Mets 2018 Preview: Rising Apple’s Season Predictions

With Opening Day on Thursday, the Rising Apple staff is sharing their predictions for the Mets 2018 season.

JT. Teran, Editor

This season will be a complete and total contrast from the disaster that was 2017. Last year, Mets fans were expecting another trip to the postseason after back-to-back appearances, and we were quickly reminded how cruel baseball can be. This year, no one is going into the season expecting to win, and that’s actually a positive for this team.

The guys are coming out of Spring Training healthier than in seasons past. None of their pitchers are hurting (Jason Vargas is out, but shouldn’t be sidelined too long) and their only injured hitter, Michael Conforto, is progressing a lot better than we were expecting. Things are looking up as the season gets underway.

How well 2018 goes completely depends on how healthy they can stay though. And for the most part, I think the Mets will be able to stay on the field long enough to win a good amount of games.

The biggest problem for the Mets, however, is going to be the fact that a few teams in the National League got better, so competition for the postseason will be fierce.

In the East, the Washington Nationals are still the powerhouse we all know. However, 2018 is probably not a two-team race anymore. The Philadelphia Phillies made a good number of splashes this offseason and with the addition of Jake Arrieta, they may be able to win some games. I don’t think they’ll challenge the Nats for the crown, but they’ll be annoying enough to get us all mad.

Aside from them, the Colorado Rockies, and Milwaukee Brewers will also be making a run at the Wild Card. As much as I’d love to see the Mets win the NL East, I think the Wild Card will be more attainable this year.

I have the Mets winning 87 games and playing the Rockies in Denver for the Wild Card game in October. After winning that contest, they’ll unfortunately lose to the eventual National League Champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS.

As far as players go, I’m still sticking with my Matt Harvey wins the Comeback Player of the Year award prediction. I also think we’ll have four representatives in the All-Star Game this season (Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes).

I’m hopeful that Adrian Gonzalez is no longer a thing by May but something tells me he’ll stick around most, if not the entire season, unfortunately.

This year is going to be fun. I want another summer full of Asdrubal Cabrera bat flips, Thor strikeouts and Yo bombs. I really hope we get that again in 2018.