What has to happen for the 2017 Mets to make the playoffs

Even though the New York Mets are not the favorites to win the NL East in 2017, their playoff chances are still very real.

The Mets 2016 was campaign was devastated by injuries, but the club earned a playoff spot for the second consecutive year anyway. Yes, they lost in the Wild Card game, unfortunately, but even being there was surprising to the most diehard fans.

New York’s season started out well. They went 15-7 in the month of April – a month in which they enjoyed an 8-game winning streak. After tough months of May, June and July where the club stayed around the .500 mark, the front office decided they’d be buyers at the deadline.

After failing to land Jonathan Lucroy, the organization turned to the Reds, and acquired Jay Bruce in hopes of lifting up the offense. The move would prove to be a bit ineffective as Bruce struggled big time in his first few weeks in blue and orange.

In August, the Mets’ woes continued as they were 15-14 during the month, and entered September 69-64, 2 games behind in the Wild Card. However, they got hot when they needed it winning 17 games in September to overtake the Cardinals and Giants for the right to host the single-elimination playoff game.

It was a painful end to the season, and Conor Gillaspie will forever be a villain in Queens. That’s all we need to say about that last game.

Going into 2017, the Mets will look to build on that resilience to make a deeper run in October. Here are three things that have to happen to ensure we get playoff baseball in Queens for a third consecutive year.

The Mets have to stay healthy

This one is pretty obvious, but it really is crucial, and not at all a given. In 2016, the Mets won 87 games, and did so with injuries to Matt Harvey, David Wright, Lucas Duda, Travis d’Arnaud, Juan Lagares, Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz, and Neil Walker just to name a few.

That’s not even including the less impactful injuries like the ones that kept us worried about Asdrubal Cabrera (knee), Noah Syndergaard (bone spurs) and Yoenis Cespedes (quad) for most of the year. It was really an amazing feat to win as many games as they did after all of this.

The 2017 squad hopes to avoid having this many issues with health. This is specially true for the starting rotation. With Bartolo Colon now in Atlanta, the safety net of a deep rotation isn’t as big. While the Mets still have solid options in Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo, if both those guys are starting important games for New York late in the season, you know something has gone wrong with the pitching staff.

Up until now, pretty much every Mets pitcher has said they’re feeling great. Matt Harvey will be down in Port St. Lucie a week early. Steven Matz thinks he’s capable of making at least 30 starts in 2017. Zack Wheeler may start the 2017 season in the bullpen, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to help the club out. Noah Syndergaard is focused on winning a World Series so much that he’s skipping the World Baseball Classic altogether to stay healthy. All we can do is hope that it stays this way into the season.

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We can’t talk about health and injuries without including the captain, David Wright. For the second straight year, Wright will be going into a season hoping to stay on the field for longer than the previous year.

Manager Terry Collins is hopeful David can play in 130 games, a lofty goal, but one that should be attainable if his progress continues as expected. Wright will be starting baseball activities this month, so hopefully those go as smoothly as possible.

Lucas Duda’s health is also in question after his season-ending back injury in 2016. The Dude played in only 47 games last year, and struggled offensively. He hopes to be able to bounce back to his 2015 self and be a staple in the middle of the Mets lineup.

Of course, avoiding the injury bug over the course of a 162-game season is nearly impossible, but the Mets need to be able to keep as many of their star players as possible on the field for as long as they can if they have any hopes of reclaiming the NL East title or at least making it to the Wild Card game. It all starts and ends with health for the Amazin’s.

Cabrera and Walker have to stay hotOne of the biggest mistakes I’ve made when it comes to predicting how a player signing would do was with Asdrubal Cabrera. I didn’t understand it, and felt he wouldn’t help us out much. I’ve never been happier to be so wrong.In 2016, Asdrubal Cabrera had a career year offensively, and played amazingly on the defensive side as well. The 31-year-old veteran hit .280/.336/.474 last season for the Mets and took pitchers deep 23 times, his highest total since 2011 when he was with Cleveland.Defensively, his range wasn’t outstanding, but it seriously felt like every ball that was hit his way, he could make a play for it. Even with an annoying knee injury, Cabrera played in 141 games for the Mets, and I could not be more excited for him in 2017. The Mets need him to keep being an integral part of the lineup for the team to be successful.On the other side of second base, Neil Walker also made a huge impact for the Mets. While he only played in 113 games before his season ended due to a back injury, the former Pirate lit it up with the long ball.Walker hit 23 home runs matching his career high from 2014, but maybe more importantly, he hit lefties hard last season, something he had historically not done. His career OPS versus southpaws is .700, but in 2016, it was 1.001. That’s not a typo.Defensively, Neil Walker singlehandedly gave years of life back to Mets fans that had watched Daniel Murphy man second base in previous years.The big question for him will obviously be his health. A back injury is never easy to recover from, but he should be ready for Spring Training, so it’ll be a wait and see game for Walker. The Mets will also need him to produce in 2017.Next: Figure out the outfield situationThe outfield situation has to be solvedThe Mets outfield situation is currently a mess. They have five outfielders on contract that are all going to want as much playing time as possible. Yoenis Cespedes is the only real guarantee in LF, but Terry Collins will have to figure out what to do with Curtis Granderson, Jay Bruce, Michael Confroto and Juan Lagares going forward.Ideally, Sandy Alderson would be able to deal either Granderson or Bruce by the time Spring Training starts, but if that doesn’t happen, Collins may have to install a revolving rotation in an effort to get everyone as many at-bats as possible.Of course, if Jay Bruce didn’t struggle as much as he did after making the jump to the Mets, this wouldn’t be nearly as much of an issue, but whatever. You could hope and pray that Bruce has a breakout 2017, and bounces back like Carlos Beltran did in 2006, but Jay Bruce is no Carlos Beltran, so that seems unlikely.Next: Mets Season in Review: Juan LagaresThe Mets could pull off working them all in the outfield though. It could be a sort of strange platoon-like strategy having Granderson and Lagares in CF, and Conforto and Bruce in RF alternate over the course of the season, but it could work! Should they get a solid strategy going that turns the offense on consistently, the Mets would be in the thick of it for a playoff push next season.This article originally appeared on