The injuries keep piling up for the NY Mets, and so do the victories. The day after they found out they wouldn’t have their ace for the remainder of the season, the Metsies swept the Twins, 3-2. Yeah, the Twins stink, but you can only play the teams on your schedule. And it’s the remaining schedule that is main reason the New York Mets will STILL make the playoffs, despite yet another season ending injury to their starting rotation, and what was their Opening Day roster.

With now 12 games left in the season, the Mets play two more vs. the Braves, three more against the Marlins and seven games left taking on the Velasquez-less Philadelphia Phillies. While it would have been nice to have deGrom for these last three weeks, the quality of opponent ensures the Mets should be favored in almost every game until October.In fact, an injured deGrom was hurting the Mets on the mound more than off of it.

Since August 19th, when Yoennis Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera came off the DL, the Mets are 20-9. During that span Jacob deGrom was resposible for zero wins and three losses. The last time deGrom was deGrom, was August 13th vs the Padres. And the winning pitcher that day was not Jacob deGrom, but a Mets call-up by the name of Gabriel Ynoa. That day, August the 19th when Cespedes and Cabrera returned, the starting pitcher was another Mets call-up, by the name of Seth Lugo. The loss that day was not the fault of Lugo, who was outdueled by All Star Game starter Johnny Cueto.

Now, I’m not saying that deGrom is not an ace, or that he is anything less than the guy who blew everyone away at the All Star Game last summer, but, losing him for the remainder of the season should not stop this team from grabbing a wild card spot and even moving on to the NLDS to take on the Cubs. Credit the Mets organization for stocking their minor league system with plenty of starting pitching. Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman have been the paddles that have jolted life back into a dead 2016 season. Against the bottom of the NL East, they, and maybe Gabriel Ynoa, should be good enough to get the Mets to the postseason. At that point, it will be up to Noah Syndergaard, against possibly Madison Bumgarner, to move onto the NLDS against Chicago, where it would be all house money.

Can the Mets win the wild card without Jacob deGrom? Yes they can. But the loss is more crushing for the chance at another World Series appearance, than it is a regular season wrecking ball. If you asked most Mets fans, they probably knew he wasn’t coming back anyway.