This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat publication. To learn the complete publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it frequently in your inbox.
When the Mets clinch a Nationwide League playoff berth, seemingly this week in Milwaukee or Oakland, the staff intends to rejoice.
There’s a faculty of thought, notably amongst veteran golf equipment and perennial contenders, that celebrating a playoff berth is much less worthwhile for these with higher aspirations. When the Dodgers clinched a spot earlier this month, they toasted one another with champagne and distributed some playoff swag, however they didn’t pop bottles within the customary trend. The Dodgers saved a extra raucous celebration for his or her NL West clinch a number of days later.
The Mets don’t essentially align with that kind of pondering. When requested concerning the clubhouse plans this week, veteran pitcher Max Scherzer was adamant: “You rejoice making the playoffs.”
“There’s a state of affairs the place we combat for this division, come up simply brief, after which go to the Wild Card spherical not appreciative of the place we’re at, after which lose that spherical and you then haven’t even celebrated your season,” Scherzer stated. “I believe that will be a mistake to not rejoice your season.”
Not like the Dodgers, who received the World Collection in 2020 and have made the playoffs for 10 years working, the Mets haven’t certified for postseason play since 2016. Not like the Dodgers, who have been in a position to wrap up their division inside days of clinching no less than a Wild Card berth, the Mets are more likely to clinch the playoffs two weeks or extra earlier than placing a bow on the division. And there’s a really reasonable state of affairs during which they don’t win the division in any respect.
“I imply, it’s a giant deal, proper?” outfielder Brandon Nimmo stated of creating the playoffs. “I believe it’s positively one thing to rejoice. However then there’s additionally this aspect of the staff being veteran guys and understanding that the job’s not executed.”
Nimmo famous that in most staff affairs, the membership’s beginning pitchers — a bunch of veterans who’ve “much more time” on their fingers than place gamers — like to debate issues amongst themselves earlier than presenting their consensus to different veteran leaders. Shortstop Francisco Lindor indicated that he has already broached the subject with teammates. Workforce flights such because the one from New York to Milwaukee on Sunday night time are likely to current good alternatives for dialogue.
“There’s nothing flawed with addressing the elephant within the room,” stated Lindor, who made the playoffs 4 occasions in Cleveland. “Am I superstitious? No. So it’s not like, ‘Oh my God, I’m jinxing one thing.’ I’ve religion. So there’s nothing flawed with confronting it, speaking about it, the leaders of the staff speaking about it.”
One wrinkle is that the Mets have by no means celebrated with champagne at Citi Discipline. In 2015, they clinched the playoffs in Cincinnati, the NL Division Collection in Los Angeles and the NL Championship Collection in Chicago. The next yr, the Mets celebrated their Wild Card berth in Philadelphia.
Though this yr’s playoff clincher will virtually definitely happen on the highway as nicely, it’s potential the Mets might win the division throughout their closing three video games of the season in Queens.
In the event that they do, a second, much more boisterous celebration will observe.
“You’re in,” Scherzer stated. “You might have an opportunity to win the World Collection. There’s solely 12 groups that get to say that.”
