There’s Always Next Year. Or Next Week.

What’s happening with the New York Mets as we burn through the remaining weeks of summer? To begin, they’re now 59-71, 16 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East. They’re also 11 games out of the last NL Wild card spot behind the San Diego Padres.

Zoom in, though, and it looks a little different. Before Wednesday’s game against the Padres, they were 10-4 over their last 14 games and 14-8 over their last 22. Tying those same Padres for the best record in the majors over the shorter span. As of Wednesday, the Mets had also hit 58 home runs over their last 41 games since July 1, the fifth most in the majors during that period.

And as of this writing on August 23, Andy Green, who was named interim manager for the remainder of the 2026 season, has finally achieved a winning record at 24-23.

Overall, there are a lot of new parts. On the player side, the Mets have had eight players make their Major League debut this year: OF Carson Benge, OF A.J. Ewing, LHP Nate Lavender, OF Nick Morabito, RHP Matt Seelinger, LHP Zac Thornton, RHP Jack Weisenburger and LHP Jefry Yan. They had nine players make their Major League debut in 2025.

But there are also signs of components snapping into place. Since May 1, Benge was hitting .290/.353/.444 with a .797 OPS before Wednesday’s game after batting .189/.247/.278 with four extra base hits and six RBI in his first 28 games of the season. His 18 steals were the fifth most by a Mets rookie in franchise history.

And in 30 games following the All-Star break, Francisco Lindor, now in his sixth season for the Mets, was batting .270/.373/.504 as of Wednesday with 18 runs, four doubles, one triple, seven homers, 18 walks, 20 RBI and an .817 OPS.

On Wednesday, Mets owner Steve Cohen said he thought head of baseball operations David Stearns probably took on “too much risk” between last season and this one. Turning over what seemed to be half the team and most of the franchise’s coaching staff.

But he also said that it’s “fun to see some of these younger players come up.” Expressing hope that the current winning streak will carry the team through the end of the year, and give everyone good feelings for next year.

What Mets fans would really like to see, of course, is a turnaround akin to the one the Boston Red Sox have pulled off this season, going from last place in June to holding a Wild Card spot in their league. Not next year, but this one.

But with so few weeks in the season left, would that be a little too amazing?