The most recent decade of New York Mets baseball had its fair share of exciting times. There were also a ton of frustrating moments that led to some disappointment — like the years-long rebuild that took place, all of the Tommy John surgeries, and everything else in between.
Instead of thinking about all of that stuff, I wanted to focus more on the three years that yielded some exciting games and winning records in Flushing: 2015, 2016, and 2019. Obviously, the first two years mentioned ended up being more exciting by most standards since they included the playoffs. Even though this past year’s squad dealt with some underperforming at different times throughout the season, they finished 2019 just three games out of the second National League wild-card spot, making them the first NL team out of the race.
This team, led by dudes like Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, and Jacob deGrom, did some cool things as a unit, and there are a couple that immediately come to mind: their general success at home and an exciting second-half surge.
New York posted a 48-33 record at Citi Field last year, which sussed out to a .593 winning percentage. Both the number of victories and the winning percentage were the second-best marks of the decade for the organization, with 2015 coming in just slightly better (49-32 record, .605 winning percentage). Their 46-26 record and .639 winning percentage in the second half was easily the best post-All-Star break by a Mets club all decade, though.
It’s interesting to watch from the pure perspective of numbers because New York’s monthly winning percentage consistently went down between March and June before shooting back up and maintaining over the final three months (.667, .500, .464, .357, .636, .607, .630).
The 2019 squad is the most extreme version of treading water (or worse) in the first half before kicking into another gear following the midsummer classic. However, it’s a common theme when looking back at how the Mets finished out the regular season in both 2015 and 2016.
Of course, we remember the terrific start New York got off to in 2015, finishing April with a 15-8 record. We also remember how they basically treaded water from the start of May until the non-waiver trade deadline — they posted a 38-42 record before midseason acquisition version of Yoenis Cespedes showed up on August 1st to completely transform the landscape of New York’s offense. Manager Terry Collins watched his squad finish the year with a 37-22 record prior to reaching the World Series that October, mostly powered by a 20-8 month of August that changed everything.
In 2016, the second-half surge started a later and was more pronounced in order to get New York the opportunity to host the NL wild-card play-in game against the San Francisco Giants. At the end of the day on August 18th, the Mets were only 4.5 games out of the wild card but hardly looked like a playoff team with a 60-61 record. Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera were activated from the injured list the following day, and Collins then watched his players go on a 27-14 tear en route to punching a ticket to the postseason. Most of the damage happened in September thanks to a 17-10 performance.
Although what the 2019 Mets did in the second half was rather remarkable, it wasn’t totally out of place when looking at Mickey Callaway‘s club in 2018, too. They completely squandered a franchise-best start by going 15-39 in May and June, but they bounced back with a 45-37 record from June through the end of the regular season. This was punctuated by an 18-10 performance in September.
There’s obviously no singular formula any big-league team will need to follow from a performance standard to reach the postseason — especially whenever the 2020 season finally gets underway. A shortened schedule could make one believe that a strong start is even more important than it would be in a normal circumstance, but in all honesty, every single game will hold increased importance.
Once teams can re-start preparing for the regular season, it’ll be imperative for the Mets to get themselves clicking on all cylinders as quickly as possible for all the obvious reasons. However, seeing them go on last summer’s prolonged surge is encouraging because we’ve at least seen that a performance that’s technically now in their range of outcomes.
And if recent history has told us anything, watching New York complete the regular season with a record above .500 could very well also include another above-average finish to the abbreviated schedule.
