One week after a trade deadline that puzzled the baseball world, the Mets are suddenly surging

• The New York Mets appeared to be heading for a tear-down at the trade deadline, but instead turned into buyers, puzzling the MLB world.
• The Mets are now one of the hottest teams in baseball, having won 11 of their last 12 and 17 of their 23 games since the All-Star break.
• The Mets still have an uphill battle to make the playoffs, but they’re climbing closer to the Wild Card as some aspects of their roster are starting to look up.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The New York Mets are one of the hottest teams in baseball, just days after a puzzling trade deadline where they appeared to change course.

As thetrade deadline approached, the Mets were multiple games under .500, with rumors and reports indicating they were likely to be sellers at the trade deadline, most notably offering starting pitchers Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler.

Instead, the Mets became buyers, trading two prospects for Toronto Blue Jays’ right-hander Marcus Stroman. The Mets then traded starting pitcher Jason Vargas to the Philadelphia Phillies, an NL East rival also competing for a Wild Card spot.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported that the Mets — perhaps fairly — thought their team was on the rise and that they didn’t like the offers for their pitchers. However, some also thought the Mets’ trade demands were too high, according to Rosenthal.

Still, the baseball world was puzzled by the Mets’ moves.ESPN’s Keith Law wrote:

“Stroman is a free agent after 2020, so this acquisition makes just about no sense for the Mets, who continue to labor under the impression that they’re close to contention … The Mets just aren’t good enough to justify trading two of their top 10 prospects for short-term help. This continues to be the most rudderless ship in baseball, and the Mets appear to have decided that the key lesson from the disastrous offseason they just had is to do the same things all over again.”

Sports Illustrated’s Emma Baccalieri defended the moves in a vacuum, but arrived at the same conclusions as Law: what are the Mets doing?

“It doesn’t make so much sense for the Mets — for where they are (right now) or for who they are (always),” Baccalieri wrote. “It’s hard to say just where the team is going. (Buying? Selling? Neither?) It’s hard to say where it’s trying to go.”

The Mets have surged into the playoff race

Since the trade deadline, the Mets have only continued to win.

The Mets didn’t move Noah Syndergaard at the trade deadline.David Banks/APThe team has now won 11 of its last 12 games and is 17-6 since the All-Star break. With a double-header win over the Miami Marlins on Monday, capped off by a comeback win in the second game, the Mets are above .500 for the first time since May.

The Mets are still 2.5 games back of the Wild Card, with four teams in front of them. The coming weeks could decide their season, as their next eight games come against division rivals in the Marlins, Washington Nationals, and Atlanta Braves. From late August to early September, the Mets play 12 of 15 games against division rivals.

Things are generally looking up for the Mets, even as the injury bug continues to hang around the team — Robinson Cano tore his hamstring against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday and Jeff McNeil left Monday’s game with an apparent calf cramp.

The starting pitching has rebounded in recent weeks, and that’s with new addition Stroman struggling in his first outing. In seven of the last 12 games, the Mets’ starting pitchers have gone seven innings or more while only allowing two runs.

On Monday, rookie and Home Run Derby champ Pete Alonso also broke out of a slump, hitting the go-ahead solo blast in the bottom of the seventh. Alonso, who’s batting just .175 since the All-Star break, delivered a profane, but motivational message for fans at Citi Field after the game.

The Mets still have an uphill battle.FiveThirtyEight gives them a 27% chance to make the playoffs, notably better than the Milwaukee Brewers, who are ahead of the Mets in the standings. Yet they still trail the Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals, and Phillies in likelihood to make the postseason.

If the Mets can continue playing above .500 while they take on division rivals, they could continue a surge into the playoff race. A team that was looking at a potential tear-down weeks ago is suddenly playing meaningful games in early August.

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