What will Mets pitching rotation for Wild Card look like after delayed double-header?

Mother Nature has wreaked havoc with the end of the MLB regular season this week, particularly in Atlanta, where Hurricane Helene scuttled the final two games of a crucial series between the Braves and the New York Mets. After Atlanta took the opener on Tuesday, games two and three were postponed due to weather, meaning that both teams will come back to Truist Park on Monday — a day after the official end of the regular season — to play a doubleheader that could decide who reaches the postseason and who goes home.

The Mets currently hold a one-game lead over the Braves for the third and final NL Wild Card spot, and there's a chance that, if they take care of business over the weekend against the Brewers, that doubleheader might not be necessary. If it is, though, it sets up a potentially brutal gauntlet: MLB's postseason begins next Tuesday, so whichever team does manage to snag a Wild Card spot will have to then hop on a plane and start a best-of-three Wild Card series the very next day.

How might the new schedule affect New York's postseason rotation? There's a lot to be decided over the next few days, and much of it depends on how the Mets choose to handle their pitching in Milwaukee this weekend. (All we know right now is that Sean Manaea appears set to pitch the opener on Friday.) Still, let's take a quick look ahead and see what we can game out.

How Mets Wild Card rotation would line up after Monday double-header

Let's assume that Manaea does in fact get the ball in game one against the Brewers. That would line him up to pitch again on full rest on Wednesday, which would be Game 2 of the NL Wild Card series. Manaea has been a revelation for New York this year, and pitching him on Friday is the only way to guarantee he'll get a postseason start. (If he goes Saturday, there would need to be a Wild Card Game 3 in order for Manaea to be able to pitch on normal rest.)

From there, manager Carlos Mendoza has plenty of options. Lefty David Peterson was scheduled to start in Atlanta on Wednesday before the postponement, so he could follow Manaea and pitch on Friday in Milwaukee. That leaves three pitchers — Jose Quintana, Luis Severino and Tylor Megill — for the final three games of the regular season. Quintana hasn't pitched since Sept. 18, but considering that Severino just got knocked around by the Braves in Tuesday's loss, the Mets could opt to throw Severino on normal rest Sunday against the Brewers and save Quintana for one of the double-header games on Monday (or, if those aren't necessary, Game 1 of the Wild Card series).

Megill would take the other game in Atlanta on Monday. But that still leaves the question of who goes in Game 1 of a hypothetical Wild Card series on Tuesday, assuming that all five rotation members pitch one more time in the regular season? New York seems reticent to throw Manaea on short rest, and if that's off the table, stretching swingman Jose Butto out for as long as possible feels like the next best answer. There are no good options with this schedule, leaving the Mets to hope that winning as much as possible in Milwaukee — and some help elsewhere — will be enough to avoid complete pitching chaos.