Remaining NY Mets schedule does them no favors in comeback attempt

It’s way too early to care much about strength of schedule. Because of where the New York Mets are, any team who gets to play them will have a perceived weak schedule remaining.

Over at Tankathon where it matters more in August and in other leagues for draft picks, you can find the skinny on what’s left for the Mets in 2026 in terms of opponent quality. Yet to play the NL-leading Atlanta Braves and with 13 games to go against them, the Mets’ strength of schedule is dishearteningly one of the toughest to overcome.

With 119 games left, the combined winning percentage of the leftover Mets opponents is .528. Only the Cincinnati Reds, at .537, have a tougher road ahead.

Is the remaining Mets schedule as tough as it looks?

The Braves never roll over for the Mets and to finish 6-7 against them would feel noteworthy. Aside from them, the Mets play the Tampa Bay Rays three times, four more versus the Chicago Cubs, and begin their first three of six against the New York Yankees this weekend. Their other toughest opponents include the Milwaukee Brewers who seem to always have the Mets’ number as well as three more at home against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Fortunately, those games against the Cubs and Dodgers are all at home with the road trip to Chicago and Los Angeles already completed against those teams.

It’s the hefty 13 games against Atlanta accounting for just under 11% of the remaining schedule which comes across as most daunting.

For the weak opponents, the Mets have the Houston Astros, San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals, Toronto Blue Jays, and Baltimore Orioles with the lowest winning percentage still on the schedule. The Mets have plenty of games against the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals who didn’t quite qualify for the “bottom five” currently with this other handful being arguably some of the greatest disappointments of the 2026 season.

Two elements will be key for the Mets. They need reality to set in for some clubs and the entire NL Central to beat up on each other. The Cubs and Cardinals have yet to play each other this season nor has Chicago faced Milwaukee even once.

Strength of schedule attempts to predict where a team will finish by giving the opponent more of the benefit of the doubt than the circumstances of any particular team. The Mets will need to overcome many obstacles, get a few lucky bounces, and steal a few wins along the way. Proving the early strength of schedule warning wrong is one of those demons.

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