Mets COO Jeff Wilpon spoke with Mike Lupica of ESPN New York 98.7 FM and told him that he expects the club to be in the mix for a Wild Card this year.
“My expectation is that we improve on last year. In our last 100 games we played at .500 and if we can do that this year and we get to mid-August and September, the Mets will be right in the mix to get one of those wild cards.”
Wilpon says the plan is to stick with Sandy Alderson’s long-term plan, and but believes the Mets will be fine without Matt Harvey because of the pipeline of young arms on the way.
“We did get hit with Matt Harvey, but our plan is still in place. We still have a pipeline of young power arms that are coming. A bunch of them people know about, but some others they don’t know about. But there are many good pitchers that are in the system that we have stockpiled. We can’t replace Matt Harvey, but we can stem the gap until he returns, hopefully as good as he was before.”
“We believe in Sandy’s plan. We believe where we’re going. We believe that we have young guys that are going to step up. It’s not like we are relying on one player who we hope does it, we have a bunch of guys. Hope isn’t the best business plan, but that’s where we are right now.”
Wilpon thinks Travis d’Arnaud could be good if he just learns to exhale and know that the catching job is his, and he loves many of the young players expected to make the roster and rattled off about a dozen names.
“Things are looking up and Mets fans should be excited to come see some of these young guys perform because they have something to play for. Come out and root these young guys on”
Wilpon deflected questions about signing Stephen Drew and where the Mets were financially, but expects this team to play meaningful games in September with or without Drew.
