The rest of the baseball world will be paying attention to New York City, as the New York Yankees and New York Mets battle each other in the Subway Series. The Yankees, who clearly are looking over their crosstown rivals, have decided to rest their top two starting pitchers, CC Sabathia and Luis Severino. The Mets will throw their top two pitchers against the dangerous Yankee lineup, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard. This is sending a clear message to the rest of the league and fans of both teams alike: This series means completely different things for both of these teams.

For the Yankees, the series against the Mets starts a stretch of games for them where they face four teams (Mets, Rays, Royals and Orioles) that combine for a record of 143-239. Needless to say, it appears that they have a stretch of a lot of seemingly winnable games ahead of themselves. That being said, the Mets are the second most formidable opponent out of the stagnant bunch mentioned before (only the Rays are better, sitting at 49-47) so it seems like the Yankees just don’t seem to see the Mets as an offensive threat large enough to run out your two best pitchers against. Who can blame them? The Mets are 28th in the league in batting average ahead of only the, you guessed it, Orioles and Royals. So clearly, this series has minimum importance to the Yankees, despite them being locked in a bitter race with the Boston Red Sox for the AL East Crown.

For the other New York team, this series could say a lot about what is ahead for the franchise. The Mets are the second worst team in the National League right now, despite having high hopes coming into the season. They now find themselves as sellers as we are approaching the July 31st deadline, with not much of value to sell. The asking prices for Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, undoubtedly the two most coveted possessions of the Mets at the moment, will be too high for any team to buy into. The Mets will more so be trading an Asdrubal Cabrera or Jeurys Familia, who they will receive most likely moderate level prospects for. Cabrera is hitting .281 with 17 home runs and 52 RBIs as of Friday for the Mets, and he has been the most consistent offensive player all season for the team. Familia has 17 saves to go with a 2.88 ERA so far, and has been the best arm in the bullpen besides Seth Lugo.

It is important in this series for the Mets to put both Cabrera and Familia on display as much as possible in this series, simply because of the attention it will get. Also, the Yankees will be the last quality team that the Mets will face before the deadline. Teams look to see how players do against elite talent like the Yankees, rather than the Padres, who are the basement of the National League, and the inconsistent Pittsburgh Pirates, who will be the next two opponents on the docket for the Mets.

Although there is no statistic for it, there is also a sense of pride that the Mets are playing for this weekend. If the Mets are able to come into the Bronx and win the series against the Yankees, it could give the team, and their ever-growingly frustrated fan base something to hang their hat on in a season of flat out misery. Of course, if the Mets lay a goose egg in Yankee Stadium, it will add more fuel to the Yankee fire, as well as the fire under the seat of the Wilpon’s seat, which grows hotter everyday with the frustrations of Mets fans.

10 comments on “Meaning of Subway series different for Mets and Yankees

  • David Klein

    Gonna miss Familia he gets too much shit for the 2015 World Series when two of his blown saves were not even close to his fault. Familia was magnificent in the NLDS and NLCS especially his two inning save in game five vs the Dodgers to win the series. He was the best reliever in Mets history, imo.

    Reading Jorge Mateo might be the return he’s only 23 and learning a new position, but his numbers in AAA are Rey Ordonez bad and he’s been suspended for attitude problems in the past. That all said, he was a top 100 prospect coming into the season.

    Ces’ situation sounds kind of like Beltran’s coming back late in the year but needing surgery so might as well do it now vs in the offseason to miss less time next year.

    • Michael

      Wouldn’t be surprised to see Familia return next year as a FA since he likes the city and team so much. I agree that he has taken too much crap for the 2015 WS. However that did seem to take something out of him. Afterwards he never seemed to be the dominant, lights out closer.
      The same could be said for Wright. I never felt he was the same player after getting beaned by Cain. Up until then I thought he had a decent shot at the HOF.

      • David Klein

        Wright was beaned in 2009 and had great seasons in 2010,2012 and 2013 so that’s wrong. Familia followed up a great 2015 with a very good 2016.

  • David Klein

    This was written a few days ago, eh?

  • Mike Walczak

    Familia has been a very good pitcher got us. Nobody is perfect. Even the great Rivera lost the final game of the 01 series.

    I wish him well and would live to see him get far in the playoffs.

    Once he experiences winning again,I don’t think he will be coming back to the Mets.

    Mateo, I don’t want Mateo. Let’s hope for something better.

  • b

    vile garbage

    • David Klein

      Your love for Reyes sure is vile

    • Dalton Allison

      What is vile garbage?

      • Chris F

        not worth engaging Dalton.

  • Steevy

    Jose Reyes was my favorite Met.I was upset when he left and I was thrilled when he came back.That being said I was ready to cut him loose last year when he was terrible and I cannot justify him staying on the roster now playing the way he has.I would like him to retire so they can give him a Jose Reyes Night and retire his number.

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