4 Mets injuries and 1 other event that hurt the team's playoff chances most

3) NY Mets announcing an IL stint for Justin Verlander right before the season began took air out of the balloon

Justin Verlander was supposed to start the second game of the season for the Mets. Then he landed on the IL. He was shaky upon his return. One has to wonder if he would have come out guns-a-blazing if not for the IL stint to begin the year.

The story of Verlander’s Mets tenure had a whole lot of road bumps. From his slow start to the eventual gathering it all together and actually having a solid half-year for the team, a new roller coaster at Coney Island depicting his short tenure in Queens would be a thrill-a-minute. You must be this much of a diva to ride.

Potential locker room issues aside, Verlander wasn’t too far off from what the Mets needed from him. He ended with a 6-5 record and 3.15 ERA. Like Quintana, he was the victim of some poor run support.

Losing Verlander for about a month before the first pitch was thrown definitely took some air out of the balloon. It came after knowing Diaz would miss the entire year. Already, there were doubts about how soon we’d see Quintana make his Mets debut.

The duo of Verlander and Max Scherzer would have to wait. As it would turn out, it wasn’t a pairing good enough to make them contenders.