Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Mets entered the trickiest portion of their regular-season schedule to this point over the weekend by visiting the San Diego Padres for four games. Splitting this series says a lot about this squad, especially since they’re still limited by an incredible number of injuries to impact players.

This test isn’t over yet — after a short two-game set in Baltimore against the Orioles, they’ll head home to face the Padres again before welcoming the Chicago Cubs to Citi Field. Managing to pull even with San Diego after losing the first two games is a huge boost of confidence for a club that’s likely already brimming with it based on what they’ve done to date.

New York enters Monday’s off-day with a 29-23 record. That’s good for a 3.5-game lead in the National League East standings. They’re not only the sole NL East club with a winning record, but they’re also the only one with a positive run differential at the moment (+11). After Sunday’s 6-2 victory at Petco Park, Marcus Stroman — who got the win after tossing 6.2 innings of one-run ball — said the following during his post-game press conference:

I mean, it’s nearly impossible to not think the same thing, right? And, if they’re able to do what they’ve done with more than a dozen players on the injured list, who knows what they’ll be capable of when even a small handful of them come back. What struck me more from this particular tweet, though, was the reference about New York putting together a “complete team effort” to salvage a split in San Diego.

Stroman’s thoughts on this are completely accurate, but it’s hard for me to not drift off and just think about how this club has been doing this for the majority of the season. There hasn’t really been a single time where everything — the rotation, the bullpen, and the offense — has been firing on all cylinders for a prolonged period.

This team wouldn’t be anywhere near its current level without the incredible performance from the entire pitching staff. It’s helpful when the staff is anchored by Jacob deGrom doing G.O.A.T. things every five days, but he’s also setting the tone for everyone else. The rotation’s cumulative fWAR of 6.5 ranks sixth in baseball, and the five teams ahead of them have all accumulated at least 311 total innings (the Mets are at 258.2). New York’s 3.3 bullpen fWAR is atop the league’s leaderboard, despite their 184.2 innings pitched ranking as the second-fewest in baseball.

With all that said, the biggest wild card of all has been the offense and the position-player side of things. Just looking at the Mets’ position-player fWAR leaderboard is a sight to behold. About two months into the regular season, a staggering 21 different players have registered some kind of fWAR in 20-plus plate appearances for New York. What’s just as staggering, though, is that of those 21 players, only three have posted a negative fWAR. And, if we take out Taijuan Walker since he’s, you know, a pitcher, that leaves just Cameron Maybin and Albert Almora Jr. If we take out Stroman and Brandon Drury (who both have 0.0 fWAR in this instance), there are 16 other Mets players with a positive fWAR.

Then, of course, it gets even more fun to see where certain players are currently occupying a spot on the team fWAR leaderboard. It immediately gets interesting with the top two, as Brandon Nimmo and Tomas Nido are tied for the team lead with 0.8. Nido has been fantastic with an opportunity to play more often, while Nimmo had a fantastic start to the year. But then again, let’s not forget that the last time Nimmo appeared in a game was May 2.

There’s a three-way tie behind those two, with two expected names and one we wouldn’t have expected to be there back on Opening Day: Jonathan Villar, J.D. Davis, and Francisco Lindor. Originally signed to provide depth, Villar has essentially become an everyday player while so many starters are on the sideline, and he’s been up to the task. His stats won’t jump off the page, but his value speaks for itself: he’s scored 21 runs and has posted a 110 wRC+ on his way to 0.7 fWAR in 155 plate appearances. It’s nice to see Lindor creeping up these leaderboards with his bat coming alive recently, and again, while it’s not surprising to see Davis here, he hasn’t appeared in a game since May 1.

Probably the best example of everybody doing a little bit to chip in is what deGrom has done at the plate. He’s slashing .391/.391/.435 in 23 plate appearances and has been worth 0.4 fWAR as a hitter this year. That fWAR is the same as Pete Alonso, and better than guys like Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto, and James McCann.

What else can you say about this? The only thing that comes to mind is, “That’s baseball, baby.” Hearing ballplayers talking about putting together a “complete team effort” is usually a cliché and a half, but it’s so true for the Mets. The pitching staff has done a lot of the heavy lifting, and although the offense hasn’t produced like we thought it would thus far, there are so many players doing a little bit that when put together collectively, it’s making a difference.

We all know it takes a full roster of dudes in order for a team to be successful, and despite all of the unfortunate injury news that’s been dealt with in Queens, they’ve found a way to make it work. If this doesn’t give the inkling that something special is going on with this club, then I don’t know what does. Let’s hope they continue riding this wave and building upon the momentum that’s already there.