New York Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2019nypost.com51By MIKE PUMAThe Mets’ playoff
push could include
Brandon Nimmo by the
end of this week.
According to industry
sources, the outfielder is
close to rejoining the team
after beginning a minor
league rehab assignment in the
past 1 ¹/₂ weeks. Nimmo has been
on the injured list since May 21,
dealing with a bulging disk in his
neck.
Nimmo was given the day off Mon-
day, a night after he played nine in-nings in the outfield for Triple-A Syr-
acuse. The Mets ideally want Nimmo
to play consecutive full games in the
outfield before activating him. That
final test could occur Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Nimmo’s return would at
the very least give manager
Mickey Callaway an addi-
tional left-handed bat off
the bench. Nimmo could
share time with Juan Lagares in cen-
ter field. Nimmo has a .200/.344/.323
slash line with three homers and 14
RBIs in 43 games for the Mets this
season.
And Nimmo’s return could alsomove Jeff McNeil to the infield on a
full-time basis, perhaps shuffling be-
tween second base and third base.
McNeil at third would be an alterna-
tive to slumping Todd Frazier, who
owns a .484 OPS in August.➤Jed Lowrie was sched-
uled to continue his rehab
assignment for Single-A St.
Lucie. The veteran in-
fielder, who still hasn’t appeared in a
game for the Mets this season, is one
week into his rehab assignment.➤Wilson Ramos will take a 19-
game hitting streak into Tuesdaynight against the Cubs. The last Mets
player with a 20-game hitting streak
was David Wright from Sept. 14,
2007 to April 2, 2008. Moises Alou
holds the franchise record with a 30-
game hitting streak in 2007.➤Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz
spent their off day volunteering in the
kitchen of God’s Love We Deliver,
packing children’s meals and helping
in the Joan Rivers Bakery. The organi-
zation provides nutrition therapy,
cooks and home-delivers medically
tailored meals for people living with
severe illness in the New York City
metropolitan area.Source: Nimmo getting closer to Citi return
J
OURNEY back 33 games
with me. Let’s call it a
tour of perspective, a re-
minder of just how much can
happen in a month-plus on a
baseball schedule.Thirty-three games ago, the
Mets won for
the only time
in a four-game
series in San
Francisco that
would prove to be among the
most critical series in the ma-
jors this season.
The Giants’ three victories
were all in extra innings, giv-
ing them a greater sense of
magic during a phase in
which they lost just three
times in 20 games. That
convinced the front office
to hold onto Madison
Bumgarner and Will
Smith, in particular, se-
verely altering what
was expected to be avail-
able at the trade deadline.
Conversely, the three
agonizing extra-inning
losses — games in
which Noah Synder-
gaard, Jacob deGrom
and Steven Matz per-
mitted just three
runs in 20 innings —
provided perhaps
the strongest indi-
cator this was just
not the Mets’ sea-
son.
The Mets’ lone
win in the series —
on July 20, 33
games ago — came
with Walker Lock-
ett starting. Robin-
son Cano and Dom-
inic Smith were
still in the lineup,
Edwin Diaz was
still the closer. It
nevertheless left
the Mets just45-53, the third-worst record
in the NL. It was hopeless.
They were going to trade
Zack Wheeler in the next
week and a half, perhaps Syn-
dergaard, too. They had a bet-
ter chance of being relegated
to the International League
than obtaining Marcus Stro-
man from the Blue Jays.
But 32 games later — and
with 32 games left now in this
Mets season — Stroman will
start Tuesday night at Citi
Field against the Cubs to
launch a three-game series
that on the vital scale for both
teams resides between sub-
stantial and mammoth.
Even with a loss in the fi-
nale to the Giants, the Metswent 22-10 in their next 32
games, tied with the Astros
for the best in the majors. If
they go 22-10 again to close
the season — and get to 89
victories — their chances of
at least being the second wild
card are significant.
The playoff race is con-
gested enough that if the Mets
and Brewers finish 22-10, the
Phillies 22-11, the Cubs 20-12
and Cardinals 18-15, you
would have a five-way tie at
89 wins that would include a
three-way tie for the NL Cen-
tral crown. For those who
love late-season chaos — I
just raised my hand if you are
scoring at home — where do
we sign up for this?Mainly, this is a reminder
that even after being swept by
the Braves over the weekend
— Atlanta being the 2019
Mets’ kryptonite — the sea-
son is not lost. Thirty-two
games in the majors is not an
eternity. It is a lot of games,
though.
The race for at least the sec-
ond NL wild card is one that
no contender can gain a foot-
hold upon, making it hard for
teams to fall completely out
of play. Thus, a positive surge
changes the complexion of
the race. Thirty-two games is
more than enough for a posi-
tive surge.
After the games of July 20,
FanGraphs gave the Mets a 5.9percent chance to make the
playoffs. It was 33.2 percent
going into Monday. And these
odds are sensitive. The Mets
were projected to have a 51.4
percent chance before the
Braves entered their lives
again. So three games against
a team ahead of them in the
wild-card standings, the
Cubs, are going to tilt the
possibilities again, one
way or the other.
The Mets
did enough
from late
July until
now to give
themselves a
shot. They
control their des-
tiny over the final 32
games. Their next six — three
versus the Cubs, three at the
Phillies — are against the
teams ahead of them for the
second wild card when the
weekend concluded. Both the
Cubs and Phillies are beset by
bullpen problems as much as
the Mets are, arguably more
so. The Cubs are more swing-
and-miss and homer-depen-
dent than the Mets are. The
Phillies are more depth-de-
prived than the Mets are.
The Mets, even with the
lost Braves weekend, are 37-24
at Citi Field and have the
most home games left (20) of
any NL team — and the Cubs
are 14 games under .500 on
the road, having won one se-
ries away from Wrigley Field
since mid-May.
And the Mets close their
schedule with six at Citi,
three against the atrocious
Marlins and three against the
Braves, who while dominant
against the Mets this year are
likely to be merely setting
themselves up for a Division
Series and not pushing any of
their main players.
Those six conclude the 32-
game schedule now left for
the Mets. As the previous 32
should emphasize, that is
more than enough time to
make this season special.
[email protected]Joel ShermanJoelSherman
NOAH DOUBT: Noah Syndergaard, who will start Wednesday, Pete Alonso and the Mets still
have 32 games to make this season memorable, writes The Post’s Joel Sherman. Getty ImagesMETS
NOTES