What would the Mets roster look like if the MLB playoffs started today?

If the MLB playoffs started today, the New York Mets would be in, the Atlanta Braves would be out, and we’d be headed to play a best of three against the Milwaukee Brewers. The MLB playoffs do not start today. Instead, it’s the first of three against the Philadelphia Phillies for the Mets to deal with.

There is a certain strategy to those early playoff rounds. In particular, the Wild Card round requires only three starting pitchers. Teams might carry a fourth in the bullpen for some length. Generally, someone is left to exclusively watch. The situation would be no different this time around.

Who would the Mets have on their playoff roster if things began today?

The obvious members of the Mets playoff roster

Let’s do the housekeeping to start. These players are the ones there is no debate about:

1) Francisco Lindor
2) Jesse Winker
3) Mark Vientos
4) Pete Alonso
5) Brandon Nimmo
6) J.D. Martinez
7) Starling Marte
8) Jose Iglesias
9) Francisco Alvarez
10) Luis Torrens
11) Harrison Bader
12) Tyrone Taylor
13) Sean Manaea
14) Luis Severino
15) David Peterson
16) Edwin Diaz
17) Jose Butto
18) Phil Maton
19) Reed Garrett
20) Danny Young

This leaves us with six debatable spots. Kodai Senga will have a chance to fight for one later this month. Dedniel Nunez and Christian Scott would be great to have in the mix as well.

The last 6 spots on a potential Mets playoff roster are up for debate

Who gets those last six spots? The bullpen is five deep and the bench would need one or two more bats.

Due to a complete lack of options, 21) DJ Stewart is probably joining the Mets in the playoffs. Brett Baty is injured. Eddy Alvarez didn’t join the team until September. The same goes for recent waiver wire pickup Jose Azocar. There should be a real debate about whether they would call up 22) Luisangel Acuna to be their pinch runner. Unfortunately, they’d have to rely on some combination of Bader and Taylor for this role. Personally, I’d call up Acuna anyway just to have that added weapon for a series. You aren’t going to need the extra arms.

This leaves the team with three more bullpen spots. For a second lefty, they can bring 23) Alex Young. For some length, ask 24) Huascar Brazoban to come along for the ride, too. Then comes the final two calls. Do they elect to have Jose Quintana stuffed in the bullpen? Does Ryne Stanek and his playoff experience matter even if his regular season stuff seems off? After surviving this deep into the year, has Adam Ottavino earned back enough trust to at least move the game along? 

Young and Brazoban aren’t locks either. And if Senga is healthy, he needs to be on the team in some capacity even if it’s as a bullpen option or opener of some kind.

Sometimes with these roster decisions you have one of those “good problems” where you have to leave behind someone you really like. This isn’t quite the case for the Mets. The last two bench spots have some questions and rounding out the bullpen doesn’t get the blood pumping.

If the playoffs were today, I'd go with 25) Ryne Stanek and 26) Jose Quintana then hope neither has to touch a baseball beyond eating some innings in a blowout