Seven straight wins for the Mets who enter a season-defining day

The Mets win their season-high seventh straight game on Monday night. Plus, how the return of Jacob deGrom and trade deadline present the franchise with a day that could define their season.

Rich MacLeod

Aug 02, 2022

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾

The Mets offense continued to roll with a 7-3 victory over the Nationals in D.C. (box)
RHP Max Scherzer had a solid outing against his former club, allowing two runs over 6.2 innings with five strikeouts
SS Francisco Lindor crushed a three-run home run against RHP Steve Cishek, the same pitcher who hit him in the face with a pitch earlier in the season
1B Pete Alonso hit a laser-beam home run of his own, his 27th dinger of the year
LHP Joely Rodríguez delivered his first scoreless appearance since July 5th
New York has spoken to the Tigers about multiple relievers including LHP Andrew Chafin and RHP Michael Fulmer (SNY)
The Mets have now won a season-high seven straight games and are 28 games over .500 for the first time this year
New York increased their NL East lead to 3.5 games with the Braves having the night off
Potential Mets trade targets OF/DH Trey Mancini and C Christian Vázquez were both dealt to the Astros on Monday
Former Mets 2B/DH Robinson Canó was designated for assignment for the third time this season, this time by the Atlanta Braves

Who’s Hot 🔥

Since July 1st, Francisco Lindor is hitting .314/.385/.552 with six home runs, five doubles, 17 RBI, two stolen bases, 16 runs scored and a .937 OPS over 26 games
Jeff McNeil is now 8-for-his-last-17 (.471) over his last four games at the plate
Daniel Vogelbach has now reached base safely in 13 out of 24 plate appearances since being acquired by the team

Roster Moves 📰

OF Travis Jankowski claimed off waivers by the Seattle Mariners
The Mets officially signed 19 of their 22 draft picks to contracts

Playoff Odds Tracker 🎲

The Mets lead the Braves by 3.5 games in the National League East with 61 games to go. They are on-pace for 103 wins which would be their highest mark since 1986 (108):

Playoff odds (FanGraphs):
- Make the playoffs: 100 percent ⬆️
- Win the National League East: 75.1 percent ⬆️
- Clinch first round bye: 73.6 percent ⬆️
- Win the World Series: 14.5 percent ⬇️

Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (65-37) at Nationals (35-69)

Where: Nationals Park — Washington, D.C.

Starters: RHP Jacob deGrom (2022 debut) vs RHP Cory Abbott (0-0, 2.25 ERA)

When: 7:05 PM EST

Where to Watch: SNY

How August 2nd could be a season-altering day for the New York Mets 📝

Just over one year ago, on the day of the 2021 trade deadline, it was revealed to the baseball world that Jacob deGrom was being shut down. Now today, the day of this year’s trade deadline, deGrom will make his season debut in what could be a defining day for this franchise’s 2022 campaign.

That’s one hell of a mirror image, right there.

Today could be a massive day for the Mets for two reasons. Not only will tonight showcase the very long-awaited return of New York’s ace, but it could be a monumental day in terms of what their roster will look like for the remainder of their season.

Tonight at 6:00 PM marks the final time the Mets can acquire a new player via trade. And with the recent elimination of August waiver trades — no more Addison Reed or Justin Verlander acquisitions — it really is the last chance for a team to make a significant upgrade during the season. What their roster looks like after tonight will be the way it likely remains throughout the remainder of this team’s stretch run, and only puts more emphasis on front offices all around the league to get things done and more importantly, get it right.

One year ago you could argue that the Mets got it wrong, acquiring Javier Báez and Trevor Williams, both of whom actually performed quite well but for a club that ultimately wasn’t good enough to warrant such faith from the team’s front office. Even more notably, the club parted with prospect Pete Crow-Armstong, a decision that team president Sandy Alderson recently admitted that the front office now regrets. That trade, more than anything, may very well be the backbone to the recent reports that the Mets are hesitant to part with any premiere prospects at this year’s deadline.

Still, even in spite of those reports, I do expect the Mets to be active today.

I’m not sure how big their biggest move will ultimately be, but it feels like this team still has something up their sleeves. This is a really good club that is worth investing in, and the front office is well aware of the areas their roster could use help — designated hitter, catcher and bullpen. That could result in J.D. Martinez, Willson Contreras, David Robertson and Andrew Chafin, among others, as potential big additions. And while I don’t believe this front office is prepared to part with prospects such as Francisco Álvarez or Brett Baty (rightly so), I do expect this team to “go for it” to an extent. This is a club that is 28 games over .500, their highest mark in 16 years, that can legitimately win the World Series this year. And after investing $254.5 million dollars between Max Scherzer, Starling Marte, Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar and prospect capitol in return for Chris Bassitt over this past offseason, there is no reason to believe this front office, led by a win-hungry owner as passionate about this team as the fans that watch every day, will avoid doing what it takes to help take home a championship in 2022.

Regardless of the moves that are or aren’t made throughout the day, they will obviously greatly impact the future of this team down the stretch run.

In terms of players that are returning to the roster, today is an even greater milestone as Jacob deGrom takes the mound for the first time in over a year.

“We’re all excited,” Max Scherzer told reporters on Monday night. “We know how good he is.”

When Scherzer was signed over the offseason, Mets fans everywhere envisioned the promise of a one-two punch of deGrom and Scherzer taking the mound two out of every five days. This past spring we got a taste, a tantalizingly small taste, of what that might look like when the two combined to pitch an entire Spring Training game together, but it was of course short-lived. That game marked deGrom’s final appearance of the spring before he was shut down with a stress reaction in his right scapula.

But now deGrom is back, and with his return once again comes the promise of hope; of unlimited potential. The Mets have been one of baseball’s best teams even without their ace this season, but this club’s peak performance was always going to come with their true ace on the mound in the major league. Finally, this team is going to get a front row seat to what that looks like, and suddenly the possibilities of where these Mets can go are now endless.

If deGrom can manage to stay healthy and performs to any extent that we’ve seen from him since making his debut in 2014, combined with the moves they make over these final few hours before the trade deadline, this could prove to be one of the most important regular season days for this franchise in years. Who knows what comes next, but it’s time to allow yourselves to dream once again.

Down on the Farm 🌾

All Mets minor league affiliates were off on Monday.

Around the League 🚩

The Blue Jays, Phillies and Braves are showing interest in former Mets RHP Noah Syndergaard (Heyman)
The Padres officially acquired LHP Josh Hader from the Brewers in exchange for LHP Taylor Rogers, RHP Dinelson Lamet, LHP Robert Gasser and OF Esteury Ruiz
The Yankees officially acquired RHP Frankie Montas and RHP Lou Trivino from the A’s in exchange for LHPs JP Sears and Ken Waldichuk, RHP Luis Medina and 2B Cooper Bowman
The Braves acquired RHP Jake Odorizzi from the Astros in exchange for LHP Will Smith (FOX 26)
The Braves also acquired OF Robbie Grossman from the Tigers in exchange for LHP Kris Anglin (The Athletic)
Atlanta also signed 3B Austin Riley to a 10-year, $212 million extension through the 2033 season
The Cardinals acquired LHP José Quintana from the Pirates in exchange for LHP Johan Oviedo and 1B Malcom Nunez
The Red Sox officially acquired OF Tommy Pham from the Reds in exchange for a player to be named later
Longtime outfielder Matt Joyce officially announced his retirement on Monday