5 things to watch as Mets open August with three-game set against Royals

Here are five things to watch as the Mets open August with a three-game set against Kansas City Royals starting on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium...

1. Mets look to start August on high note

Believe it or not, the Mets finished among the top teams in baseball for the month of July.

With their series win over the Nationals this weekend, New York was able to finish with a record of 14-9 for the month, good enough for second best in the National League. That’s also their best record in any month this season.

They won four of their eight series and split a two-game set with the Yankees in the Bronx.

Unfortunately, it proved to be too little too late, and the Mets decided to start selling some pieces ahead of the deadline. Now with a somewhat depleted roster, the rest of the season is looking a little bleak in Queens.

As for the guys who are still around, though, all they can do is keeping trying to win ballgames. They open the month of August with a three-game set at Kauffman Stadium against the rebuilding Royals.

While they're coming off a sweep of the first place Twins, Kansas City sits in last place in the AL Central with a record of 31-75. The Royals are a young team who are right in the middle of their rebuild.

The Mets will look to take advantage of that and start August on a high note.

2. Alonso’s officially back

After a rough stretch at the plate, Pete Alonso's finally back to doing Pete Alonso things.

Prior to the All-Star break, the slugger was hitting just .132 with a .549 OPS and seven extra-base hits over his previous 25 games. Looking even further, he had just a .722 OPS since the beginning of May.

Alonso was striking out at a higher clip and did not look like himself at the plate.

Thankfully, though, he’s been able to turn things around of late. Alonso has hits in eight of his last ten games and he's posted a 1.118 OPS over that span. He’s also recorded two doubles, a triple, four homers, and 13 RBI during his recent hot stretch.

After putting together back-to-back strong series in Boston and the Bronx, he carried it over to the four-game weekend set against the Nationals at Citi Field. Alonso propelled the Mets to a win on Friday night, smacking two homers and driving in all five of New York’s runs.

He’s now up to an even 30 homers on the season, making him the second player in franchise history to pass that mark for four straight years, the other is Mike Piazza. Alonso also has nine doubles, two triples, 75 RBI, and a .820 OPS.

He’ll look to stay hot this week against a relatively weak Kansas City pitching staff.

3. Time for the kids to shine

With the Mets trading big pieces as they look ahead, it’s the kids’ time to shine.

Mark Vientos needs to play every day moving forward. While he’s looked a little rough at the hot corner, his bat has come to life since being called back up. The slugger is hitting .333 with a homer and a .962 OPS over his last seven games.

We’ve seen Francisco Alvarez take things over behind the plate and that will absolutely continue down the stretch. With another long ball this weekend, the rookie is up to an even 20 homers at just 21 years old.

Brett Baty has hit a bit of a rough patch on both sides of the ball during his rookie season but he’s shown some bright spots as well. The third baseman has a hit in three of his last five games and is up to seven homers and 11 doubles on the year.

Ronny Mauricio isn’t up in the big leagues yet, but we should see him at some point over the next two months. For now, though, let’s focus on these three youngsters starting off the final stretch of the season on a high note.

4. Matchup up of star-studded shortstops

When the Mets and Royals face off, it’ll feature of matchup of two of the premier shortstops in the league. Of course, Mets fans know what Francisco Lindor is capable of, but they may not be familiar with young Royals All-Star Bobby Witt Jr.

Witt is putting together another strong season in his second full year with the Royals. Through 105 games, he’s hitting .263 with a .766 OPS, 18 homers, seven triples, 18 doubles, 60 RBI, and 29 stolen bases.

The 23-year-old just enjoyed one of the best weekends of his young career. Witt homered in each of the first two games of the series against the Twins, including a walk-off grand slam on Friday night.

Overall, he finished a combined 9-for-14 with the two homers, a double, a stolen base, four runs scored, and nine RBI.

After tearing it up in the minors, Witt faced some sky-high expectations coming into the big leagues, and he’s exceed those and some. Over his last 30 games, he’s hitting .303 with a .880 OPS, six homers, 24 RBI, and seven stolen bases.

Kansas City hasn't been very good this season, but the young slugger is definitely one of their young pieces to keep an eye on in this series.

5. Who takes Scherzer’s place in the rotation?

In one of the more unexpected moves of the weekend, the Mets sent Max Scherzer to the Texas Rangers in exchange for prospect Luisangel Acuna on Saturday night.

The right-hander waived his no trade clause to OK the deal, and with that, Scherzer’s up-and-down tenure in Queens came to an end. After a strong first season with the team, he battled injuries and struggled this year to the tune of a 4.01 ERA and 1.19 WHIP across 19 starts.

With Scherzer gone, the Mets now have a hole to fill in their rotation.

Buck Showalter said the team has discussed some options to make the start in that place on Thursday, but they are yet to announce anything official. Tylor Megill and David Peterson are two names that the skipper mentioned as candidates.

Both pitchers have had a rough 2023 season but they've looked better of late.

After throwing a pair of strong innings on Sunday’s win, Peterson has now posted a 2.31 ERA since returning from the minors. Megill is coming off a solid start with Triple-A Syracuse in which he allowed just two runs on three hits while striking out six over six innings.

Lefty Joey Lucchesi and top pitching prospect Mike Vasil are also potential options to get a shot in the rotation at some point. For now though, it’s looking like we’ll likely see one of Peterson or Megill in the series finale.