Everyone should be very scared of this Mets winning streak

The Mets are off to the team’s best start in history at 10-1, for a team that didn’t make the playoffs last year, how long can they keep this up?

I’ll be honest, when I wrote the Mets season preview this year, I didn’t expect them to make the playoffs. I saw a potential Wild Card spot, but figured they would miss the postseason by about 3 games.

That being said, they’ve won 8 straight, and are the holders of the best record in baseball. The crazy part is that Yoenis Cespedes is in the midst of a 2-23 streak and is doing essentially nothing right now. Granted, those two hits were go-ahead hits in the last inning of two games, but he hasn’t been great. Noah Syndergaard has a 3.94 ERA. Their stars are not performing at the highest level. Yet they’re 10-1.

That alone should tell you that they can maintain what they have been doing but there is even more. Mickey Callaway has been doing everything right this season. Whether it is sending Adrian Gonzalez up against a left-handed pitcher yesterday to be rewarded with an RBI single or perfectly managing his bullpen, he can do no wrong. The pitching staff has been nothing short of brilliant. The best staff ERA in baseball belongs to the Mets. Their pitching depth has finally come through, it it isn’t just the big dogs.

Seth Lugo won the fifth starter job in spring training, but off days and postponed games have meant he hasn’t started a game this season. Not to worry, he hasn’t given up a run in 6 innings out of the bullpen, including 3 innings in an extra innings game against the Nationals.

Robert Gsellman was relegated to the bullpen after not winning the job. It seems like an outstanding fit for him. He’s given up 1 earned run in seven innings out of the pen, showing the ability to go multiple innings at a time. More impressively though, is his strikeout rate. He has gone from 6.17 K/9 last year to 15.43 K/9 this year in the bullpen.

Zach Wheeler who was called up to make an emergency start provided the Mets with their best start of the year. He is only Mets starter to throw a pitch in the seventh inning, giving up only one run, and putting the team in position to win.

Offensively, it is a story of clutch hitting. The Mets have given up runs in 24 innings this year. Twelve times, they have scored in their next at bat. They are resilient and not afraid of any moment. Just yesterday, they were no-hit through 6 and 2/3 innings which would have most feeling down. Not these Mets, they responded with 4 runs in the eighth inning and won yet again. They haven’t just been getting lucky either. A .299 team BABIP implies that they have had perfectly average luck.

There are two huge obstacles between the Mets and continuing this success. The first, as it always is with the Mets, is health. The team has a lot of older players and is very reliant on its pitching staff. They are a deeper team this year, but still need their core guys to stay healthy. Trying to do this has resulted in a second problem. Mickey Callaway has shown no problems pulling starters earlier than usual. While this helps them stay healthy, the bullpen has had a lot of innings put on it. Brandon Nimmo got sent down so that Corey Oswalt could be the cavalry for the bullpen. It is unclear whether the bullpen can sustain this performance with this workload.

The Mets have the potential to keep this up for a whole season if managed correctly, and Mickey Callaway has shown he can manage correctly. In all reality, this high level of success probably lasts through April. Most importantly, the salt-and-pepper Mets have shown that they can be a serious contender come October.