October is coming.
The brisk air at Citi Field on Tuesday served as a reminder of what’s near for the Mets as they begin their final and most pivotal month of the regular season. The Amazins’ trailed the Atlanta Braves by just a half of a game in the NL Wild Card standings entering their Tuesday matchup against the Boston Red Sox.
The Mets entered this season with the public consensus being an evaluation year for the organization: they acquired a new manager, a new leader in the front office and plenty of new faces. However, despite the lack of expectations, their president of baseball operations believes his club is exactly where it should be.
“We’re in the thick of it,” said David Stearns. “We’ve earned the right to be here. We’ve played well enough to be here — this isn’t a fluke. We’ve got a month left to play really good baseball to give us a chance to have some fun in October. That’s what you want this time of year. I’m optimistic and I’m confident in this group that we can continue to play at a really high level…
“This is where we should be. This should be normal for us. When we get to September, we should be in the thick of a playoff hunt and our responsibility now is to put our players and our coaches in the best possible position to succeed. And we try to do that throughout the course of the year and certainly, it gets accentuated when you get to September and October.”
The Mets have had somewhat surprising contributors across the diamond. However, they are also enjoying a career season from their leader. Francisco Lindor entered Tuesday slashing .271/.342/.493 with 29 homers, 81 RBI and 25 stolen bases.
The 30-year-old ranks first in the National League and fourth in baseball in fWAR (7.0), making a compelling case for the league’s MVP award.
“[The most valuable player] looks like the guy that runs out to shortstop at 7 o’clock,” Stearns said. “It’s been an unbelievable season to watch. We’re getting to the point where we’re talking about perhaps the greatest individual position player season in the history of this franchise. I’ve been around some really special seasons. I’ve been around some MVP seasons, this is right up there with anything I’ve seen on a day-to-day basis.”
As the star of the team, Lindor’s success was somewhat expected unlike the performances Carlos Mendoza’s squad has seen on the mound. Sean Manaea, David Peterson and Luis Severino have each experienced career seasons in their own right.
Manaea (3.35 ERA in 27 starts) and Peterson (2.83 ERA in 16 starts) have put up the best numbers of their careers while Severino’s 159.1 innings are the most he’s thrown since his All-Star campaign in 2018.
“I think guys have just gotten better and stronger throughout the season,” Stearns said about the performance from their arms. “That’s a really good sign both in terms of work that they’ve put in to get to this point and also the quality of coaching that’s gone into it and working with them and really this is what should happen.
“Working with guys, begin to build that trust factor, begin to have the constant back and forth over a six-seven-eight month period. And ultimately hopefully get to places where players improve and get better and trust our organization, trust our coaches and I think we’ve seen that in a couple of instances and we’ve got guys who have worked really hard who are now performing at a really high level.”
After the final out on Tuesday night, the Mets will have just 23 games remaining on the season. And similarly to 2022, their postseason fate could be determined during their second to last series of the season from Sept. 24-26:
Three games at Truist Park against the Atlanta Braves.
NUNEZ UPDATE
Mendoza told reporters on Tuesday that there are currently no plans for Dedniel Nunez to undergo imaging on his throwing arm and will take the remainder of the homestand to evaluate his injury.
