Mets NL East Sunday Battleground: 2021 season predictions

The National League East projects to be one of, if not the hardest division to win in all of baseball. Legitimate cases can be made for all five teams to make the playoffs. In each of the last three seasons, the Braves have won the National League East with relative ease. However, PECOTA and FanGraphs project a new division winner in 2021, the New York Mets.

The Mets are much improved with the additions they made this past offseason and should be really good. Francisco Lindor is a superstar and Jacob deGrom will win his third Cy Young Award this year. They have a loaded lineup and a much-improved pitching staff. With all of these improvements in place, I still can’t pick them to win this division.

The Braves are too much to overcome for the Mets

With a really good lineup last season, the Mets went 26-34. A combination of a lack of clutch hitting, horrible defense, and an awful rotation really cost them. The upgrades they made this offseason with James McCann, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor May, and others really make this team interesting.

They certainly have the firepower to win their first division title since 2015 but will that actually happen? This team has had pretty high expectations for a while and hasn’t met them. I do believe this year will be different and they will be really good.

The Mets will begin the year without Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco, and Seth Lugo. For a team that’s question mark is pitching, they will need to show that the depth Sandy Alderson brought in is improved. The Taijuan Walker signing is proving to be needed but they will have to rely upon guys like Dellin Betances and Jeurys Familia to play a big role in the bullpen at least until Lugo comes back and I don’t have a great feeling about how that will turn out.

The Mets will need their entire staff to step up to offset the injuries that have taken place.

The Mets will be a very fun watch and should be really good. I have them making the playoffs but as a Wild Card team.

Record: 92-70

Braves

The Braves have won the division in each of the last three seasons and I don’t think I have a reason to not pick them to win it again this year. They were one win away from a World Series berth last season and in my opinion, they improved. They have the reigning National League MVP Freddie Freeman leading the way along with guys like Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, and Marcell Ozuna to lead an offense that will be just as good if not better than the Mets.

The Braves’ weakness in the past has been their starting pitching. That certainly is not a weakness anymore. They signed Charlie Morton to a one-year $15 million dollar deal this past offseason to join young studs Max Fried, Mike Soroka, and Ian Anderson in what should be a really good and underrated rotation.

Their bullpen did get a little weaker as Mark Melancon and Darren O’Day left via free agency but it is still really good. Will Smith has been a really good closer in the past and I assume he will take on that role this season with Chris Martin setting up. While it is not as good as it was in the past, I think their ‘pen will still be pretty good.

With the lineup and rotation the Braves have, I don’t think they will need a super ‘pen. More importantly, until the rest of the division learns how to play well against the Braves they won’t be able to win this division. The Braves have routinely beaten up on the NL East and I don’t see that stopping completely this season. I do expect it to be close, but I think the Braves will win the National League East and think they are real World Series contenders.

Record: 96-66

Nationals

The Nationals are a tricky team to read. If their players play as they have in the past, they have a legitimate shot at winning the division. After all, they did win the World Series just two years ago. With a rotation featuring Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin, and Stephen Strasburg, their starting pitching should be very good. But will it be? They are all getting older and coming off of bad years or in Strasburg’s case, an injury. It’s hard to rely on them to be what they were.

To offset that, the Nationals will need their lineup and bullpen to exceed expectations. I’m not sure if that will happen. In their lineup, they do have some really good pieces. I think Juan Soto is the best pure hitter in the game, and the scary part is that he is only 22 years old and will haunt the Mets for years to come.

They also have Trea Turner at the top of their lineup to torment the Mets on the base paths, and Josh Bell to hopefully have a bounce-back year in the middle of their lineup.

Their bullpen is improved as well, as they stole Brad Hand from the Mets in free agency this offseason. The Nationals should be pretty good but are they good enough to win this division? I don’t think so.

They would need Jon Lester to regain his old Red Sox form, Josh Bell to be an all-star, and their three-headed monster in the rotation to be healthy and perform. Too much has to go perfectly for this team to be a playoff team in this division. I think they’ll be good, not great.

Record: 84-78

Phillies

I feel like it’s the same story with the Phillies every year. Since they had Roy Halladay leading their loaded rotation back in 2011, I don’t recall the Phillies having good pitching. They went through their rebuilding years and now appeared to be done with that after signing Bryce Harper. But with Harper, the Phillies have not finished above .500. The reason for this is their pitching. It’s just really bad.

Last season the Phillies had one of the worst bullpens of all time. Their bullpen ERA was an absurd 7.06 and they just kept blowing games late. They signed guys like Archie Bradley and Brandon Kintzler and traded for Jose Alvarado but is that good enough? I don’t think so.

Their top two in the rotation are very good in Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler. After that they have Zach Eflin, Vince Velasquez, Spencer Howard, Matt Moore, and Chase Anderson to fill the final three spots. Is that good enough? I don’t think so.

Their lineup is very good and should score a ton of runs. Harper and Realmuto are stars and Alec Bohm looks like a future all-star as well.

But the issue with this year for the last couple of years and this year is pitching. They are not deep enough in their rotation or good enough at all in their bullpen to be considered a top team in baseball’s hardest division.

I think they’ll still win games because of their lineup but with the question marks revolving around their pitching I can’t see them coming close to a division title this year. Nola and Wheeler are good, get them some help and then we can talk about a division crown.

Record: 82-80