David Stearns was going to reform the Mets, but now they stand a chance

MIAMI — In this transition season of sorts, the Mets have delivered their fans a gift by refusing to quit.

You have to respect it.

Remember, this was a team that was going for it last year, but by late June had mostly checked out, leading to a massive sell-off near the trade deadline.

Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander most notably were traded for prospects, and we began to discover (mostly through Scherzer’s candid comments) that team owner Steve Cohen viewed 2024 as a reset year for the payroll and audition opportunity for young players.

But a funny thing happened to the Mets on their way to a second straight summer of irrelevancy: They started winning.

Their bullpen woes be damned, the Mets have created as much excitement as any team in baseball over the past six weeks.

Playoff percentage odds that were once trending toward single digits have been getting close to becoming a coin flip. The Mets will begin the post-All Star break on Friday as a team others are chasing for a National League wild-card berth.

It’s the product of a 27-13 stretch in which players such as Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo and Jose Iglesias have stepped to the forefront and brought a collective “OMG” to Citi Field.

There have been others — whether it be Francisco Alvarez, Mark Vientos or Harrison Bader (and probably not as much Pete Alonso as you would have expected during such a surge). The starting rotation has become respectable, and the bullpen, well, it’s a problem.

The Mets will need their big guns if this wild ride is to continue, but there are two others carrying a large responsibility: president of baseball operations David Stearns and his handpicked manager Carlos Mendoza.

Stearns was hired last offseason to build for the future. But suddenly the Mets are living in the present, with a real opportunity to win.

Stearns struck before the All-Star break with a deal designed to help the bullpen, acquiring Phil Maton from the Rays. There is still work ahead of Stearns. Further reinforcements are needed as the team looks to navigate a wave of injuries and underperformance from veterans such as Jake Diekman and Adam Ottavino.

Stearns will be operating with the sizable advantage of Cohen’s checkbook. Trust me when I say Cohen is delighted with the manner this season has transformed and wants to take a shot at autumn glory with this bunch, but that is provided the Mets don’t enter a free fall over the next 10 days, and even then they won’t mortgage too much of the future for improvements.

But the Maton deal, in which the Mets absorbed the $2.75 million remaining on his contract — in addition to a player to be named later or cash considerations — should serve as a model for the type of trades Stearns can still look to orchestrate. And who knows, maybe there is a deal out there that sets up the Mets for even beyond the final two months of this season.

As for Mendoza, the rookie manager might have arrived as somebody entrusted with further developing young players such as Alvarez and Vientos, but his real-time moves will now be more dissected than ever. There have been frustrating moments, particularly in regard to Mendoza’s management of a volatile bullpen, but he also deserves credit for a move that helped jump-start the Mets’ season.

That occurred here in South Florida on May 18 when Mendoza moved Lindor to leadoff and slid Nimmo into the 3-hole. Nimmo has since settled quite comfortably into the second spot and arrived at the All-Star break as the team leader in RBIs.

Mendoza showed his backbone in giving Iglesias playing time over Jeff McNeil, allowing the Mets to lengthen their lineup. If McNeil doesn’t rebound soon, you wonder at what point he gets forgotten altogether.

The goal is just to reach the playoffs then take your best shot. It doesn’t matter how you arrive at that spot.

But for the past six weeks the Mets have resembled a team playing for something greater than just sneaking into the October/November tournament. The so-called reset year now has a chance to become something much better than just waiting until 2025.