Last season, the New York Mets mixed a sputtering offense with a strong, young pitching staff, added a healthy dollop of trade-deadline cavalry and rolled to a World Series appearance.
Now, the Queens faithful had better hope history repeats itself.
After a humbling 6-0 loss to Julio Teheran and the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, the Mets have lost six of their last eight. Worse still, they were swept by a Braves team that's floating belly up in the National League East cellar.
At 36-32 entering play on Monday, New York sits in third place in the division, six games back of the first-place Washington Nationals and a half-game behind the Miami Marlins.
The Mets starting corps—fronted by NL Cy Young Award hopeful Noah Syndergaard and Rookie of the Year contender Steven Matz—has been mostly as advertised, posting the second-lowest ERA in baseball behind only the Chicago Cubs.
Yes, the arms wobbled in the Atlanta series, causing manager Terry Collins to note, flatly, "We did not pitch well in the last three days," per James Wagner of the New York Times.
The offense, however, has been by far the bigger culprit.
Part of the problem has been injuries. Third baseman David Wright (neck), catcher Travis d'Arnaud (shoulder) and first baseman Lucas Duda (back) are all on the shelf.
Outfielder Michael Conforto, meanwhile, has been nursing a wrist issue and has seen his average drop to .231. And second baseman Neil Walker, an early source of unexpected power, is battling back problems of his own.
Excuses, however, don't score runs. And right now, the Mets are ranked No. 28 in MLB in that department, ahead of only the Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, the two teams looking up at them in the East.
"Our lineup is what [it] is because that's what we have," Collins said, per the New York Times' Tyler Kepner.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Yes, the Mets have Yoenis Cespedes, last season's trade-deadline savior. The power-hitting Cuban leads the club in home runs (17), RBI (43) and slugging percentage (.564).
Cespedes himself, however, missed time with a hip problem. And New York can't realistically expect him to go on another Ruthian tear the way he did last summer after coming over in a July 31 deal with the Detroit Tigers.
Instead, the Mets' brass will almost surely have to work the phones as the Aug. 1 deadline approaches. And they may not be able to wait that long.
If the season ended today, the Mets would be just out of the second wild-card slot. With the Nationals rolling and the Marlins looking like a pesky threat, that's a precarious position for the defending NL champs.
Quite simply, they can't keep losing ground.
The bad news for New York is that this figures to be a sellers' market, with widespread parity and most clubs hanging around the edge of contention.
Still, there will be at least a few impact bats available.
Before re-acquiring utilityman Kelly Johnson from the Braves on June 8, the Mets inquired about Oakland A's third baseman Danny Valencia, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post.
With Wright likely out for the season after undergoing surgery, Valencia and his .910 OPS could provide a nice shot in the arm at the hot corner.
The asking price figures to be steep. But, as Davidoff noted, Oakland executive Billy Beane "has a strong relationship with Mets general manager Sandy Alderson, who preceded Beane as the A's GM, as well as Alderson's special assistant, J.P. Ricciardi, who worked under Beane in Oakland."
Then there are veteran sluggers like the Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun and the Cincinnati Reds' Jay Bruce, who could provide protection for Cespedes in an all-too-often punchless lineup.
Or what about another former Met and current Big Apple resident, outfielder Carlos Beltran, who could become available if the New York Yankees slide further from the playoff picture?
If you're looking for high-risk options, there's former Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, who was released by the Colorado Rockies and carries the stigma of a recent domestic violence suspension.
Collins, at least, sounded open to a Reyes reunion, saying on June 15 that he "missed" Reyes and "certainly always [rooted] for him," per Joe Giglio of NJ Advanced Media.
As with all trades and additions, there's no guarantee any of those names would offer an instant fix. What's clear for now is the Mets cannot continue with the status quo.
No, they don't want to mortgage an already-depleted farm system that Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter ranked No. 19 in the game after the 2016 amateur draft.
But they also can't afford to squander this stellar young staff, or to lose the goodwill they built with 2015's magical run.
Last year, the Mets caught lightning in a bottle with Cespedes. Now, it appears they'll need that trade-deadline magic to strike twice.
All statistics current as of June 19 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.
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