I think it feels that way but he was injured one year too. And then he came up with pretty much no fanfare and seemed like The Met's almost wanted to keep him buried.I may be wrong on McNeil, but not in most cases. At the end of the day the Mets operate like a small market team counting every penny even the ones in the future. You get what you pay for.
On the other hand, when you look at his 3 full minor league season, he did not need almost 2000 AB's to prove himself. Dude has been a hitting machine.