3 Mets roster questions we still have ahead of the postseason

Every team goes through it at this point of the year. The New York Mets roster is going to shrink by two when the playoffs begin. Who does and doesn’t join them for the postseason run remains a big question.

Postseason baseball is played slightly differently with fewer starting pitchers needed, more openness to role players like Terrance Gore, and a quick hook for anyone slumping.

With only a handful of games left on the schedule, the Mets will have only a little more time to answer these three remaining roster questions they and everyone else is dealing with.

1) NY Mets roster question: Who will be the fourth starter?

Only four starting pitchers are needed in the postseason because of the way the schedule is. There are more frequent days off, fewer played in a row, and no need to rotate through five arms. We’ve seen it happen before. Nothing is different this year once the Division Series begins.

We’re all in agreement that the Mets will have Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer in their rotation. Chris Bassitt is an easy choice for number three barring some kind of a major change. This leaves them with Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker to choose from.

Both Carrasco and Walker have been good at times and not so much at other points this season. Carrasco has the playoff experience and would probably translate worse as a reliever than Walker. It’s probably one of the toughest decisions of all for Buck Showalter and the front office to make. Neither pitcher has all that much of a greater advantage. Perhaps the best plan is to have them both ready to go with the other prepared to piggyback early the moment the starter gets in an early jam.

3) NY Mets roster question: What’s the strategy against a lefty starter?

Lefties will be the death of the 2022 Mets. Their own roster has questions. Maybe more alarming is how the team hasn’t performed all that well against them. They do have guys like Pete Alonso who have crushed southpaws in the past. Starling Marte and Mark Canha should also be able to help. Maybe Darin Ruf finally does what he was meant to do, too.

Even so, the Mets need to go into those games with a lefty on the mound with a strategy. They are stacked with left-handed hitters we can at least have some faith in. Mark Vientos could always get hot down the stretch and become a serious candidate to make the postseason roster. He’s still fighting for a job beyond game 162.

The biggest hole the Mets will experience comes from the DH spot versus lefties. Ruf and Vientos would be two of the choices or even Alonso—but that just moves the question mark to first base.

Those guys capable of hitting well against lefties will need to step up and perform before the year is over to help answer this roster question. It’ll be tough for the Mets to go into a postseason game with a big question at the DH spot. The only solution they could have is to keep trying and hope Ruf rips into even a single big home run in the postseason.