NL East standings by record versus .500 or better teams: NY Mets prove they are elite

The New York Mets are currently tied with the Detroit Tigers for the second-best team winning percentage in Major League Baseball, sitting at 65.1%. They’re off to an even better start than their last pennant-winning season, 2015. They ended May 13th with a .588 win percentage. However, one thing that separates good and bad teams is winning against other good teams, which the Mets excel in.

Are the NL East standings any different with winning percentage against teams at .500 or better?

The Mets have a strong 17-11 record against teams above .500, which is a winning percentage of 60.7%. The only other team with a better win percentage against teams above .500 is the San Diego Padres, with a 17-11 record. The only team with more wins against .500+ teams is the Milwaukee Brewers, with 19. But the Mets are the only team in the NL East that has won more often than they have lost against teams above .500.

The Philadelphia Phillies are 24-17 and only three games behind the Mets, but have mostly beaten up on bad teams. When they’ve had to face off against good teams, they have a record of just 12-14, good for a winning percentage of 46.2%. Three of these losses came at the hands of the Mets themselves. The Atlanta Braves have stormed back from a 0-7 start to .500 at 21-21. But they’re still only 12-14 against teams over .500, resulting in a W% of 46.2%. Granted, all seven of their losses to start the season were against teams above .500 at the time.

There are two teams who are below .500 in the NL East. The Washington Nationals only have a 17-26 record, and unsurprisingly, they haven’t done great against good teams with only a 9-15 record, which is a win rate of 37.5%. Lastly, there is the Miami Marlins. They’re tied with the Nats for the third most losses in the league with a 15-26 record. They have an even worse 7-21 record against teams above .500, which is only a 25% W%. 

Needless to say, the Mets are trampling good opponents, while the rest of the division flounders against the same kind of opponents.

New York Mets: 17-11
Philadelphia Phillies: 12-14
Atlanta Braves: 10-12
Washington Nationals 9-15
Miami Marlins: 7-21

The Mets excelling against good teams is what will take them a step forward from last season. During 2024, they only went 47-46 against teams that were above .500. That may be slightly above .500, but the Mets are sitting over .600 now. In 2015, despite winning 90 games, taking the NL East by a seven-game margin over the Nationals, and making the World Series, they had a sub-.500 record against good teams, with a 28-38 record. Even in 1986, when the Mets set a franchise record with 110 wins, they only had a .550 W% against teams that were .500 or better.

The Mets are on pace to dominate good teams like they never had before. Nobody in the NL East is even close to their level of dominance, with only one team in MLB currently doing better than them in this regard. It may still be fairly early into the season, but this is hopefully a sign of things to come for the Mets for the rest of the 2025 campaign, and hopefully in the Postseason as well.