Sandy Alderson spoke with Mike Puma of the New York Post Thursday as he readies for the opening of the second half of the season. He candidly advised Puma that he believes what the New York Mets have is currently a playoff caliber team as-is.
“I still expect us to be a playoff team,” Alderson said. “I know we’ve had some injuries, but I don’t see any reason at this point why we can’t overcome those, so the expectations haven’t changed.”
In what has been an injury riddled season, the Mets still currently stand with a grasp on the second spot for the Wild Card as they are tied with the Miami Marlins at a record of 47-41. They currently stand six games behind first place Washington for the NL East lead.
The list of injuries for the team includes an All-Star array of talent with David Wright and Matt Harvey lost for the season. Lucas Duda still on the mend and has yet to start a rehab assignment. Zack Wheeler still has yet to start his rehab assignment. Travis d’Arnaud has missed significant time. There are no current guarantees of the health of both Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard. The team though has stayed strong.
Sandy Alderson has previously said that the pieces are all here and no high impact player would be obtained this year. There will be no Yoenis Cespedes type deal this year. Alderson has gone on to state that the bullpen will look to be an area of focus as the August 1st trade deadline approaches.
“As a practical matter it’s probably more likely we are able to obtain help there than any other areas,” Alderson said. “Part of the issue is making sure we have somebody legitimate in the seventh inning. [Addison] Reed and [Jeurys] Familia obviously have been very good.”
Alderson believes the Mets have everything they need in the clubhouse currently to succeed. Better situational hitting would have and could result in more wins. It is an area the team will need to get better in for success to come their way.
“If you look at it overall, if we had hit a little better with runners in scoring position we would have improved our standing quite a bit,” Alderson said. “You look at it more in terms of the last week or 10 days, we were up and down.
“If you look at our record, we actually played as well against the good teams as we have against the poor teams. We need to play better against the lesser teams.”
The Mets will open up the second half of their season tonight in Philadelphia with All-Star pitcher, Bartolo Colon (7-4, 3.28 ERA) taking the mound for the team. He will be opposed by Phillies starter, Jeremy Hellickson (6-6, 3.92 ERA).
