What wasn’t memorable about that night, though, was the team around Santana. The 2012 Mets were, well, not very good. There were a lot of bad players on that team. Now, a lot has happened in the five years since that day for both the Mets as a team, and all of these players who were on the team that night. And while we know what’s happened to the Mets since then, we might not know what has happened to all of the players who were on that team. So let’s check in with all the players who were on the Mets’ 25-man roster on June 1, 2012, and see how things have gone for them over the last 1,825 days.

Lucas Duda, Daniel Murphy, R.A. Dickey, and David Wright: These are the only four players left from that game who are still on MLB rosters right now. We don’t really need to catch up with these guys, because we know all about how they’re doing. Duda is now a Good first baseman, Murphy is a star on the Nationals, and Dickey’s having a rough time of it on the Braves. Let’s not talk about Wright.

Mike Baxter: Baxter famously destroyed his body to preserve the no-hitter, but that was pretty much his peak. After the 2013 season, he was claimed off waivers by the Dodgers, whom he played literally one MLB game for in 2014. In 2015, he signed on with the Cubs, and had a cup of coffee in the big leagues with them, but didn’t fare well. He spent last year in the Mariners’ minor league system, but did not sign back with them for 2017. He remains a free agent, and his baseball career may be all but over.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis: And here I thought I never had to spell that name again. The former high school football player has spent the last two seasons with the Brewers, and has done exactly how you think he has. Last year, he walked 14% of the time, played solid defense, posted a .176 ISO, and struck out 33.9% of the time. This year, he was designated for assignment and later sent to Triple-A after a 2-for-25 start with 15 strikeouts. He’s still Kirk Nieuwenhuis.

Ike Davis: The no-hitter occurred before the Ike Davis ship had completely sunk, but the iceberg had been struck and the lower levels were beginning to flood. The Mets correctly chose Lucas Duda over Davis in 2014, and since then Davis has been released by the Pirates, Athletics, Rangers, and Yankees. His last MLB stint came last year on the Yankees for eight games. He then signed with the Dodgers this offseason, where he is now buried on the first base depth chart behind Adrian Gonzalez, Cody Bellinger, and apparently Chase Utley.

Josh Thole: He put up a 29 wRC+ in 50 games last year with the Blue Jays, and is now in the Diamondbacks’ minor league system. He underwent surgery over the offseason to repair a torn hamstring and is estimated to be out until around August.

Omar Quintanilla: After his Mets career ended, Quintanilla had a two-game stint in the Rockies minor league system before heading off to the Mexican League. He’s spent the last two years getting very infrequent playing time for Toros de Tijuana, totaling only 27 PAs over these past two seasons.

Jon Niese: Niese is still in the Yankees system and has been working in extended spring training.

Dillon Gee: Gee is pitching for the Rangers Triple-A affiliate. He has a 3.88 ERA in nine starts in the PCL so far, and has made one appearance for the Rangers’ MLB team.

Bobby Parnell: Parnell was exiled from the Mets after his disastrous 2015, and hasn’t had much success since then. He went to the Tigers last season and pitched only 5.1 innings in the majors, and this season is pitching in Triple-A for the Royals. He owns a 4.71 ERA in 21 innings so far.

Vinny Rottino: Did you know Rottino played on the 2012 Mets? Well he did, and he was on the 25-man roster for the no-no. He’d floated around the minor leagues since 2012, and finally retired from baseball last September. Hopefully he can now start up a pizza roll business and call it Rottino’s Pizza Rolls.

…That was a funny joke and you should laugh at it.

Andres Torres: Torres retired from baseball after 2014 after playing his final season in 2013 for the Giants. Sadly, Torres lost his wife, Soannie, to cancer this past December at the age of 37. Torres is still heavily involved in the Bay Area community, and is doing what he can to inspire inner city kids.

Scott Hairston: Jerry’s younger brother spent time with the Cubs and the Nationals in the two years after his Mets tenure ended. He was signed by the White Sox before the 2016 season, but was released after spring training. He technically remains a free agent, though it certainly looks as if his playing days are over.

Mike Nickeas: The non-elite prospect played one MLB game for the Blue Jays in 2013 after the Mets traded him, and retired from baseball in 2015. He went back to Georgia Tech to complete his degree in business administration last year, and now serves as the volunteer bench coach on the Georgia Tech baseball team. He was also the bench coach for the Great Britain National Team in the WBC qualifiers last fall.

Jordany Valdespin: Released by the Mets because of numerous attitude issues, Vladespin spent time with the Marlins and Tigers before heading to the Mexican League this year. He was promptly released in April by Leones de Yucatan after just 14 games with them because they couldn’t stand him either. However, he signed on to play for Olmecas de Tabasco just two days later, and he’s hitting .371/.470/.556 in 34 games with them. So that’s good. Valdespin is also now immortalized on Mets pre-and-post-game shows with Nelson Figueroa’s daily “I’m the Man Right Now” segments.

What’s more, the awful music video for the terrible rap song about him was removed from YouTube for some reason, though the atrocity still exists in audio form. As of this writing, that video has 11 views, and at least three of them are from me.

Jeremy Hefner: After two Tommy John surgeries, Hefner decided to retire from professional baseball this past January at the age of 31. It’s a sad end for Hefner, who looked like he had some potential as a useful fifth starter/swingman, which the Mets could really use right about now. But Hefner is now serving as an advance scout for the Twins, and continues to keep a strong social media presence along with his wife, Sarah.

Jon Rauch: Arguably the Mets’ best reliever in 2012, Rauch and his neck tattoos last pitched for the Marlins in 2013. He’s retired now, and owns a car shop called Bullpen Garage in Tucson, Arizona. According to the shop’s site, it is dedicated to off-road and 4×4 vehicles.

Ramon Ramirez: You may remember Ramirez as the guy who pulled his hamstring running in from the bullpen in the celebration after the no-hitter. After an unsuccessful season with the Mets in 2012, he had minor league stints with the Giants, Mariners, Orioles, Angels, and the Mexican League from 2013-2016, though he’s not signed anywhere for this season. He also has the most detailed Wikipedia page I’ve ever seen for a journeyman reliever.

Elvin Ramirez, Frank Francisco, Jack Egbert: These were relievers on the 2012 Mets. They were on the 25-man roster on June 1, 2012. They are no longer in baseball. This is the most information I could find about any of them.

Tim Byrdak: Byrdak was also a victim of anterior capsule surgery. He went under the knife in 2012, and it basically ended his career. He was able to return to the Mets in 2013, but only for a handful of innings, and has not played baseball anywhere since then. He has dabbled in announcing, even calling a few Mets spring training games with Josh Lewin in 2014, but he’s since gone back to college and is currently attending Robert Morris University working towards a degree.

Johan Santana: Santana made only 10 more starts in his MLB career after his no-hitter. He had a second anterior capsule surgery in 2013, which many thought would end his career, but to his credit, has tried his best to make a comeback.

Santana signed with the Orioles in 2014 on a minor-league deal. On June 6 of that season, he tore his Achilles tendon and missed the rest of the season. In 2015, he attempted another comeback, but halted his comeback attempt once again due to a toe infection. He went unsigned in 2016, though his agent said he was still trying to comeback. Reports were that Santana was going to pitch in the Venezuelan Winter League over the offseason, though I was unable to confirm if he actually did.

Santana, now 38, has likely seen his playing career come to an end. Nobody can deny the valor he showed towards the end, gutting out a 134-pitch effort while not fully recovered from major surgery and continuously trying to fight his way back into baseball, but it never worked out for him. Santana was legitimately one of the best pitchers in baseball for a decade, and his Mets career outside of the no-hitter may forever go underappreciated as well, due to the way it ended and the amount of money he was owed.

***

This was a bad team. There were other players not mentioned here, because they were not on the 25-man roster on June 1, 2012, due to injury. Jason Bay, Ruben Tejada, Ronny Cedeno, and Miguel Batista are a few of the names left off this list, and it’s probably a good thing they were. The fact that Santana was able to throw his no-hitter with this cast of characters around him makes it all the more impressive.

Photo credit: Kate Feldman

The two hits managed by the Mets in Saturday’s loss to the Nationals were, in fact, one more than the number of wins they’d posted in the last eight games. There’s a post-apocalyptic feeling to this team right now. Fans are resigned to the next offensive drought, the next injury, the next loss.

MEANWHILE, Max Scherzer struck out nine over eight innings Sunday and retired the last 10 Mets he faced. Nationals 6, Mets 3, as the Nationals swept the series.

Fake News

Major League Baseball’s influenza epidemic — which likely started in the Red Sox’s fumigated clubhouse — is spreading. Fans wondering why Mets players are dropping like flies are learning the truth is much worse than expected. Wright, Matz, Lugo, Duda, Flores, Cespedes, Nimmo… nearly a third of the expected Opening Day roster is afflicted by this virulent pathogen. There’s no telling whether the disease is man-made or random mutation, but soon there will be no more ballgames played under floodlights.

Punditry

Nielsen ratings for last night’s contest dropped off dramatically in Mets households after the fourth batter of the game. That was Daniel Murphy, put on earth to proselytize and to punish the Mets for merely tendering him a qualifying offer after a 2015 postseason in which he hit .328/.391/.724 with seven home runs. Murphy hit his third home run of the 2017 season with three runners on base. The salami was preceded by a weak, stick-out-your-arm hit-by-pitch of leadoff pest Adam Eaton, a Trea Turner infield single on which Asdrubal Cabrera appeared to aggravate a lower-body injury, and a solid opposite-field single by Bryce Harper.

You can hardly blame Mets fans for tuning out at that point, when the offense has been AWOL and about to face last year’s Cy Young winner, a heterochromic ace who hadn’t allowed a home run all season. Those who stopped watching missed the game that made Michael Conforto a starter for the rest of his career. Conforto crushed the second pitch he saw from Scherzer over the 335-foot sign in the left-field corner:

Conforto came up again in the third and laced a single up the middle ahead of a Neil Walker home run. In the fifth inning, he pulled a line drive into right, giving him a hit in every direction for the game. Three-for-three in the first five innings is by no means unprecedented, but doing it against Max Scherzer feels significant. Even when Conforto struck out in his last at-bat, he saw seven pitches and fouled off four of them. Conforto also made a couple of fine defensive plays. If there’s a silver lining to this Mets loss, it’s that unnamed sources can no longer suggest Conforto needs more seasoning.

Anyone who tuned out following Murphy’s grand slam also squandered an opportunity to watch Zack Wheeler recover beautifully. After the dinger, Wheeler retired 21 of the next 24 men he faced, striking out six and walking only two. Yeah, I’m pooh-poohing Wheeler giving up Murphy’s blast. Still, it’s fair to say he showed efficiency and endurance by going seven innings and throwing 101 pitches on a night it seemed he’d be done early.

Also appearing on the bright-side list for the Mets: Jeurys Familia threw a perfect top of the ninth. Gamecast says he was throwing 95 mph sinkers, but the movement was so extreme one could speculate those are insanely hard splitters. Without overlooking the domestic violence suspension that caused Familia’s early-season absence, the Mets are a better baseball team with him in the bullpen.

Social Media

I disagree with Daniel Murphy's grand slam-hitting lifestyle.

— Bill Baer (@Baer_Bill) April 24, 2017

GKR-isms

First time I’ve recapped a Sunday Night Baseball game. The difference between the Mets’ three-man booth and ESPN’s bloated production — Buster Olney interviewing managers between innings, Jessica Mendoza’s glorified sideline-reporter-canned-interviews split-screen with live action, extra-long commercial breaks, talking-head video of the announcers aside action on the field as if we need to see them talk while the game is going on — is jarring. As Mets fans we’re used to complaining about the players and the manager. We should never be heard to complain about the best broadcast in the business.

Forecast

A merciful day off. The Mets host the Braves tomorrow night. Get your vacation-day request in for Thursday so you can give Bartolo Colon a standing ovation before his matinee start.

Photo credit: Anthony Gruppuso – USA Today Sports

Nevertheless, the Mets’ absence in the playoffs now creates a void for those who wanted to see more Mets baseball in October. There will still be baseball, but now fans will have to find other teams to support in the meantime. With the field now narrowed down to six (sorry, Carlos Beltran), what should be the preferred rooting order?

6. Los Angeles Dodgers

Former Mets: Justin Turner

No, absolutely not. They have Chase Utley, not to mention a couple other former Phillies who gave fans headaches. It would be hard for a team that isn’t in the NL East to take the bottom spot on this list, but that’s the power of Utley. Not even Turner’s glorious red locks can come close to making up for that. There’s also the fact that their World Series title drought is roughly as long as the Mets’ and they simply can’t be allowed to snap it before the Mets snap theirs.

5. Washington Nationals

Former Mets: Daniel Murphy, Oliver Perez

It was disappointing enough that the Mets couldn’t surge ahead of the Nats late this year as they did in late 2015, but that’s the wisdom of gradually dropping Matt Williams, Drew Storen, and Jonathan Papelbon from the organization. There is no sense in cheering for the primary division rival. It’s not quite to the crazy level of a Cardinals fan pulling for the Cubs or a Yankees fan hoping the Red Sox can survive, but the point still stands. Sorry, Murph.

4. San Francisco Giants

Former Mets: Angel Pagan

The team that knocked the Mets out only ranking third-worst here is a testament to the grim reality of the field. However, #EvenYearBullshit can be only be tolerated so much, particularly since Bumgarner almost single-handedly eliminated the Mets, save for a three-run blast from a classic “who?” Giants hero, Conor Gillaspie. They’ve won enough. It’s time for someone else.

Knowing the Giants, there is a very low chance that this season doesn’t end with Eduardo Nunez proudly holding the World Series MVP.

3. Chicago Cubs

Former Mets: None

The Cubs are the last NL team to be mentioned, but only because the idea of a championship for them is not as bad as it would be for the other three clubs. Like the since-eliminated Red Sox, they do have that awesome young core, and it’s not like they caused any problems for the Mets last year en route to their NL pennant. So as fun as it would be to see that championship drought continue, they’re palatable enough to make them the best NL option, despite Joe Maddon’s cutesy quirks.

2. Toronto Blue Jays

Former Mets: Ezequiel Carrera (minors), Jose Bautista (lol)

When this offense is rolling (as they did in the ALDS), it’s a lot of fun to watch, as the Blue Jays have tons of dinger threats. It’s kind of unbelievable that they had to settle for a Wild Card. It is incredibly difficult to find relief in this lineup, as Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, and Jose Bautista provide formidable threats right in the heart of it, and both Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki had 20 homers this year, as well. The fan base has had its ugly moments, and Donaldson has been a bit hyper-sensitive about remotely close pitches. They still aren’t a bad option, especially for those unenthused by the NL crop.

1. Cleveland Indians

Former Mets: None

Numbers one and two can be easily flip-flopped. The Indians’ whole brand is pretty gross, from the name to Chief Wahoo to fan behavior. If the team was named anything else, this would be a no-doubter. Pretend they’re called the Fightin’ Franconas.

The Fightin’ Franconas just have a tremendously entertaining team, with terrific defense from the likes of Francisco Lindor and an underrated offense led by Carlos Santana, Mike Napoli, and up-and-comers Tyler Naquin and Jose Ramirez. The pitching would be even more tremendous if they were at full strength, but watching Corey Kluber robotically mow through lineups is all the fun of Bumgarner without it actually being Bumgarner.

Also, Terry Francona has expertly managed the bullpen and is willing to use super-reliever Andrew Miller in just about any spot, even as early as the fifth inning. It’s refreshing to see both a manager embrace that fireman role, and for the pitcher himself to fully support it. They have the longest title drought in the AL at 68 years. Maybe it would nicer if they broke it next year, but the Fightin’ Franconas are a fine pick.

Photo Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Jose Reyes

Jose Reyes last reached the postseason as a member of the 2006 New York Mets who lost in the NCLS. Now in his second tenure with the team, he again has the opportunity to help the Mets win the World Series. Reyes is not as popular as in his first stint due to his arrest for domestic violence. Nor is he the same player he used to be (1.7 WARP in 2016 vs. 6.4 WARP in 2011). This year’s version of Reyes has been merely serviceable, with a .325 OBP, but that’s significantly better than the mediocre Eric Campbell and Matt Reynolds.

Come the World Series, Reyes will provide the spark that rallies the team to victory. Whether he’s manufacturing runs himself or scoring on the onslaught of Asdrubal Cabrera and Yoenis Cespedes dingers, Reyes will break the World Series runs scored record (10, held by 1993 Paul Molitor and 1977 Reggie Jackson) and deservedly win the MVP award. — Seth Rubin (@sethrubin)

Jay Bruce

When the Mets acquired Jay Bruce from the Reds at the August 1 trade deadline, Terry Collins described the veteran outfielder as a “tremendous run-producing guy” and a “huge bat in the middle of our lineup.” For about seven weeks, that player was nowhere to be found. Collins even pinch-hit Eric Campbell in a critical moment against the Braves back on September 20. Just when it looked like things couldn’t get any worse for him, the switch flipped in a big way, as Bruce hit .480 (12-for-25) with four homers and a double over the final eight games of the regular season.

Naturally, I don’t feel nearly as confident about the starting pitching going into this year’s playoffs as I did a year ago. If this team makes (and wins) the World Series, they are going to to do it mostly on the backs of their offense. That’s why I’m predicting Bruce will continue to redeem himself during this postseason run and carve out a special place in franchise history. Come on, you know you want to see an avalanche of shame retweets from before this recent surge. – D.J. Short (@djshort)

Jeurys Familia

I wrote a, well, bold thing for our BP-Mets preseason bold predictions. Turns out Familia wasn’t the best reliever in the National League. Although on balance, he was a very good one. He showed flashes of his 2015 dominance but also went through several rough patches where he lost his mechanics. The Mets have a long, perilous road to get back to the World Series in 2016, and they will need Familia to be an anchor in the ninth (and maybe even the eighth) inning. If they are popping champagne in November, it is very likely they had to win a lot of close, low-scoring games to get there, and “Danza Kuduro” will have been on loop at Citi Field for a month (it should be regardless).

Right up until he decided to quick pitch Alex Gordon, Familia had been automatic in the 2015 playoffs. When Familia slams the door in the final game of this year’s World Series, it could easily be the fourth game he’s saved in the Fall Classic. That will be enough to get him the hardware. — Jeffrey Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro)

Bartolo Colon

Bartolo Colon is not the best pitcher on the Mets. His fastball barely cracks 90. No Warthen Slider will ever leap from his fingertips. His 3.43 ERA for the season is his best as a Met, but his 5.17 DRA suggests the specter of regression yet to come. He didn’t even crack the postseason rotation in 2015, but this year he slots in as the number-two starter. And when he takes the stage, facing some of the best hitters the MLB can throw at him, he’s going to dominate.

Colon is almost preternaturally relaxed. To see him warm up, you’d never know if he was throwing in the World Series or a beer-league softball game. It’s all the same to him — every game, every at-bat. Baseball’s biggest stars will admit to the impact of adrenaline during the postseason, a wave many ride successfully for a time before the blood pressure inevitably declines over the course of nine innings. Colon will ride no such wave on his way to World Series MVP, he’ll just get up every game and do his job. His easy motion will allow him to rack up hundreds of pitches on his way to two complete games and, coming after fireballer Noah Syndergaard, his soft-tossing will befuddle hitters. Then the “Bart Bart Bart!” chants will echo in our ears until Spring.  — Maggie Wiggin (@maggie162)

T.J. Rivera

A second baseman known for contact hitting suddenly unlocks his power bat in the playoffs. We’ve seen it before with Daniel Murphy. But maybe there’s something magical about the Mets’ second base position. That’s why I’m taking T.J. Rivera, 2016 World Series MVP! It’s actually not as far-fetched as it sounds. Madison Bumgarner was the first pitcher to win the award since 2003. You don’t see a lot of superstar hitters winning World Series MVP – even Derek Jeter only won the award once. The list of World Series MVPs contains far more journeymen than the NBA and NHL versions. They tend to be above-average hitters who excel at contact, have some power, and get hot at the right time. Think David Freese. Both Freese and Rivera got their first extended big league playing time at age 27. What better symbol of a team that got contributions from a full 40 man roster than to have an undrafted free agent win World Series MVP? — Noah Grand (@noahgrand)

Curtis Granderson

Curtis Granderson is the archetype player who can go on a run to carry this team. When he’s in a good zone and making consistent contact, that lefty power stroke can be devastating for opposing pitchers, planting dinger after dinger into the right field stands. He’s not a consistent 30-homer threat for nothing, and Mets fans saw just last year how one scalding hot player can take over multiple series. Granderson might not go on quite as ridiculous a run as Daniel Murphy, but he definitely has the potential to do something special. — Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA)

Daniel Murphy

The Mets have a tough playoff road ahead of them as they battle through the Wild Card and then take on the Cubs. Meanwhile, Daniel Murphy and his sore butt have been out of the Nationals’ lineup for over a week, which, because I have the maturity of an 8-year-old, is hysterical. Prediction: Murphy will return for the NLDS as scheduled and the Nationals will take the Dodgers down, but not without wearing out that sore booty, putting the slugger back on the bench for the NLCS and propelling the Kings of Queens forth into the World Series, where no second baseman could possibly drop the ball as much as Murph did last year. — Sara Nović (@novicsara)

Photo Credit: David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

Despite being added to a more talented team than the Braves were fielding in Atlanta, there wasn’t much reason to believe that the 34-year-old Johnson would suddenly turn things around.

Then something happened. An event that’s seemingly changed everything.

After watching the transformation of former Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy firsthand at the conclusion of last year, Johnson approached hitting coach Kevin Long at some point after being re-acquired by the team, asking why he couldn’t make the same changes to his approach that Murphy made, according to SNY’s Steve Gelbs.

Since then, Johnson has watched film of Murphy’s batting stance and swing, has moved closer to the plate, and has worked on being more compact to the baseball in order to do more damage at the plate. It seems to have worked.

In 49 games with the Braves earlier this season, Johnson struggled mightily, hitting .215/.273/.289 with one home run, six doubles and 10 RBI. It looked as if his career may have been winding down. Thanks to his revamped swing, though, Johnson has absolutely thrived. He’s hitting .286/.353/.500 with eight home runs, six doubles and 20 RBI in 61 games since his return to Queens. Johnson had 121 at-bats with the Braves earlier this season, while he’s currently at 140 at-bats with the Mets. A nearly identical number of at-bats, with drastically different results.

Prior to joining the Mets, Johnson struggled to hit the ball with much authority. Since making the adjustments at the plate, however, the veteran infielder has increased his coverage of the plate and done major damage with the balls he’s been putting in play.

During his 49 games with the Braves, Johnson’s stance was a bit more upright and he was slightly further away from the plate, which may have affected his ability to make solid contact with any balls on the outside, where he hit .239 on such pitches.

Since coming to the Mets, however, Johnson has implemented a slightly more crouched batting stance and is much closer to the plate than earlier in the season. These adjustments appear to be a big factor in his newfound plate coverage, as he’s currently hitting .466 on pitches on the outside part of the strike zone. The plots below (from BrooksBaseball.com) demonstrate the difference between his plate coverage before and after his move to New York.

In his first two months of the season in Atlanta, Johnson was making hard contact 23.5 percent of the time. Since the start of June, that number has increased to 36.3 percent.

While Johnson is in the midst of a major resurgence, some of that may have been flying under the radar, as he’s served in more of a utility role over the last couple of months. (And, of course, small sample caveats apply.) Even so, he’s made the most of his new role as his four pinch-hit home runs lead the team and are good for the second-most among any player in baseball this season. He’s also recorded five game-winning RBI since re-joining the club.

As his production continues to increase, specifically in clutch situations, his playing time may well do the same; Johnson came through with a two-out, game-winning three-run double in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s game against the Marlins. With Neil Walker’s 2016 season coming to an abrupt end as he has decided to undergo back surgery, Johnson’s number may be called on even more as the Mets continue their push for a return to the postseason.

While I wouldn’t expect Johnson to duplicate Murphy’s success entirely, as the now-Nationals second baseman has turned into one of the best hitters in the league, it’s become clear that this change in approach could be making a big impact. If Johnson can continue his success over the final month of the regular season, perhaps it will be another veteran second baseman who’s unlikely surge in production will help the Mets towards reaching their ultimate goal in October.

One can only hope history repeats itself.

Photo Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

Aside from a bit of a power spike in 2014, when Walker hit a career-high 23 homers, he’s been a modestly above-average hitter and a below-average fielder at a valuable position. Overall, he’s a very solid player, and acquiring him for a declining Jonathon Niese ranks as one of Sandy Alderson’s better moves. In 2016, his walk year, he’s been largely the same player, but just a little bit better:

He’s on pace to shatter that 2014 career-high in homers, has consolidated offensive gains from previous seasons, and is having his best defensive season by most metrics. Much of this has come in a so-far blistering second half. We’ll come back to why this might be happening later on.

If you’re a longer-term Mets fan, you might remember the consistency of the second baseman prior to Walker, Daniel Murphy:

Kind of a similar player, and even more consistent, but a little worse, right? There’s a power spike in 2015, and if you dig a little deeper it came almost all in the second half. I’ll assume everyone reading this article is aware that Murphy then went nuts in the 2015 postseason, setting the record for most consecutive games with a home run, and basically carrying the Mets to the World Series on his bat alone.

Murphy’s late-season and postseason gains caused the Mets to tender him the qualifying offer, which he declined under the hopes that the Mets would offer him a multi-year deal. But the Mets did not believeth in Murph, reacting with borderline glee to his decision to walk away, freeing them to lust after Ben Zobrist and ultimately trade for Walker. Murphy took his talents to the Navy Yard, signing a three-year, $37.5 million deal with the Washington Nationals. Through August 16th, this looks like one of the greatest bargains in the free agency era of baseball:

Even at the time, it wasn’t clear that Murphy declining the initial $15.8 million from the Mets was the correct move for him. He’d have had to have a true disaster of a 2016 not to be able to beat two years and $22 million over 2017 and 2018. But, guaranteed money is guaranteed money. Now, Murphy’s contract already looks ludicrous, and he would’ve easily landed a nine-figure deal had he been able to re-enter free agency this offseason.

Much has been written noting Murphy’s improvement from league-average slap hitter to the left-handed Mike Trout. Surprisingly little has been written about how he improved. Suffice to say, a full accounting of Murphy’s rise is an article or five onto itself — Rian Watt covered it some over at VICE Sports, and as always, his work on Murphy is worth a read. In short, Murphy had always possessed more raw power than you’d have thought scouting his stat lines, and Mets hitting coach Kevin Long reworked him into a dead uppercut hitter, which had a bunch of positive cascade effects like improving his plate coverage and turning weak contact the other way into pulled liners. Most of these “hitting coach makes major changes” stories turn out to be fleeting, and the Mets didn’t even self-scout this one as accurate. But Murphy isn’t even the only guy Long has this type of credit with—look no further than Curtis Granderson.

So what does this mean for Neil Walker? You can find these kinds of Kevin Long tidbits about making substantial changes to Neil Walker’s swing, too. Going back to spring training, the Mets had talked about Long working on big changes to Walker mechanically, especially as a right-handed batter. The sample sizes are tiny, but after going through a career in Pittsburgh where it was suggested that he give up switch-hitting, Walker has murdered lefties this season, putting up a Murphian .330/.381/.619 triple-slash. He had hit six home runs as a right-handed batter for his entire career entering 2016, and has hit eight already in 2016.

Given that he’s always been a little better player than Murphy, making Walker the qualifying offer seems like a no-brainer. But unlike with Murphy, the Mets seem to want Walker to stay; there is reported mutual interest in discussing a contract extension. In the period since Murphy walked, Dilson Herrera has become a Cincinnati Red, vacating his second baseman of the future crown. And in the period since Murphy rejected the qualifying offer, the market fell out for second-tier hitters tagged with a QO. Murphy himself came in under projections, and Ian Desmond and Dexter Fowler both ultimately had to accept one-year deals for less than they had initially rejected. Before Walker’s recent incredible offensive outburst, Kate Morrison predicted that he would probably accept if tendered the qualifying offer, given those market conditions and that two hitters (Colby Rasmus and Matt Wieters) broke the dam on playing a year out under the tender last offseason.

I don’t know how real Neil Walker’s gains are. They aren’t quite as stark as Murphy’s, but there’s a lot of the same buzz around it. And what the Mets can’t do is let another Kevin Long success story walk away because they couldn’t recognize it was real. The Mets do have other internal 2017 second base candidates—Wilmer Flores, Jose Reyes, even Gavin Cecchini—but none are as good as even pre-2016 consistent old Neil Walker, and Flores and Reyes could have other important roles to play elsewhere. Assuming Walker’s price is reasonable, at worst you’re retaining a good player for a few more years, and you might be getting a lot more. It’s probably time to make him a Met for awhile.

Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Daniel Murphy

You know what you can never have enough of? Well, dingers, for one. Starting pitching, definitely. What else? Infield depth, of course! Sure, Wilmer Flores looks like the second coming of Joe Morgan at the plate and Neil Walker continually proves the inverse of his surname and perhaps some day Lucas Duda will grace us again with his presence. But what the Mets could use right about now is a versatile infielder who can rake. Murphy might not hang on to win a batting title this season but that .346 TAv would sure look nice batting in front of Yoenis Cespedes. With third base likely an open question for some time to come, sticking Murph at the hot corner — even with his, uh, suboptimal defense at times — would solve a lot more problems than it causes. — Erik Malinowski (@erikmal)

Michael Fulmer

As the Mets’ rotation runs into midseason injury woes, it’s time for the team to once again turn to a young fireballer waiting in the minors with solid command and a plus slider. Everybody give a warm New York welcome to Michael Fulm– Wait, they traded him? Welp.

Yes, it’s true, the seemingly endless pipeline of top-of-the-rotation pitching talent ran dry for the Mets when they sent Michael Fulmer to the Tigers last season for Yoenis Cespedes, in what might be the closet thing to a true win-win trade the league has seen in a decade. But as the Mets scramble to plug Logan Verrett into the injured Matt Harvey’s rotation spot, it’s awfully hard not to look toward Motown at Fulmer’s 2.11 ERA (2.95 DRA) and 2.2 WARP and not think, “Sure would be nice to have one of those.” — Maggie Wiggin (@maggie162)

Yusmeiro Petit

Now, Yusmeiro Petit never actually pitched for the major-league Mets. He, along with Mike Jacobs, was shipped to the Marlins in 2005 for Carlos Delgado in one of the better trades of Omar Minaya’s tenure. Petit bounced around between Miami, Arizona, Seattle, and the Mexican League, starting and relieving, before re-emerging with the Giants as a successful swingman and eventual playoff hero. He was a viable free agent target for the Mets even last offseason, as he is better-suited to the Logan Verrett role than Logan Verrett. And the Mets could really use another arm right about now — as you may have heard. Prying him from a division rival with bullpen issues of their own is a non-starter, but 23-year-old Jeffrey, who started writing about prospects because of Petit’s 2005 season, would like nothing more than a reunion. And heck, 34-year-old Jeffrey just sat through Logan Verrett’s last start. A reunion sounds pretty good to him, too. — Jeffrey Paternostro (@jeffpaternostro)

Justin Turner

Pure fortune brought the righty-swinging Turner to the Mets in the first place. A seventh-round pick by the Reds in 2006, he was dealt to the Orioles in a 2008 deal for Ramon Hernandez, and the Mets were able to pick him up off waivers in May 2010. The ginger became a regular in the Mets’ clubhouse early in 2011 and held his own against MLB pitching over the next three years, batting .265/.326/.370 with a .261 TAv in his age-25 to -28 seasons. He was a very useful player capable of appearing all around the infield and certainly could have filled at least a bench role on any team.

However, after the 2013 season, the Mets surprisingly decided to non-tender Turner, declining to even give him the pedestrian $800,000 he likely would have earned in 2014. There were even whispers that the decision was based on a perceived lack of hustle. Turner ended up with the Dodgers and suddenly broke out in 2014 with a .340/.404/.493 triple slash in 109 games.

The Mets looked like complete fools for letting him go at basically no cost, and the wildling has maintained terrific numbers in LA. He is already on his way to a career-high in homers in 2016. Turner would have been helpful to have around, particularly with David Wright’s career seemingly stumbling to an injury-ravaged conclusion. Whoops. — Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA)

Oliver Perez

Call me a masochist, but I would enjoy Oliver Perez coming back to the team. During his last two years with the Mets, Perez was an absolute disaster; putting up ERAs of 6.82 (2009) and 6.80 (2010). This, combined with his bloated contract and unwillingness to accept a demotion to the minor leagues, made him one of the most hated players in Mets history. However, it seems like Ollie is more of a goofball than a bad guy. Maybe he was a little selfish, but I think that is the worst you can say about him. Also, since he’s left the Mets, he has been a pretty effective reliever. The main reason I would like the Mets to bring him back is just, I mean, how funny would that be? — Tyler Plofker (@TylerPlofker)

Carlos Beltran

Some Mets fans think about Carlos Beltran and they can’t shake the sight of him taking an Adam Wainwright curveball for strike three. There’s a reason some fans #BlameBeltran instead of #BlameReyes, even after both players left in 2011. I’ve always seen Beltran as a hitter whose on-base skills and power led to 32.6 wins above replacement. Beltran is still a valuable player with a .303 True Average and 1.4 wins above replacement in 2016. The Yankees aren’t going anywhere this season and will look to trade the veteran for one last playoff run. Terry Collins keeps playing Alejandro De Aza on a regular basis, even though De Aza has been a below-replacement player. Let’s bring back Beltran! Maybe this year he will hammer at a hanging curveball from Jonathan Papelbon to give the Mets the division title and end the #BlameBeltran meme for good. — Noah Grand (@noahgrand)

Darren O’Day

Recent New York Mets teams have struggled to find a reliable relief pitcher, forcing them to make trades or sign free agents to fill out the bullpen. While Addison Reed has been a successful example (after the Mets traded for him and subsequently re-signed him to a one-year deal), the Mets could still use another relief pitcher. The perfect player for that role would be Darren O’Day, a submarine-style reliever for the Baltimore Orioles and 2015 All-Star. Despite his low release point, O’Day has been successful against lefties, allowing a batting average against of only .235. He’s been even better against righties, with a batting average-against of .195. In addition, O’Day is an above-average reliever across the board in terms of FIP, strikeout rate and walk rate, making him the perfect long-term option for the Mets bullpen.  O’Day, the perfectcandidate for the Mets bullpen (or any bullpen for that matter) was a New York Met in 2008 for 2 weeks, when the team selected him in the Rule 5 Draft. Unfortunately, the Mets released him and the Texas Rangers grabbed him. Since then, the Mets have subsequently struggled to find a long-term solution to their bullpen woes.  — Seth Rubin (@sethrubin)

Joe Smith

Pretty much everything Seth wrote about Darren O’Day applies to Joe Smith. Except that the Orioles are in first place in the A.L. East and aren’t going to move their $7 million reliever. But the Angels are 14 games under .500 and should be selling everything that’s not bolted down. Smith is a free agent at year’s end, so Los Angeles of Anaheim might well make him available.

The Mets drafted Smith and promoted him in 2007, when he was just 23 years old. Smith pitched to a 3.51 ERA out of the bullpen in his two Mets seasons, but his 5.20 DRA in 2008 was less promising. After the 2008 season, the Mets dealt Smith (and Endy Chavez!) as part of a massive three-team deal, by which the Mets acquired J.J. Putz from the Mariners. Putz was awful in his one Mets season, walking as many batters per nine innings as he struck out and suffering with a 5.40 DRA. The Mets let Putz go at season’s end, after which he threw five seasons with a 2.81 ERA, mostly for the Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, Smith has a 2.86 ERA in his eight seasons since leaving Queens. It’s not easy to build a good bullpen. — Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

Photo Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Although the Mets reaped the rewards of Piazza later in his career, they have certainly made good decisions in the waning rounds of the draft as well. Time will tell if Sandy Alderson’s crew can make similarly good calls this year, but at least they will know that there is precedent. The players here were all taken beyond the 10^th round and went on to succeed with the Mets, not other teams (apologies to a 12^th rounder from 1965 named Nolan Ryan).

No. 5: Benny Agbayani

Drafted: 1993, 30^th round
School: Hawaii Pacific University

It is somewhat surprising to realize that fan-favorite Benny Agbayani only had a five-year major-league career, and he was relevant on the Mets for just three of them. However, Agbayani had very good timing, playing an important role on the Mets’ 1999 and 2000 playoff teams and earning him the extra credit to crack this list over less interesting names like Dillon Gee and Ty Wigginton.

Agbayani worked very hard to make a name for himself in the Mets’ system despite being such a late draft pick. He spent 344 games in Triple-A Norfolk with only a couple cups of coffee in the pros before carving out a spot on Bobby Valentine’s club in ‘99 at age 27. He impressed with a .288/.379/.498 triple-slash, 37 doubles, 29 homers, and a .292 TAv during the next two seasons. Postseason play didn’t bother Agbayani either, as he hit .299/.420/.433 in 22 games, most memorably crushing a walk-off homer in Game 3 of the 2000 NLDS against the Giants:

Agbayani departed after the 2001 campaign in the three-team Jeromy Burnitz trade, and his MLB career was over following a season split with the Rockies and Red Sox. Nonetheless, it was an exciting time to be a Met, and this draft unknown sure found the spotlight.

No. 4: Jim McAndrew

Drafted: 1965, 11^th round
School: Iowa

A mostly forgotten righty from the Mets’ late ‘60s and early ‘70s ballclubs, Jim McAndrew never had the best of luck. His SABR bio by C. Paul Rogers does an effective job explaining his maladies, but the short version includes catching the flu from a flu shot at an inopportune time, a line drive off his finger, a pregame fly ball collision, and even a robbery. Oh, and his best seasons came not in the Mets’ pennant-winning years of ’69 and ’73 but in two of the mediocre Mets seasons in between. McAndrew earned his World Series ring though, with a 3.59 DRA and 1.9 WAR in the championship ’69 season.

Despite the righty’s misfortune, he did a fine job on the mound during his tenure, recording a 3.54 ERA and 3.45 FIP over six years with 10.4 WARP to his name. McAndrew’s best season came in 1970, when he posted a 2.80 DRA, 4.9 WARP, and threw nine complete games, three of them shutouts. After the ’73 season, he was traded to the Padres and saw his career end in June due to ineffectiveness. But, hey–he will always have that World Series ring.

No. 3: John Milner

Drafted: 1968, 14^th round
School: South Fulton HS (East Point, GA)

A hard-hitting first baseman and left fielder out of the Atlanta suburbs, John Milner mashed his way through the minors and made his MLB debut at age 21 late in the ’71 campaign. Given a starting opportunity about a month into ’72, Milner ran with it and hit .238/.340/.423 with 17 homers in 117 games, a .304 TAv that helped him finish third in NL Rookie of the Year voting behind teammate Jon Matlack.

“The Hammer” was a presence in the Mets’ lineup for the next five seasons, crushing 94 homers in his Mets career. He hit 23 in the pennant-winning ’73 season and followed that with a fine World Series performance against the dynasty Oakland A’s. Milner’s plate discipline was underrated in this era, causing his skills to be overlooked and the Mets to perhaps deal him sooner than necessary. Traded to the Pirates after ’77, Milner earned a ring in ’79 with the Bucs and retired in 1982 after a 12-year career.

No. 2: Lenny Dykstra

Drafted: 1981, 13^th round
School: Garden Grove HS (Garden Grove, CA)

“Nails” was one of a kind and the sparkplug of the Mets’ last World Series champion. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 314 players were taken ahead of him in the draft, so making the majors after was one of the numerous obstacles he faced. He really caught the Mets’ attention in ’83, when he stole 105 bases in 136 games while hitting .358/.472/.503 for Class-A Lynchburg. That put him on the fast track to the pros, and by the middle of ’85, he was up for good.

Dykstra’s best season in Queens was, of course, 1986, when he batted .295/.377/.445 with 31 steals as the Mets’ leadoff man for a 108-win season. Then in the NLCS, he had a .925 OPS and a key walk-off home run in Game 3. Dykstra homered twice in the World Series against the Red Sox, too, and the Mets won it all. In 544 games during his Mets career, he hit .278/.350/.413 with 15.2 WARP before moving on to another cult icon role in Philadelphia. The zany center fielder spent just four and a half seasons with the Mets, but he sure made them memorable.

No. 1: Daniel Murphy

Drafted: 2006, 13^th round
School: Jacksonville University

An old friend strikes again. It was a tough call between Dykstra and Daniel Murphy for the top spot, but “Murph” spent much more time in Queens while also capping it with a postseason to remember. It might not have featured a title as Dykstra’s did, but Murphy meant more to the franchise as one of the last Mets to link the Shea and Citi Field eras. Drafted as a third baseman in 2006, he spent a considerable amount of time trying to be an acceptable second baseman since the latter spot was occupied by Wright. He was never quite pretty there, but he made it work.

Murphy’s success obviously came from his bat. Over seven years, he hit .288/.331/.424 with 228 doubles, 12.8 WARP, and a TAv consistently hovering around .270. He earned an All-Star nod in 2014, but while reasonably well-liked, it was not until the 2015 playoffs that Murphy truly cemented himself in Mets lore.

The new swing. Six consecutive games with a home run. The complete dismantling of Cubs pitching en route to a .529/.556/.1.294 triple slash and NLCS MVP honors. Murphy had everything working, and it was amazing to watch, even though the World Series did not go as well. Although Murphy is a division rival now, those memories won’t be forgotten.

Photo Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

On the anniversary of Noah Syndergaard’s Citi Field debut, Thor bettered Max Scherzer and made two solo shots stand up. Mets 2, Nationals 0.

Discussion and Analysis

Noah Syndergaard’s dominating performance last night overshadowed:

• Max Scherzer’s next start after striking out 20 Tigers
• Daniel Murphy’s return to his old stomping ground
• Bryce Harper’s first Citi Field appearance after winning the 2015 MVP
• Matt Reynolds’ surprise MLB debut

But that’s what a 7 5 0 0 0 10 line will do, almost every time. Reaching 100 pitches with one out in the seventh inning, the Mets’ bullpen was utterly motionless. At one point between the third and fourth innings, Syndergaard rang up five consecutive outs by K.

The Mets managed just two hits against Scherzer through six innings. Both left the ballpark. When Scherzer has shown a weakness this season, it’s been the longball. His 12 home runs allowed lead the National League. Even in Scherzer’s 20-strikeout gem, he allowed home runs to Jose Iglesias (!) and Victor Martinez. Against the Mets, Scherzer’s first pitch was driven over the right-field fence by Curtis Granderson, his third leadoff round-tripper of the season. Michael Conforto smacked a line drive to nearly the same spot with two out in the third. The Mets eked out just two other hits all nights, but the dinger-based economy continues to roll.

Fans at the ballpark were expecting such a fabulous pitching matchup that they could afford to be magnanimous toward new National Daniel Murphy. In pregame introductions, Murphy received perhaps the longest ovation for a non-Met since Mike Piazza’s appearance as a Padre. Murphy’s first at-bat following the applause was anticlimactic, as he popped-out foul to third base. Notwithstanding his team’s loss, Murph’s first game back was an individual success, as he blooped one of the Nats’ five hits on the night, did not strike out against Syndergaard, and

Daniel Murphy knows this Citi pretty well: https://t.co/adZAVppFSs pic.twitter.com/Ti2okeEWOq

— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) May 17, 2016

Bryce Harper was not greeted as warmly by the Citi Field faithful. “Fans don’t boo nobodies,” Reggie Jackson once quipped. Harper tapped back to Syndergaard in the first and struck out in his next two at-bats. With two out and nobody on in the ninth inning, Harper hit a sharp groundball into the 5.5 hole, where the Mets’ shifted defense had him played perfectly. Some fans at the game treated the Harper oh-fer as the evening’s highlight.

The back end of the Mets bullpen was perfect after Syndergaard hit the showers. Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia combined to strike out three in the final two frames.

On a night like this, it’s hard to find the gray cloud in the silver lining, but the team must be concerned that both David Wright and Lucas Duda missed the game with back maladies. The lineup was so weak at the bottom that Syndergaard became the first Met pitcher this season to bat eighth. Rookie Matt Reynolds batted ninth in his first MLB appearance and did not reach base. Reynolds did, however, bring a solid glove to third base:

Contemporaneous Thoughts

I would have paid money to watch Keith Hernandez read Ulysses. #mets

— Jason Fry (@jasoncfry) May 18, 2016

GKR-isms

“Like Caesar going home to Rome for a triumph.” — Keith, on Danny Murphy’s return

“Gotta watch Murphy at first base; he’s known for doing unorthodox things on the bases.” — Keith

“If you want to dominate at this level as a starting pitcher, you have to combine power with precision, and that’s what Noah’s been for the first eight starts.” — Ron

Coda

The win brings the Mets within a half-game of the Nationals for first place in the NL East. Bartolo will have the platoon advantage when he bats today against Gio Gonzalez.

Photo credit: Adam Hunger – USA Today Sports

Humorous asides aside, it’s clear even this early into the season that there is a swell of competitiveness lurking. The Mets and Nationals are full-thronged rivals now and it’s never too early to start the fun, no matter how Alderson may try to dispel the notion.

“I’ve always viewed the Nationals as a quality team, absolutely,” he said. “It’s a little early to worry about where they are versus where we are but at the same time I always viewed them as a solid team with maybe something to prove this year.”

And this is the beauty of it. Last year was a make-good year for the Mets. A season where they finally drew some revenge against their tormentors. The Nationals had bullied them for so long that it was the accumulation of a tremorous build-up.

But now, this year, this is where it becomes fun. This is the matchup of two nearly even teams and year long race to the top. No need to wait until May 17–when they first meet–to start sizing them up.

“It’s pretty clear already that this is a two-team race with Washington,” an unnamed general manager told Sports Illustrated. “The Nationals are going to be in it. The Mets and Nationals are going be neck and neck for the division all year.”

Some of the storylines are obvious and some transcend the rivalry itself.

Each has a Scott Boras-backed ace struggling so far this season. The one who got paid $210 million in Washington (Max Scherzer) is giving up home runs at a career-high rate. The one in his second year back from Tommy John surgery (Matt Harvey) has seen his velocity dip and become more hittable than ever. Neither has their usual command.

The Daniel Murphy-Neil Walker swap at second base has worked out wonderfully for the Mets so far but it’s also added a layer of intrigue. Murphy leads the major leagues in batting average at .394 as of Wednesday while Walker is tied for second in all of baseball with eight home runs.

The home run leader so far, is of course, Bryce Harper. He has become the face and voice of baseball and the closest offensive analog the sport has seen to Barry Bonds since he retired. His left-handed swing is the most dangerous demolition ball, indiscriminately blowing up pitchers with no regard for them for the last year-plus.

So just think of the first time he faces Noah Syndergaard this season. There is nothing to match the violent dominance Syndergaard has unleashed upon hitters in 2016. A fastball that lives at 99 mph and a 92 mph slider are his weapons of destruction. Seeing him try to strikeout Harper is the most tantalizing at-bat in the sport this year. Will we get a redux of Syndergaard striking out Harper with a 99 mph heater in the eighth inning of a crucial late-summer game as he did last August? Or will Harper crush one into the stands? This is what Major League Baseball should be frothing over and building suspense towards.

More than anything, this rivalry provides the intrigue every season needs. Not only are the Mets hunting to reach the postseason again, there is another flavor to the chase. The Mets and Nationals will tower over their division and try to cast a shadow over another too.

Photo Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports