4 teams other than the Braves and Phillies we should root against

It’s only natural for New York Mets fans to root against the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. Even in years where they aren’t a threat, the rivalry is strong enough for the baseball hatred to leak through.

Mets fans will be rooting real hard against those clubs this year as each is vying for a playoff spot with the Braves positioned closest to fight for the National League East title.

Outside of those two clubs, there are three others the Mets can scoreboard watch and root against.

1) NY Mets fans should root against the Rangers

Why root against the Texas Rangers? What do they have to do with the Mets? Likely to be trade deadline sellers unless they pull off some sort of miracle in the next two weeks, hoping for the worst out of them can only give New York more options to add at the trade deadline.

The Rangers spent a lot of money in the offseason with a lot of it thrown at Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. Neither has performed particularly well on a roster that needed much more.

The Mets could be a match for the Rangers when it comes to bullpen help. Lefties Matt Moore and Brett Martin are two options to consider. Brock Burke is too young and controllable for the Rangers to foolishly trade away.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Rangers don’t have a single logical DH upgrade option for the Mets to even consider. Our rooting interest against them is purely about finding a lefty for the bullpen. We’ll raise our pom-poms against them whenever Noah Syndergaard gets the nod against this club. And when it’s not Syndergaard or his Los Angeles Angels pitching against the Rangers, we’ll still be rooting for the team in the other dugout.