New York Mets by Marc Normandin

Matt Harvey is looking good and feeling fresh. That’s the good news. No, that’s the great news. Because Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, and Jacob deGrom could probably make a contender out of the Twins right now. Even if Steven Matz is feeling a little tenderness (in his elbow) and Zack Wheeler is still struggling to stay on the field following Tommy John surgery, the Mets will finish in second place and make the National League Wild Card Game behind their three aces. Again.

The lineup is sketchy, though, in that same way it’s been impressi-sketchy in the Yoenis Cespedes era, with just enough power to provide optimism, and just enough hacking to demand skepticism. They surely lead the league in “players who could hit .240 with a .300 OBP,” considering that describes nearly their entire lineup. Other than Travis d’Arnaud, the entire Mets’ starting lineup will be over 30, at least until Brandon Nimmo and/or Michael Conforto can work their way back. It’s not just that they’re older. It’s that you can plug and play just about any of them into this sentence:

_______ has a shot at 30 homers this year, but he’s hitting just .210, and the fans are getting restless.

Jay Bruce? Sure. Curtis Granderson? Yeah, it fits. Lucas Duda? Doesn’t require too much imagination. The contact of Asdrubal Cabrera and Jose Reyes save them from this exercise, but it’s an extreme all-or-nothing team that’s going to need some help from somewhere at some point, whether it’s with the young outfielders or Gavin Cecchini.

It should be enough to get them back in the postseason, where they’ll have three starting pitchers who are as good as the three starting pitchers on the other team. If the Indians were the Mets of last year, the Mets could be the Indians of this year, even if they’ll have to get past the Nationals first.