Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning, Mets fans!

The St. Louis Cardinals clinched the second Wild Card spot Tuesday night with their 17th straight win–seventeen!!–a 6-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

As much as the Mets hoped to catch up to the Cardinals in the Wild Card race when their series started a couple weeks ago, St. Louis swept the Mets then ripped off 12 more in a row to secure their postseason birth.

The National League playoff bracket getting clearer by the day. After Atlanta beat the Phillies Tuesday, they’re now 3.5 ahead in the NL East with five left to play. They can clinch with two more wins. The Giants and Dodgers will both be in the playoffs, too–just one will be the top seed and the other will play in the one-game playoff at home against the Cardinals.

Now let’s get into the morning briefing.

Latest Mets News

The Mets swept Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Marlins. Read Game 1’s recap here, and Game 2’s recap–featuring a walk-off win–here.

The Mets officially shut down Jacob deGrom for the remainder of the season. He’s fully healthy, Luis Rojas said, and if the Mets were in playoff contention, he’d pitch this weekend in Atlanta. But Rojas said bringing deGrom back to pitch in a game wasn’t “worth it.” DeGrom should be able to go through his normal offseason throwing program and be ready to be the ace once again come 2022 spring training.

Noah Syndergaard, on the other hand, made his return to the Mets two years after his last appearance. He started the game and threw one inning, notching two strikeouts and a ground out on 10 pitches in the process. Syndergaard battled through multiple setbacks when recovering from Tommy John surgery–an elbow ailment, a COVID-19 diagnosis–to come back just before the season ended. He may get one more start before the year is done.

After the game, Syndergaard said he’d be “extremely grateful” for a qualifying offer from the Mets, and he thinks he and the Mets will “reach an agreement and I’ll be pitching here next year.” (H/t The Athletic‘s Tim Britton.)

MLB Pipeline named Francisco Alvarez and Khalil Lee to its second team Prospects of the Year squad. Alvarez was also announced by the Mets as their position player of the year, and Adam Oller was named the team’s pitching developement player of the year.

Latest MLB News

Brandon Belt‘s fractured finger will take about four weeks to heal, according to The Athletic‘s Andrew Baggarly. He noted, though, that Belt will be re-evaluated in a week.

Jameson Taillon left Tuesday’s start for the Yankees with a re-injury to his ankle, it seems. He’d been on the injured list for about three weeks with an ankle issue before coming off to make Tuesday night’s start.

After reports surfaced that Tampa Bay’s ownership was going to advertise their plan to split time between St. Petersburg and Montreal in the future with banners outside of the stadium during the postseason, the Tampa Bay Times‘ Marc Tompkin reports that plan has been nixed. Rays owner Stuart Sternberg called the move “a big mistake” on his part.

The Rays are using the pressure of potentially moving to Montreal–or even splitting time there–as a way to get the city to build them a stadium in Tampa.

The Athletic‘s Andy McCollough wrote about the Brewers’ Brandon Woodruff, tying his postseason home run for the team in 2018 back to 2021, where Woodruff has been one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions detailed Carlos Correa‘s value on offense and defense.

Latest on MMO

John Flanigan recapped Pete Alonso‘s Battle of the Boroughs home run derby competition from Monday.

Rich Sparago previewed the Mets’ penultimate series of the season.

Guest writer Jason Black reminisced on the end of the mid- and late-80s Mets teams, specifically the game that officially closed the book on their championship window on September 27, 1989.

On This Date in Mets History

Happy 29th birthday to current Mets reliever Jake Reed, and happy 44th birthday to former Met reliever Heath Bell!

Let’s go Mets!