5 things to watch in second half of 2023 Mets season

So did the six-game winning streak breathe life into the Mets season, even with the two losses in San Diego to end the first half?

At 42-48 they’re seven games out of the third Wild Card spot in the National League, and it’s now or never if they’re going to make a run to get back into contention.

With that in mind, here are five things to watch for in the second half:

1. The Looming Trade Deadline

Coming out of the All-Star break the Mets will have 15 games to convince owner Steve Cohen not to be a seller at the Aug. 1 deadline, and instead win enough to make him want to beef up the roster to improve the chances of climbing all the way to a Wild Card spot.

With that in mind, the schedule for those 15 games isn’t terribly difficult: three at home with both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox; then three in Boston against the Red Sox and two in the Bronx against the Yankees; and back home for four with the Washington Nationals.

What would it take to avoid being sellers? They probably need to go 10-5 up to the deadline, which would bring them to within one game of .500, at 52-53, and give the Cohen and GM Billy Eppler reason to believe it’s worth trying to buy rather than sell.

Even then they’d probably only be looking to make small deals, likely for a reliever or two, because they’re almost certainly not going to give up top prospects to make a major trade.

2. Will Quintana be a Difference-Maker?

Left-hander Jose Quintana, signed to a two-year, $26 million deal as a free agent last winter, didn’t throw a pitch for the Mets in the first half, after fracturing a rib in spring training and undergoing surgery.

He should be in the rotation when the season resumes, assuming all goes well in a simulated game he’s expected to throw at Citi Field on Thursday after making five rehab starts. And while Quintana’s results weren’t impressive in his rehab starts, at age 34 he’s been around long enough that he may have just been going through the motions of getting his work in.

What the Mets hope is more significant is his success in 2022, when he put up his best ERA over a full season in his career -- 2.93 in 165 innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates and then, after a deadline trade, the St. Louis Cardinals.

Quintana was dominant with the Cardinals, pitching to a 2.01 ERA over 12 starts in helping St. Louis win the NL Central.

3. Could Scherzer or Verlander be Traded?

If the Mets do become sellers, their most valuable trade piece (of the obvious candidates) will be David Robertson, who would bring back a solid prospect even as a rental player headed for free agency.

However, most of the intrigue would center around the possibility of trading either Max Scherzer or Justin Verlander, each making $43 million this year and next. Scherzer has an opt-out for next year but it’s hard to see him exercising it unless he finds his old Cy Young Award-winning form in the second half.

The money, of course, would be the sticking point. Even though Scherzer, in particular, has looked bad lately, finishing the first half by giving up two home runs to Manny Machado in the loss in San Diego on Sunday and raising his ERA to 4.31, teams would be interested in either of the two future Hall of Famers. They’re just not going to take on the big salaries.

Cohen has made it clear he’ll eat some money to get back good prospects, but how much? In a story I did a couple of weeks ago, several scouts and executives told me they thought teams would only give up their “B” or even “C” prospects in such a trade because nobody views Scherzer or Verlander as an ace at the moment.

In that case, it probably would make more sense for the Mets to keep the two pitchers and hope for the best.

4. The Stars Need to Shine

Even if the pitching improves the Mets still need to raise their offensive level to make any type of run, and while Francisco Alvarez has given them a huge boost with his clutch home runs, that task falls primarily on the stars, starting with Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso.

Lindor has gotten hot lately but needs to stay consistent. His production numbers are strong but he can’t be hitting in the .220 range, as he was for most of the first half, as the No. 2 or 3 hitter in the lineup.

And Alonso simply needs to find his form. He has 26 home runs but has hit only six since May 28, and is hitting .149 in June/July, lowering his season average to .211.

Two other key players who need to improve dramatically are Starling Marte, who hasn’t looked like the 2022 version of himself after offseason core surgery, and Jeff McNeil, who at .253 is hitting 73 points lower than his MLB-leading average last year, with only 17 extra-base hits.

5. When Does Mauricio Get the Call?

At some point in the second half, whether the Mets get back into contention or not, they’ll certainly call up Ronny Mauricio, the only one of their Big Four position-player prospects who hasn’t played in the big leagues yet.

As it is, Alvarez and Brett Baty have established themselves as keepers, with Alvarez looking like a potential superstar as a good defensive catcher with Piazza-like power.

Meanwhile, Mark Vientos, hasn’t looked like as much of a sure thing, perhaps partly because he got only sporadic at-bats during his call-up earlier this season.

And then there’s Mauricio. He has great potential offensively, but the Mets have resisted calling him up because they feel he needs to improve his plate discipline so as not to be overmatched at the big-league level, an assessment that scouts from other organizations have made as well.

There’s also the matter of where Mauricio will play. The Mets moved him from his natural shortstop position to second base several weeks ago, but scouts say he wasn’t comfortable there, so they began looking at him in left field recently.