When Plan B Kinda Sorta Maybe Works

The Mets’ run of injuries has been Biblical — witness this recent post, from Fangraphs, noting that Mets on the injured list account for nearly 20 WAR, going by preseason predictions.

That’s by far the most WAR lost in the majors and should have been a recipe for disaster. And it still might be! But not so far. The Mets were handed a best-case scenario of “tread water until 26,000 guys are healthy again and maybe some other guys start hitting like we paid them to,” and they’re paddling around pretty happily, not only staying in first place but even opening up a little distance on their similarly battered rivals in the NL East.

How? Well, excellent pitching from starters and relievers sure helps. On Saturday Taijuan Walker looked superb, throttling the Braves over five innings and proving that injured Mets do occasionally return from those dreaded trips down the tunnel. Walker’s ERA is now down to a tidy 1.84, which will do very nicely.

Defense helps too — over at The Athletic on Friday, Tim Britton dug into how the Mets have climbed from the bottom of the MLB ranks in defensive runs saved to third. A key ingredient to the change, which might startle Keith Hernandez, is that they’ve become much more aggressive about shifting, helped by an analytics department that’s been reborn now that the Wilpons have been downgraded from meddlers in chief to paying customers like the rest of us. The Mets hired Ben Zauzmer from the Dodgers, paired him with a couple of Van Wagenen holdovers, and empowered Gary DiSarcina to blend better information with his own instincts and those of his fielders.

While what’s below is still a relatively small sample, so far the results have been pretty good:

(BTW, you should subscribe to The Athletic. It’s worth every penny.)

I know, numbers numbers numbers. But the improved defense passes the eye test too: Before last night’s game became a laugher, it was the Mets’ defense and the Braves’ lack of it that gave them the lead: Tomas Nido gunned down Ronald Acuna Jr. in the first, Jonathan Villar made a diving grab to keep a potential run off the board in the second, and Jose Peraza was perfectly positioned to turn a double play that ended the fourth. Meanwhile, the Braves endured balls that went off Guillermo Heredia‘s glove and through Dansby Swanson.

Then the Mets unloaded, which was of course all sorts of fun: Villar deposited a ball into the Apple Basket (after just missing a grand slam earlier), Brandon Drury hit a two-run pinch-hit homer, and Billy McKinney rocketed a blast into whatever SodaLand is called now. Even James McCann and Francisco Lindor homered, with their bats showing signs of life. Poor Cameron Maybin set a new club mark for futility to begin a Mets career, going 0 for 27 and so topping (or perhaps the term is limbo’ing under) Charley Smith‘s 0-for-26 start in 1964, but then tapped a little swinging bunt up the third-base line to get on base, an accomplishment greeted with rapturous applause from the stands and a flurry of jazz hands from his dugout. Maybin’s smile was a highlight in its own right, starting off low-watt sheepish and then brightening to big and genuine.

That’s the kind of game it was: A guy goes 1-for-28 and it’s a feel-good moment. But it brings up something else about this team, for which I have no graphic: They genuinely seem to like each other and enjoy playing the game, a vibe that begins with Lindor’s effervescent, seemingly slump-proof captaining of the infield but also gets a boost from Marcus Stroman‘s swagger on the mound and the sunny volubility of Pete Alonso and Dom Smith.

Sure, everyone looks happy when you win by 11. Let’s see if the Mets can keep smiling if those defensive numbers erode and the pitching comes back to earth and the injured remain getting treatment for various ailments. But so far, whether through devil magic or winning personalities or a quirk of small sample sizes, Plan B’s been A-OK.