrictions.

At this point, until that happens and even after it does, an important element of McNeil’s return revolves around his elbow. Barnes and the Mets didn’t need to change anything because of the UCL injury or the biceps discomfort. And they want to make sure that the injury doesn’t force them to make unnecessary pivots in order to protect it — “the last thing you want to do is feel like you have to alter your swing to stay out of pain,” Barnes said.

So it’ll take time for McNeil’s results to actually translate over to games. That might happen in the Grapefruit League. Might take until the regular season even.

The early signs of McNeil’s hitting revival, though, have already been evident to those who’ve witnessed his behind-the-scenes spring.