Just playing meaningful September games no longer good enough for Mets

There was a time when it would have been nice for the Mets to make the playoffs. Heck, in the despair of a 9-19 May, the Wilpon-ian mantra about playing meaningful games in September had a nice ring.

But at some point, you stop living the season you imagined and are dealing with the one actually unfolding. And in that one, the Mets’ mandate changed from ‘It would be great to make the playoffs’ to ‘It would be horrible to miss out.’

Because they started playing so much better for an extended period to emphasize what was possible.

Because the Braves roster kept decaying with impact player after impact player being lost for substantial periods.

Because the Mets are going to have to redo a good deal of a rotation again in the coming offseason and who knows if they will do as well as Sean Manaea and Luis Severino again?

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Because no team in the majors is having the kind of season to make the Mets feel it would be outrageous to win a round or two or …

But that could only happen if they get in.

“Where we’re at, you’re definitely going to be disappointed if you don’t make the playoffs, just because we’re knocking at the door,” Brandon Nimmo said.

There is that fine line, though, again — between knocking and actually gaining entry. And a 9-5 loss Tuesday night to the Orioles that was bookended by another poor Jose Quintana start and a ninth-inning defensive blundering sequence that conjured their bumbling 1962 forefathers was disheartening for the Mets. Those bookends of incompetence minimized a four-run eighth inning surge highlighted by a three-run J.D. Martinez homer that briefly energized the 34,225 at Citi Field and brought hope of a stirring comeback from what had been a 7-1 deficit.

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Instead, it was another lost day on the schedule — the Mets are down to 36 games — and another game lost in the standings.

Carlos Mendoza insisted he was not looking at the big scoreboard in front of him that was revealing over the course of the evening that the Braves were going to beat the Phillies, dropping the Mets now to 2 ¹/₂ games out of the final NL wild card.

He also said there are no plans to remove Quintana from the rotation, though the Mets have lost all four of his August starts in which the veteran lefty is 0-3 with an 8.27 ERA after allowing seven runs in five innings.

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Quintana, after his 25th start of 2024, insisted he feels strong at 35 and coming off of just 13 starts last year. He talked about this being the ideal moment to rediscover his stuff and help down the stretch. And, really, there is not much maneuverability. Christian Scott is nowhere near a return. Tylor Megill has been meh at Triple-A. The Mets view Jose Butto as just too valuable in the bullpen.

The Mets have to hope the uber-professional Quintana has something left. Because time is so short now that having a malfunctioning piece of the rotation is so much more problematic than in April or May or June. And, again, this has transformed from a Mets season in which contention was a perk to making the playoffs is a must.

Baltimore is feeling this too. The Orioles had missed the playoffs six straight seasons, which included one of the most overt tank jobs in MLB history, before winning 101 games last season — their most since 1979 — and the AL East. So this year the Orioles have had expectations and that has made their journey tougher. And Baltimore has had to navigate while losing three starters — Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells — to elbow surgery and having to place Zach Eflin, 4-0 in four starts since his acquisition from Tampa Bay, on the IL.

The Mets, despite their rising playoff chances, were not as aggressive in getting anyone as accomplished as Eflin at the trading deadline. They added, but with their big-picture priorities still in place not to trade any prospects that hurt to move. That was a philosophy hatched when making the playoffs was a nice concept.

But as Nimmo noted, “We have a great opportunity right now.”

And playing meaningful games in September is no longer good enough.

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