From the time I am writing this, the Mets just finished up a huge series against the Phillies taking 3 out of 4. They are about to start the biggest series of the year against the Atlanta Braves. This 3 game series could decide the season for the Mets. The Mets currently are tied for the 2nd wild card spot with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but because they have the series tiebreaker over the Diamondbacks, the Mets get the second wild card while the Diamondbacks get the third. Just in front of the Mets is the red-hot Padres. The Padres are up 3 games on the Mets, but if they were to somehow tie by the end of the season, the Mets would have the season tiebreaker over them.
The journey of the Mets this year has been nothing short of incredible. They started this season off 0-5 and at one point were 11 games under .500. When they were at their lowest point only one thing could save them, and that was Grimace. The McDonald’s character had thrown out the first pitch at a game and sparked a winning streak. The season was starting to look alive again. Of course, it was not Grimace who started this incredible stretch of baseball, but the incredible season turnarounds of Fransico Lindor and Brandon Nimmo, along with the return of Francisco Alvarez off of the Injured List along with the breakout of third basemen Mark Vientos. Another one of their biggest spark plugs for this turnaround was calling up veteran infielder Jose Iglesias. His locker room presence, defensive skill, and offensive spark greatly helped the Mets at a time when they were getting little to no production from their second basemen Jeff Mcneil. The biggest thing Iglesias did however was actually off of the field. Before his call-up, Iglesias was struggling to return to the big leagues and he started to take up music. He made a song called, OMG, and this quickly became the Mets anthem. Iglesias uses it as his walk up and the Mets play it when they hit home runs. They developed an OMG sign for the player who hits the homerun and Iglesias even performed the song live after a game against the Houston Astros.
In the wake of Pete Alonso’s down year, many players have stepped up to fill his production and carry the team through an incredible stretch. The most important player for the Mets this year has been Franciso Lindor who had gone from a slow start to a true MVP candidate. Mark Vientos, since his call-up, has made an instant impact and made a great impact on the state of the offense. His emergence may be important as the Mets have been looking for a mainstay at third base for a while. Surprising seasons from pitchers Sean Manea and David Peterson, along with an incredible bounce back from Luis Severino have helped the Mets to have a surprisingly good rotation. The bullpen has sufficed and Edwin Diaz has recently bounced back from his early struggles, locking down the back end of the bullpen.
The good vibes of this team and the fun and exciting players make this team easy to root for and it makes fans hopeful for the playoffs. If the Mets make it in, they can be a surprising team that can go on a run. We have seen runs from past wildcard teams like the Phillies in 2022, and the Diamondbacks in 2023. Maybe this is the year the Mets go on a similar run turning the negative connotation of Mets around.
