New York Mets players celebrate after a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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You can’t win if you don’t get in. That’s the name of the game for the MLB playoffs, and with nine games left to play in the regular season, the National League Wild Card race is hotter than expected.
The New York Mets weren’t supposed to be sweating out a playoff spot. After signing Juan Soto and spending money on starting pitching improvements, they were expected to coast into the postseason. Instead, they’re clinging to the last Wild Card spot at 79-74, despite having lost nine of their last 12 games. They’ve already been eliminated from winning the National League East division by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Soto, who leads MLB with 119 walks and has 41 homers and 33 steals, has led an offense that has held its own. However, a lot of their pitching reinforcements have imploded, and they’ve turned to prospects to try to carry them into October.
Their biggest problem has been a disastrous bullpen. Closer Edwin Diaz has been phenomenal with a 1.85 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 58 1/3 innings, but no one else has proven reliable. They tried to solve the problem by adding Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers, and Gregory Soto at the trade deadline. Rogers has been fine, but Helsley has a 9.60 ERA with the Mets and Soto has a 1.60 WHIP.
New York’s September swoon has left the door open for some surprising challengers. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds are both two games behind the Mets at 77-76, and the San Francisco Giants are three games out at 76-77.
The Diamondbacks were deadline sellers, shipping slugging corner infielders Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez to the Seattle Mariners. Even though Suárez still leads the team in home runs despite wearing a different uniform since the end of July, the club has gone 26-18 since the beginning of August.
Arizona is led by two young players who’ve posted more than 5.0 WAR this year (Baseball-Reference version). Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo has compiled a superstar season out of nowhere, hitting .289/.391/.461 with excellent defense. Right fielder Corbin Carroll has 30 home runs and 29 stolen bases. With 17 triples, he will lead the league in that category for the third year in a row.
The Reds are looking for their first playoff berth since 2020, but they haven’t won a postseason game since 2012 or a postseason series since 1995. Unlike the Mets and Diamondbacks, they’ve struggled on offense and have been carried by their pitching.
Hunter Greene has been one of the league’s best arms when healthy, sporting a 2.74 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 18 starts. Andrew Abbott has a 2.88 ERA and received his first All-Star honors earlier this year.
The Giants are another late-surging club, having won 15 of their last 23. Their big in-season move was the shocking acquisition of Rafael Devers. They recently called up slugging top prospect Bryce Eldridge in hopes that he can power them to the playoffs.
The Mets are still in position to stave off NL Wild Card challengers. However, they’ll need to fix their bullpen quickly and win some games to hold off the Diamondbacks, Reds, and Giants.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danepstein/2025/09/19/the-mets-are-fighting-off-challengers-for-the-last-nl-wild-card-spot/
