The Mets find themselves 2 games back of Atlanta for the 3rd and final NL Wildcard spot heading into their opening game against the visiting Orioles this Monday. With Atlanta facing injury issues and the Mets visiting two Padres and Diamondbacks teams that seem to finally be coming back down to Earth, this stretch has a very good chance of deciding the Mets chances to play October baseball. While each series will have it’s own key areas of focus, what do the Mets need to do collectively over the next couple of weeks in order to be playing meaningful baseball in September?

1. The Bullpen, That’s It

Anybody wanna step up? Garret? Stanek? Brazoban? It’s no secret that having a strong, deep bullpen has become arguably the most important part of finding your way into October in more recent seasons. The Mets at the moment, don’t particularly have a ton of trustworthy options and Carlos Mendoza has continually been trying to find something that fits all season. Jose Butto seems like the only guy that brings a sigh of relief when seen warming up rather than one of disappointment. While Carlos Mendoza has mentioned that Dedniel Nunez may only need one rehab outing (He knows the severity of the situation) before returning, he only is not going to save this Mets bullpen. It feels like we haven’t seen much of Edwin Diaz at all recent due to matter of circumstance, but the Mets will certainly need him to be shutdown 2022 Diaz the rest of the way in order to avoid as many late game losses as possible. Even if Butto and Nunez are both healthy and thriving, they can’t be your guys every night in order to get to Diaz, and somebody else needs to be accountable. Adam Ottavino shouldn’t be on the roster anymore, so he’s already out of the picture in terms of my circle of trust. I actually think Reed Garret is a perfectly serviceable middle innings reliever, but the Mets need to stop treating him like he’s a late game option because of his early season success, he isn’t. Danny Young is there, I don’t have a lot more to say on the subject he’s not a late innings guy. So that brings us to all the trade acquisitions, Stanek, Maton, and Brazoban. Phil Maton has actually been a lot better than you may have noticed as a Met, he’s got a 1.84 ERA in 15 appearances so far for the club. He’s personally the member of this group I trust the most going into games late on nights where Nunez and Butto are unavailable. Stanek has been absolutely poor as a Met with an ERA above 10, and his struggles this season in both Seattle and Flushing, the 2 most pitcher friendly ballparks in baseball is cause for concern. As for Brazoban, the 34 year old has only played for Miami throughout his career, and while they did make the playoffs as a wildcard team last season, he seems like someone who is going to need time to the pressure of pitching in New York. Especially when the Mets are hotly pursuing a playoff spot.

2. Can the Rotation Provide Steady Outings of 6 IP or more?

With Luis Severino coming off of a brilliant complete game shutout against the Miami Marlins, Sean Manaea’s extremely impressive start against Oakland and Paul Blackburn being quite strong in his Mets outings outside of the game against his old club, this rotation may not look elite, but it’s got the legs to make this run doable. While fans wonder if Brandon Sproat might recieve a September call-up when rosters expand, the guys that are there now are going to have to keep the ship steady until then for that to even be a possibility. The key question for this Mets rotation is length. Every single member of the rotation has shown at one point or another during the season that they are capable of high quality outings, but with walks and pitch counts being an issue, and an extremely shaky bullpen, can these guys step up and get further into games here late on in the season? While Luis Severino was absolutely brilliant his last time out, I am worried about fatigue becoming an issue given that he’s pitched by far his most innings in a season since 2018. Manaea is a really quality starting pitcher when he trusts his stuff, and if he can limit the walks he’s shown the ability to get deeper into games than what we saw early in the season. David Peterson if you would believe it or not has the best ERA+ of any Mets starter this season, but there seems to be a lack of trust letting him work late into games, and is another guy who really struggles with the walks. Paul Blackburn and Jose Quintana are both solid vets who don’t need to put up jaw dropping numbers, but simply do enough to keep the Mets in ballgames and giving the bullpen some room to work by getting through more than 5 innings.

3. Can Winker find his Swing While Nimmo Recovers?

Thankfully Brandon Nimmo is currently only listed as day to day with his injury, but even when he returns, the Mets certainly hope their offensive trade deadline acquisition starts to pay off. I stated in my previous article that I’ve liked Winkers at bats with the ballclub thus far, even if the numbers aren’t quite there yet. However I was happy with Daniel Vogelbach’s at bats in 2022, and outside of his first couple of weeks with the club, that never translated to success. The reality is the Mets didn’t bring in Winker to be a less effective Jose Iglesias, a guy with a great winning attitude and energy who only ever hits singles. Winker doesn’t need to hit tanks to be effective, they just need him to pick up the slack with the extra base hits, particularly with JD Martinez, Francisco Alvarez and Brandon Nimmo struggling in that department as of recently. On the topic of Mets outfielders…

4. How Effective can Starling Marte be?

The Mets are already substituting defense for offense with Jesse Winker out in right field, and with Marte being an even worse fielder (although having an impressive arm) they need the both of them to be strong at the dish. Marte previous to his injury had shown flashes of the guy that we saw back in 2022. And the Mets are desperately going to need that in their lineup in order to make this final push. I expect the outfield alignment to be McNeil, Bader, and then Marte/Winker platooning out in right while Nimmo is out. While McNeil is a serviceable outfielder, it’s no secret that outside of Bader (who has been awful at this dish) the Mets outfield defense would certainly be a weak spot in this alignment. While nobody wants the Winker trade to be a waste, the reality is if Starling Marte can do his thing, nobody will be upset with him being the primary right fielder the rest of the season. The point to be made though however, is both Winker and Marte are guys you have in there for their offense. One of them is going to have to step up, and with Marte aging and coming off yet another injury, and Winker swinging with what appears to be a wiffleball bat at the moment, does anyone really want to rely on a McNeil, Bader, Taylor outfield in the middle of a major playoff race?

5. Don’t lose to the White Sox, Very Tall Ask I Know

The Mets for quite a few seasons now have had this frustrating habit of playing to their opponents level. With an embarrassing series loss to Oakland and a disappointing series finale vs Miami on Sunday, the Mets have to make sure they take care of business against the pitiful White Sox in Chicago. While the Mets schedule in September is not unbearable, there are very few “They’re clearly the better team” series left on the schedule. You cannot waste a single game against teams who’s seasons are already over. The key for this Mets team as much as anything down the stretch will be taking care of the teams that you’d expect them to beat, and keeping the ship steady against the teams that could cause them problems.

Thank you as always for reading, I plan on doing separate series previews for The Mets upcoming series against San Diego and Arizona, please let me know if you enjoy them and I may consider doing series previews for each remaining series this season. Have a good one folks, and Let’s Go Mets!