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.

2) NY Mets fans should root against the White Sox

The Chicago White Sox are breathing in the American League wild card race but just barely. They have a team in need of some major changes if we’re ever going to take them seriously. It probably starts more so with the manager than anything else.

However, they do own possibly the best DH candidate out there for the Mets to even consider. Jose Abreu in the same lineup with Pete Alonso would deserve the chef kiss of all chef kisses. Smacking baseballs back-to-back in the order would be a thing of beauty.

The White Sox don’t have a massive amount of trade candidates unless they decide to blow the whole thing up. Starting pitcher Johnny Cueto could be on the table for some teams. The Mets feel unlikely with their starting staff getting healthy and how well guys like David Peterson and Trevor Williams have stepped up.

We should all be cheering hard at every Andres Gimenez base hit that comes against his rival White Sox pitchers. Knowing there is a chance to rent Abreu for two months should have Mets fans stoked every time Tony La Russa calls for an intentional walk when his pitcher is already ahead in the count. It’s going to happen again. We already know it.

4) NY Mets fans should root against the Dodgers

What do the Los Angeles Dodgers have to do with the MLB trade deadline? Not much when it comes to the Mets other than maybe a few bidding wars. But rooting against them will only put the pressure on their front office to go out and overpay for players we want. Our rooting interest against Los Angeles has a lot more to do with the bigger picture.

Cheering against the Dodgers is easy enough. They’re LA, after all. It’s the antithesis of New York sports. Players come to New York to be champions. They go to Los Angeles to star in movies—but also to become champions as many times as well.

Mets fans will care about what the Dodgers do because of possible playoff seeding. The two division winners with the best records get byes. More importantly, the team with the best record will have the edge in the NLCS with home-field advantage. It’s something the Mets will be striving for.

The San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants will have to do as much damage as they can against the frequent final boss of the National League, the Dodgers. The Mets do get to host them again later this year. When that series comes up, there’s a little extra incentive to win.