Mets: 3 reasons why the Amazins should be the NL East favorites

It’s a great time to be a New York Mets fan lately with the team seemingly rattling off multiple wins in a row and playing the brand of baseball that many of us had come to expect after watching the front office retool the Major League roster. With all of the surrounding offseason hype around the Mets expectations have followed and we are witnessing what hopefully could be a memorable run to October this summer.

Strong overall pitching and stellar defense have contributed to the Mets’ recent run, and while the bats seem to slowly be heating up along with the weather, it is fair to say the best is still yet to come Mets fans. It’s not unreasonable to expect the Mets to be the National League East favorites at this point in the season for a multitude of reasons, especially with the way things have been clicking despite the team, not at full strength.

With the New York Mets’ recent play, there is plenty of surrounding optimism on why they should be considered the favorites to win the National League East.

With much of the teams in the National League East playing below expectations, the Mets have a legitimate opportunity to make a run and separate themselves from the pack over the next several weeks if this recent play continues as summer approaches. But the scary part of all of this recent praise is we still most likely haven’t seen what this team is truly capable of until it reaches full strength by hopefully some point in June.

While I can think of a host of reasons as to why the Mets should be considered the favorites to take the National League East crown this season, I’ll give you three of my favorite reasons why.

1) The Mets Starting Rotation & Bullpen

Many of us believed the Mets would have a much-improved starting rotation heading into this season after last season’s tumultuous display behind Jacob deGrom and David Peterson. But nobody could have predicted just how good the pitching staff has held up thus far heading into the middle of May. Jacob deGrom despite his recent injury has looked like he has completely revamped his game which seems impossible to do, and Marcus Stroman has reminded fans just exactly how good he is despite a lost 2020 campaign due to injury and an opt-out due to Covid-19 concerns.

While David Peterson has taken his bumps here and there, when he has been on his A-game, he has displayed the type of promise many fans had hoped for after his breakout campaign last season. We also can not forget to mention how filthy Taijuan Walker has looked through his first-month and-a-half in a Mets jersey and it’s still hard to believe he sat around on the free-agent market as long as he did before being scooped up at the end of February.

The real burning question that surrounded the organization heading into the opening day was the state of the bullpen and they have absolutely delivered early on in the season, and are a large reason why the Mets are in the position they are in today. Outside of Edwin Diaz and Trevor May, many fans, myself included, were not sure how well the bullpen would hold up especially with Seth Lugo on the shelf until at least the end of May.

Every arm in the bullpen has answered those questions and then some, with an honorable mention to Jeurys Familia having a rebound of a season and looking like one of the best relievers in baseball, as well as Miguel Castro stepping up in big situations and delivering when needed. The Mets are second in baseball in both team ERA as well as WHIP, and they have also allowed the fewest earned runs in baseball. That is a recipe for October baseball.

2) The Mets Offense Has Not Played Up To Expectations Yet

If any fan had a gripe with the Mets at this point in the season it would most likely be due to the stagnant offense that has been displayed for the better part of the last month and a half. To be fair April was littered with disruptions for the Mets, from Covid-19 postponements and numerous weather issues it could be argued that many offensive players never quite found their comfort level in the batter’s box through the first month of the season in which was a very chilly April.

It’s also fair to wonder with the altering of the baseball before the start of the season, and in turn, it amounting to historically low offensive numbers across the entire game currently, that it could be a byproduct of the team’s offensive struggles to this point. Regardless of what the issues could be there is simply too much offensive talent on this 26-man roster to believe that the Mets offensive struggles will continue through the warm months of the season.

A big reason for the Mets offense being among the leagues worst has been Francisco Lindor’s awful start to the regular season. But that doesn’t go without saying that he has recently shown signs of turning it around which is only a boost to the prospects of the Mets offense fully breaking out. As a whole, the Mets are in the middle of the pack of the league in terms of team batting average after finishing first last season, and one of the worst teams in the league in OPS up to this point.

However, recent signs of the Mets getting out of their collective offensive funk seem to be on the horizon, and with this team being almost unbeatable when they score four or more runs per game, it will only bode well for the Mets run at the NL East crown.