The NL Wild Card Race Heats Back Up
We are officially in September, and that means two things. Firstly, that the weather starts to get a little cooler as we slip into Fall; and secondly, that postseason baseball will soon be upon us. The former has some mixed reviews, but the latter is near universally revered. With six of the seven spots up for grabs in the National League, all but sewn up, the playoffs can’t come soon enough.
Yet before we dive into October baseball, we need to dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s on the regular season. That involves a team laying claim to the final Wild Card. Right now, the New York Mets, who despite being buoyed by recently called-up young arms still find themselves losing ground to the competition. This now finds four more teams, in addition to themselves, within four and a half games. Those teams are the Arizona Diamondbacks, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and the San Francisco Giants. Two of those teams, the Giants and Cardinals, were sellers at the deadline who traded away key relievers to the Mets.
This is a Mets team that was built to be a World Series contender and sought to reinforce those aspirations at the deadline. Now, to be fighting off those same teams they weakened is, to say the least, not ideal. Having recently demoted former ace Kodai Senga to Triple-A, this team is at a crossroads. There are two ways forward: a playoff path and one that leads to a total reevaluation of the team during the offseason. The good news is that they have four games in hand to stave off their rivals and lock down a playoff berth.
As far as the contenders go, all of them have a legitimate claim to be here. The Diamondbacks won the pennant as recently as 2023. The Giants have a blockbuster acquisition in Rafael Devers. The young Reds team is helmed by veteran manager Tito Francona. The Cardinals, while not having a team that is as strong as others in their illustrious history, are a legitimate .500 team.
All it takes is one hot streak for any of these teams ot catch and usurp the Mets for the last Wild Card spot. However, they do not control their own destiny. For any of those teams to make the playoffs, they not only need to beat out the others but also wait for a Mets losing streak. Which is certainly possible considering the Mets' recent struggles. With just under 20 games left in the regular season, it is certainly possible to make up four. In spite of all this, the Mets are still in the driver's seat. If they take care of business and hold serve, they will make the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 2016.
