Atlanta Braves

3 Takeaways: So much drama in the NL East

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:42 p.m. ET

foxsports

This week’s three takeaways highlight the struggling Braves, the cruising Dodgers, and the dramatic Mets.

Atlanta Braves: 54-83
The season began with such optimism, as the Braves won their first five games. Now, however, they find themselves in the midst of a 1-19 stretch, and vying for the worst record in baseball - long assumed to be domain of the Phillies. Entering play on Monday, Atlanta “trails” Philadelphia by just one game, and given their recent play - especially compared to the Phillies’ dominant seven victories in their last 20 - it’s not hard to imagine them finishing the season in line for the number one draft pick. That’s a notable thing these days, as the gap in spending allotment between the first two picks in 2015 was right around $1.2 million. That means not only does the first pick get to choose whoever they want, they’ll likely have more money left over to grab higher-priced draft picks later on in the draft - as we saw Houston do a few years ago when they signed a cheaper Carlos Correa so they could spend more on Lance McCullers, Jr. That worked out pretty well.

Los Angeles Dodgers: 78-58
The Dodgers have had a weird season, not quite living up to their preseason standards, nor the expectations that come with a $300 million payroll, but not quite falling down on the job either. They’re recent 8-2 run in their last 10 has all but locked up the division, thanks in part to a sweep of the Giants. They’ve received help from unlikely sources all season, and that hasn’t really stopped in their recent stretch either. Andre Ethier has had a bounce-back year, though we’ll have to see how 2016 pans out to determine whether it’s a dead-cat bounce. Chase Utley has found a second wind thus far in LA. Even top-prospect Corey Seager has gotten into the mix in the recent series with the Padres. If the Dodgers can get a healthy Yasiel Puig (and Enrique Hernandez for that matter) back prior to the playoffs, they could be primed for a late October run. Of course, the team’s bullpen problems don’t seem likely to evaporate anytime soon.

New York Mets: 76-61
Things were going so well, too. Not that they still aren’t, but that feeling… Mets fans know that feeling. Not the “too good to be true” feeling that’s pervaded the last 6 weeks of fandom in Flushing. No, this is the overarching dread that has loomed like a cloud on the distant horizon. The one that you see on a sunny day and can’t help but know it’s going to ruin an event you have planned - be it in three days or three weeks. The Mets have won 12 of their last 17, which should be celebrated, but the Nationals (those pesky Nats) actually gained a game in that same stretch of play. The Mets surprising, exciting run had hardly left room for distractions or drama, until this weekend when talk sprang up of Matt Harvey and his 180-inning limit. Had the Mets known of this? If so, why did Harvey pitch all year? Had Harvey known of this? Why not space out off-days for him? Would the team really shut him down, not only when they need him to make the playoffs, but once they get there? Harvey let the world know he’d be pitching in the postseason one way or another, should the team make it, but not before letting enough time go by to turn Queens back into Panic City. Either way, the Mets enter the final month of the season with a five-game lead, and a mostly full head of steam. Whether they can turn that into a playoff spot - or a train wreck - will determine whether they’re any different from the Mets of September’s past.

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