What's at stake for Mets with Atlanta in rearview?

October 3rd, 2022

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It may not feel like much of a consolation after the crushing sweep in Atlanta over the weekend, but let’s not forget the Mets will still be playing postseason baseball, possibly as soon as Friday at Citi Field.

There’s also still a chance they could claim their first NL East title since 2015 -- and the coveted first-round bye that comes with it -- but that’s a longshot after three straight losses against the Braves. Now, the only way the Mets can win the division crown is to sweep the Nationals at Citi Field and have the Marlins sweep the Braves in Miami.

“Our guys have answered a lot of challenges, and will again,” manager Buck Showalter said. “They're going to get a chance to roll the dice in October, regardless. If I know these guys, they'll feed off these last three days and be better as a result of it.”

At this point, the most likely outcome is New York enters the postseason as the top NL Wild Card team.

So, what would that mean for the club?

For starters, the Mets would host a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series, with Game 1 slated for Friday at Citi Field. They would face the No. 5 seed in the NL, which is currently the Padres, though San Diego holds just a one-game lead over the Phillies for that spot (and Philadelphia owns the tiebreaker over the Friars).

As for New York’s pitching plans this week, it will start Carlos Carrasco on Monday and Taijuan Walker on Tuesday -- each of whom flew to New York ahead of Sunday’s finale in Atlanta. They have not named a starter for Wednesday, which would be Jacob deGrom’s turn in the rotation, but it seems unlikely deGrom makes that start, regardless of how the next two days play out.

If the Braves clinch the division on either Monday or Tuesday, the Mets would obviously save deGrom -- who has been dealing with a blister issue on his right middle finger -- to start one of the first two games in the NL Wild Card Series, with Max Scherzer starting the other.

But even if the division is still in question come Wednesday, it’s hard to envision the Mets using deGrom. After all, even if he leads the Mets to a win, it doesn’t guarantee they win the division since the Braves could still clinch with a win of their own in Miami -- and deGrom would be taken out of the equation for the NL Wild Card Series, unless he pitches an if-necessary Game 3 on short rest on Sunday.

As helpful as a first-round bye may be, the Mets will have to ask themselves if it’s worth risking deGrom’s availability for an entire potential NL Wild Card Series in a situation where they wouldn’t even control their own fate.