Will Strong Second Half Push Mets Across the Finish Line?

It’s that time of year again, where the Mets are beginning to pull fans back in. They are giving off a sense of hope.

Doesn’t this feel like it happens almost every season around this time? The Mets have a not so great (to put it nicely) end of the first-half, causing us to enter the All-Star break with a bad taste in our mouths. And then, they start the second-half of the season prety strongly.

Noah Syndergaard has been saying that the Mets are a second-half team since 2016. The Mets are showing this again so far this year. Since the All-Star break, the Mets are 10-5. They have won four out of five series. They are showing us what they are really capable of.

And because of all of that, fans are beginning to have more hope. Not fully, but just a little bit. I know I have more hope that I once did — they are starting to pull me back in. I’m not alone either — in fact, I’m in great company along with Keith Hernandez.

The Mets are only 6 back in the Wild Card race. First things first. Their first objective is to get to .500. Under .500 isn’t going to cut it. They’ve got good teams ahead of them. Those teams are not going to finish below .500. Current weak schedule helps. Lot of season left

— keith Hernandez (@keithhernandez) July 28, 2019

Now I am a realist.  I know the Mets are still six games back and the team still hasn’t broken .500. I cannot sit here and confidently tell you that there is a good chance the Mets will make the Wild Card and be playing baseball in October.

But again, these past fifteen games since the break have shown us that they can win. It may not always look pretty, and many times it is quite dramatic, but they can hold a lead through the ninth inning. They can give Jacob deGrom run support. They can hit with runners on. They can win games. They just need to continue doing this more.

Plus, they have a pretty decent schedule coming up with games against the White Sox, Pirates, Marlins. These are all teams also below .500 and all teams that the Mets should be able to beat.

In addition to all of this, the Mets have already begun making moves prior to the trade deadline. As we all know, the Marcus Stroman trade has been received with many mixed feelings from fans. I personally am very intrigued to see how it pans out. But, regardless of the trade-off, it shows that the Mets are not simply sitting by quietly and not anything to try to improve. Stroman is a good arm that should benefit the rotation. Now we can only hope that they are active in the correct ways. We can also only hope that there are more (successful) moves to come, and that they are hopefully ones that do not entirely deplete the farm system and do not involve Syndergaard.

I know very well there is a chance the Mets are going to do something an hour after this is published that can entirely turn me off from this season, as I was prior to the break. But from just looking at the games they have played so far (minus, the Giants series) and them being active players right now prior to the trade deadline, the Mets are giving off more hope than they had been.

Ya gotta believe, right?