The New York Mets have playoff ambitions in 2019.
New York’s new general manager, Brodie Van Wagenen, has revamped the team and has bolstered many different areas with tons of depth in preparation of contention.
There are going to be a lot of new faces as well. As I project, there will be at least eight or nine players on the 25-man roster on Opening Day who didn’t don blue and orange last year.
They have an established closer and setup man in Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia, respectively, a solid seventh inning man in Justin Wilson, new infielders Robinson Cano and Jed Lowrie, a new backstop in Wilson Ramos and promising young talent in Keon Broxton and J.D. Davis.
All of these players are set to make an impact, as well as the hopes that Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto can build off their 2018 campaigns.
However, the biggest x-factor for the 2019 Mets is going to be Noah Syndergaard.
The Mets saw Jacob deGrom emerge as one of the top talents in the game and capture the Cy Young award in 2018, and Zack Wheeler finally came into his own. Even Steven Matz finished off the year strong.
New York’s rotation is strong in regards to the top four pitchers, but New York needs Noah Syndergaard to go out there every fifth day and dominate like he is more than capable of.
Last year, Syndergaard rebounded from an injury plagued 2017, but still dealt with a couple setbacks throughout the year. He finished the campaign with a 13-4 record, 3.03 ERA and a 2.80 FIP, which is really good. Even still, he is capable of being even more dominant.
A full season from Syndergaard would do wonders for the Mets and would help position them well with a 1,2 punch in the postseason should they make it there.
Plus, if he can pitch like he did again in 2016 where he recorded a 2.29 FIP, the combo of him and deGrom is going to be ultra scary.
Going into 2019, who do you believe the Mets x-factor is?
