Third Grade, Forever
On the last day of third grade, my daughter came home heartbroken — and reminded me just how deep a child’s heart can feel. A small story of grief, comfort, and boba tea.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
How Jeff McNeil Reinvented His Swing — And What That Can Teach All of Us About Growth
Some baseball stories smack you in the face. Others creep up on you so quietly that by the time you notice, the player standing in front of you isn’t the same one you thought you knew.
That’s what’s happening with Jeff McNeil in 2025.
If you haven’t looked lately, McNeil’s OPS is over .900. That’s not a fluke. It’s the product of a player who did something most big leaguers can’t — he changed. Not just a tweak. Not a new bat model. He retooled his entire swing and approach, and it’s working.
The Player McNeil Used to Be
McNeil broke in as an old-school oddity. He won a batting title in 2022 not by hitting bombs but by spraying line drives all over the field. He was the kind of guy pitchers hated to face: slap hits to left, bloops to center, and enough pull contact to keep you honest. In the shift era, he beat it the right way — with barrel control, not brute strength.
But baseball caught up. Velocity went up, breaking balls became the default pitch, and defenses didn’t have to cheat anymore. McNeil’s OPS sagged. His light-contact, put-the-ball-in-play approach was falling out of step with the modern game. He could’ve doubled down on who he was — but he didn’t.
The Hardest Choice in Baseball
Changing your swing at the major league level is brutally hard. You’re messing with instincts honed over decades. You’re risking everything that got you there. And McNeil’s skill wasn’t easy power — it was feel for the barrel. Messing with that could ruin him.
But he went for it anyway.
He started working to pull the ball more, lift it more, and swing harder. He wasn’t chasing home runs, but he needed pitchers to respect that he could drive the ball — not just dink it. The change took a couple of years. He tinkered in 2023, with mixed results. But in 2025, it clicked.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Here’s what’s different about McNeil this year:
Stat | 2022 | 2023 | 2025 |
Pull % | 33.3% | 37.5% | 53.5% |
Fly Ball % | 22.9% | 22.1% | 33.3% |
Barrel % | 2.7% | 1.3% | 6.1% |
Pitches/PA | 3.36 | 3.40 | 3.60 (career high) |
He’s pulling the ball more than half the time now. He’s lifting the ball more. His barrel rate — a key power metric — has doubled from last year.
As his hitting coach Eric Chavez put it:
"Now he’s just rotating his hips better, and the barrel is actually getting through the zone... The sound off his bat has been a lot better."
And here’s the sneaky part: even as he’s swinging harder, he’s showing more patience, seeing more pitches than ever.
McNeil’s own quote sums it up:
"I’ve been trying to swing the bat harder instead of guiding my bat to the ball... You’ve got to have the intent to do damage."
How the Change Happened
The epiphany came in mid-2024. McNeil hit a season-low .216 and saw fewer opportunities in the lineup. In a frank interview, he admitted:
"It wasn’t a good first half for me, so I knew some things needed to change."
That awareness opened the door to experimentation.
McNeil used the All-Star break to recalibrate. He didn’t panic or force changes mid-grind. He waited for the natural pause of the break to step back, reflect, and reset — mentally and physically.
Mindset Lessons from Jeff McNeil’s Reinvention
- Recognize when your toolbox is outdated
Success can cover up creeping problems. McNeil had been an All-Star and batting champ — but he saw that the game had shifted and his old approach wasn’t keeping up.
- Trust your core strengths while evolving
He didn’t throw away his elite barrel control. He built on it — adding pull-side power and lift without sacrificing what made him special.
- Embrace evolution, not revolution
Change works best when it’s iterative. McNeil didn’t blow up his swing overnight. He made small adjustments, tested, learned, and refined — one tweak at a time. Over time, those small shifts compounded into big results. It kept the process manageable — and sustainable.
- Pick the right moments to adapt
He didn’t tinker blindly in the heat of daily games. He used the natural pause of the All-Star break to reset mentally and physically, giving himself the space to make real changes.
- Be patient with the process
The transformation wasn’t instant. It took two years of trial and error. But by sticking with the work — and staying open to learning — McNeil ultimately unlocked a new ceiling.
The Bigger Lesson
You don’t need to be a baseball fan to see what Jeff McNeil’s story is really about.
It’s about the courage to change when the world around you changes.
It’s about being willing to let go of an identity that once served you — even one that brought you success.
It’s about recognizing that winning yesterday’s game won’t guarantee you’ll win tomorrow’s.
We all face this, in every field:
- The business owner who has to adapt as their market shifts.
- The parent who needs to change how they guide a growing child.
- The employee whose job is evolving faster than their skills.
- The athlete whose body no longer moves quite the same way.
Most people cling to what worked before. They double down on familiar patterns. They resist change because change is scary — and if you’ve had success, it’s even scarier.
But real growth comes when you trust that you can carry forward your strengths while building new ones. When you don’t let old success box you in.
That’s what McNeil did. He kept the heart of who he was — elite barrel control — but layered on new dimensions his game needed. He was willing to be uncomfortable, to struggle, and to be patient.
And now? He’s thriving.
A Quick Mindset Checklist — Borrowed from Jeff McNeil
✅ Ask honestly: Is my old playbook still working?
✅ Stay rooted in what I do well — don’t throw it away.
✅ Embrace evolution, not revolution.
✅ Choose the right time and space to make changes.
✅ Be patient with the process — and with myself.
And it starts with the kind of self-awareness I’ve written about here: realizing when what used to work no longer does.
It takes patience — the kind of mindset I wrote about here — to keep working when results don’t come right away.
At some point, we all face this moment: stay the same, or risk becoming something more.
Jeff McNeil’s story is a reminder that change is hard — especially when you’ve already had success. But it’s also a reminder that we’re never stuck. With the right mindset, the right people around us, and the patience to see it through, we can adapt. We can grow. We can surprise even ourselves.
Maybe this is your season to do just that.
“Know what’s enough. Build what matters.”
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