The Mets Could Win MORE Than 90 Games

An offhand and private statement by Mets GM Sandy Alderson suggested that he thought the Mets could, and perhaps should, win 90 games this season. The Mets online community being what it is, this was met mostly with derision and jokes. It’s an old meme: Mets do something and some segment of the fanbase mocks and criticizes it. Sure, 90 games is a big jump from last season and the Mets really haven’t made that many changes.  However, the Mets do have the talent to win that many..or more.

 

90 wins certainly isn’t likely, but Spring Training is for dreaming. You can imagine all your players staying healthy and producing like they’re capable of. They’ll come through with clutch hits at opportune times, they’ll flash dazzling breaking balls past opposing hitters at critical junctures of the game, and every home run they give up will come in a game in which the Mets are already up by enough runs that it barely makes a dent. Travis d’Arnaud will win rookie of the year. Zack Wheeler will win the Cy Young. Lagares will get the Gold Glove denied to him last year. David Wright will finally win that MVP he’s just missed a couple of times. If everybody plays to the best of their ability the Mets will win a ton of games.

 

Most of these things are possible, but they’re improbable. Perhaps more good things happen than bad and the Mets do in fact look much improved. Maybe they’re on pace for 82 or 83 wins, a marginal but impressive improvement. That does leave the door open for midseason improvement via trade. A lot also depends on just how good, or how lucky, the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves are. If they’re on pace for disappointing seasons the division title might not even need 90 wins and a key series against either of them can swing the standings significantly.

Time for baseball

The biggest, and less obvious, reason the Mets might be a fair tick better than last year’s version has to do with those things that might go wrong. The Mets have a lot more depth this year, and a lot more answers for when things go wrong.  The Mets brought in two legitimate outfielders to pair with the defensive prowess of Juan Lagares and if Lagares doesn’t improve with the bat they at least have the serviceable if unremarkable Eric Young Jr around as well. There will be no Rick Ankiels or Collin Cowgills clogging up the lineup and the outfield this year. They’ve got more depth than they know what to do with at first base so that if Ike Davis struggles he’ll have an extremely short leash.

 

They’ve got a host of interesting players who can step in at various places around the diamond and not embarrass themselves. This means no automatic outs and no month long stretches where you watch rallies continually die at the hands of what’s essentially roster filler. With the exception of shortstop, depending on if you believe Wilmer Flores can at least hack it there as a backup, the Mets will likely have players on the roster that can help out in some way at various positions. This should help keep one or two players having horrific seasons from sinking the team for weeks at a time and provide fewer stretches where the Mets score only a handful of runs a week.

 

All this is without mentioning the pitching and defense. Both outfielders the Mets brought in are above average defenders which adds additional value and the Mets main area of minor league strength is pitching. If you slot in Jenrry Mejia as the 5th starter, the Mets have serviceable veteran major leaguers in Dice-K Matsuzaka, John Lannan and a couple of others making a somewhat gooey bridge to Rafael Montero and Noah Syndergaard who might still need a few weeks or months in Triple-A. Those are just some of the pitchers waiting to make a difference with this team this year.

 

So while 90 or more wins is not the most likely scenario, it’s hardly a crazy one. There is enough talent and potential on this team that we can root for to succeed that could get the Mets to a very competitive place. Maybe it all ultimately doesn’t quite come together for 2014, but there should at least be stretches where you can squint and sort of make out a competitive baseball team at Citi Field.