Sandy Alderson spoke to season ticket holders during an on field Q&A session Sunday.
“If we get the pitching together and start playing up to our potential, I think we can make a run to the end,” Alderson said. “We did it last year, and I don’t see why we can’t do it again.”
Fangraphs gives the Mets a 15.8% chance of making the playoffs. To quote Jim Carrey, “So you’re saying there’s a chance?” Yes, Jim, I am.
I agree with Alderson. The Mets are without a great many of their core players. They are getting three of them back very soon with Seth Lugo and Steven Matz already scheduled to make starts and Yoenis Cespedes nearing a return. Later in the year Noah Syndergaard will return, and if his rehab goes well, Jeurys Familia will anchor the bullpen at the very end of the season.
With Lugo and Matz returning, the Mets offense is starting to pick up. Over the past two weeks, Lucas Duda has hit .383/.442/.872 with five doubles, six homers, and 14 RBI. In the same time frame, Flores is hitting .355/.394/.581 with two doubles, two homers, and six RBI, and is hitting righties as well as lefties. Since May 1st, Neil Walker has hit .314/.377/.551 with nine doubles, two triples, five homers, and 21 RBI during that span.
We all remember what happened just last season, when an injury-riddled team valiantly battled their way to a Wild Card berth. If they didn’t have to face Madison Bumgarner in the playoffs, who knows how far they would have gotten. This is the same team that made it to the playoffs last season, and both Alderson and I believe they can do it again.
This team has potential, but that’s all it is right now – potential. To put it in physics terms, they are a rocket geared to blast off. Many things have gone wrong to delay takeoff, but those broken pieces are getting fixed and put back into place. Getting Lugo, Matz, and Cespedes back could unleash that rocket’s potential energy and allow it to blast off, but getting Syndergaard back later in the year and perhaps getting a piece or two at the trade deadline could provide enough force to escape Earth’s gravity and propel the Mets to the World Series.
