Once the MLB Postseason begins, every team has a shot. Hall of Famer David Ortiz knows that as well as anybody, winning his first ring on the legendary 2004 Boston Red Sox team that broke the Curse of the Bambino.
But if there's one team that Big Papi is going to single out this year with a grim playoff prediction, it's the New York Mets.
The Mets punched their ticket to the 2024 Postseason with an all-time classic game 161 on Monday afternoon, coming back to beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-7. They will start their playoff journey on the road against either the Milwaukee Brewers or San Diego Padres in the National League Wild Card round.
Ortiz, however, is anticipating their downfall.
“I know the Mets, they’ve been investing a lot of money trying to win but it seems like once they get to that point they fall apart, you know what I’m saying,” he said in an interview Monday on the Dan Patrick Show.
He's right about the Mets' investment. Team owner Steve Cohen has gone all-out in trying to deliver the franchise its first World Series championship since 1986. The team has the highest payroll in baseball at $317 million, with long-term commitments made to guys like Francisco Lindor and Kodai Senga, and additional investment in Starling Marte and Pete Alonso.
Ortiz is also right about the Mets' unfortunate recent playoff history. Since making the 2015 World Series, New York has only qualified for the postseason twice, losing in the Wild Card round both times.
On the other side of it, for Ortiz, there's the Mets' division rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies.
“They’ve showed some signs, some sickness the past couple of years from the playoffs,” Ortiz said. “So they are expected to win, especially with the pitching staff that they have.”
How Francisco Lindor led the Mets back to the postseason
Lindor is having the type of season that would be worthy of MVP honors if not for Shohei Ohtani. His 32 home runs, 29 stolen bases, and .839 OPS prompted team president David Stearns to say Lindor is having the best individual offensive season in franchise history.
That's a stretch, but it is reasonable to say Lindor is the biggest reason why the Mets are playoff bound. For much of the early going, the 2024 Mets did not appear to be a postseason team. They started 0-5 and went 9-19 in May to find themselves 10 games below .500 on June 1.
In the 94 games Lindor has played since then, he has hit .298 with 23 home runs and a .924 OPS. He put his own stamp on the team's postseason bid on Monday with a go-ahead two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning, completing the comeback in a game that the Mets trailed 3-0 headed into the eighth inning.
New York then scored six in the top of the eighth to take the lead, with help from a Lindor RBI single. The Braves answered with four in the bottom of the inning to take the lead back, setting up the Mets shortstop's ninth-inning heroics.
Maybe that game swayed David Ortiz' postseason opinions.
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