Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

In case you’ve somehow missed it, the New York Mets have been playing a little shorthanded lately. To properly put the number of injuries manager Luis Rojas‘ squad has sustained so far this year — and especially over the past week or so — here’s a quick list of who is currently on the injured list. Grab a Snickers, it’s gonna be a while to get through it all:

That’s… a lot of dudes. Oh — this doesn’t include Taijuan Walker, who just hit the IL on Wednesday afternoon. And as we can see, min0r league players aren’t immune to this injury bug, as top prospects Matt Allan and Pete Crow-Armstrong are both going under the knife.

Having Jacob deGrom get placed on the injured list on May 11 wasn’t at all fun to watch, but knowing he’d likely be back quickly was comforting. Plus, the Mets were winning, and everything is a little easier to deal with when the team is experiencing success. New York had won five in a row at that point and was about to sweep the Baltimore Orioles before heading to Tampa Bay to face the Rays.

And as we all saw it play out, that three-game series was certainly one to forget. The real gut punch came in the finale last Sunday. Not only did the Mets lose another non-competitive game en route to getting swept, but an inconsistent offense also lost both Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil within a matter of innings.

I’d say the Mets were figuratively limping into their series opener on Monday against the Atlanta Braves, but it’s likely they were literally doing so, too. Even with putting a lineup out there that barely resembles the one we saw on Opening Day, this resilient squad managed to two of three from the Braves — and they had a chance to sweep — before getting a much-needed breather on Thursday as they prepare to face the Miami Marlins.

Even with all these injuries, it’s not like there’s nobody left on this roster that can temporarily carry the offense upon getting hot at the plate. In Tuesday’s 4-3 win over Atlanta, there was a sequence in the top of the sixth inning that caught my eye because it included the three players I have in mind: Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Dominic Smith.

It was far from the most flashy way to score a run, but it was nice to see each of these three do a job consecutively to extend the Mets’ lead at that juncture in the game.

Smith, Lindor, and Alonso have all been positive contributors at some point this season, but it hasn’t been nearly as frequent as anyone would like (including them). Through 443 combined plate appearances, these three have posted just a 0.5 fWAR. Strictly looking at offense, Alonso’s 117 wRC+ is the only one above 80 so far this season.

As teammates start getting healthy and returning — or the Mets make moves to bring in more healthy bodies — these three won’t have to continually carry the offensive load. But right now? It’d be awfully helpful if they did. They’ve all shown an ability to do so in the past (regardless of how long or short those flashes were), so we know it’s there. The task at hand is to try and ignite at least one of them to get the fire going.

This is why the Mets overhauled the 40-man roster so much during this past winter — they were built for this level of adversity. OK, well, kind of — no team is really built to withstand this many injuries for a prolonged period of time. But still, we’ve seen those under-the-radar depth signings come in handy during the early portion of the season, specifically thinking about the contributions made by Walker, Kevin Pillar, and Jonathan Villar. Heck, did anyone expect Jose Peraza to be the first Mets hitter to slug a three-run homer this season? In the middle of May? No, I don’t think so.

As a Twitter user pointed out, this is the beauty of having an owner willing to spend like a team that plays in a big market. The front office is looking for reinforcements for the time being — beyond acquiring Cameron Maybin, of course — and hopefully, some of those on the injured list will return in short order. The first one for the offense looks like it’ll be J.D. Davis, who just started his rehab assignment in Triple-A Syracuse Tuesday night.

The point, though, is that while the Mets are extremely shorthanded and thin from a depth perspective because of all the injuries the roster has suffered, there’s still some top-shelf talent healthy and getting penciled into the lineup every night. Great teams find a way to get the job done when they’re not playing with a full deck. New York accomplished that in Atlanta, and even as players start to slowly get healthy, it’s not going to take away from the fact that Alonso, Lindor, and Smith need to be the backbone of this lineup.

The first portion of this season hasn’t at all gone how any of them were hoping from an individual standpoint — especially when looking at their performance on a season-long basis. However, now is always a good time to get hot. We know these three can do plenty to keep the offense afloat while they’re not at 100%, and it’ll be great to start seeing that happen.