At the All-Star break, the Mets — remarkably — are holding the third Wild Card spot in the National League.
To be specific, their 49-46 record and place in the standings is remarkable because of the winding road they took to get there.
At 22-33, most people were writing the Mets’ season off. Every day, an inevitable trade deadline fire sale was being discussed.
Even as the Mets started to turn it around, the claims of many that they were destined to sell at the deadline — a sale that would include Pete Alonso — did not go away.
But now?
On the strength of a 27-13 run, the Mets are currently in the third Wild Card spot, one game up on the Diamondbacks and Padres for that spot, and a half game behind the Cardinals for the second Wild Card spot (though the Mets are tied with them in the loss column). New York trails the Braves by four games for the top Wild Card spot.
When the Mets return from the break on July 19, they’ll open a four-game series against the Marlins in Miami as part of an 11-game stretch that will take them to the July 30 trade deadline.
If the Mets have a solid record during that stretch, they will almost certainly be buyers at the deadline, with the exception of perhaps trading one starting pitcher on an expiring contract if they deem their depth to be good enough to withstand it.
And if the Mets are indeed buyers, here’s how they should proceed…
Address the bullpen in a serious way
With Edwin Diaz, Dedniel Nunez, newly-converted reliever Jose Butto, and Phil Maton, the Mets have the makings of a solid bullpen. But the above pitchers make up just one half of the eight-man relief corps that is otherwise full of question marks.
Reed Garrett is out with an elbow injury that could be minor, but he’s regressed since his otherworldly start. Meanwhile, Brooks Raley and Drew Smith have been lost for the season due to injuries of their own.
Adrian Houser has started to wilt following some initial success after being moved from the rotation to the bullpen. And aside from that, carrying two long relievers (Butto and Houser) is not ideal.
Then there’s Jake Diekman (whose walk rate is an almost impossible to believe 7.2 per nine) and Adam Ottavino (who has been relegated to mostly mop-up duty lately).
And the pitchers the Mets have called up from Triple-A Syracuse to help — including Eric Orze, Danny…