The Best Of The Worst: The Race For The NL East

As we near the end of August, only one month remains for 10 teams to secure a playoff bid. Throughout the season, impressive division rivalries have taken the forefront. However, other divisions have consistently dropped the ball in terms of performance and competitiveness. But no division quite compares to the NL East.

The NL East, consisting of the Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Miami Marlins, has underperformed significantly compared to the rest of the divisions. The NL East is the only division in which its leader has yet to reach 70 wins.

This collapse is the least bit shocking to me, as I am a fan of the Mets. Any fan of a team in the NL East knows just how awful our teams can be. But, on the other hand, the NL East is genuinely a division where anything can happen. It doesn’t have dynasty teams like the New York Yankees or St. Louis Cardinals. Instead, it has teams that barely manage to make the playoffs each year and sometimes end up getting lucky.

It’s probably impossible to predict the chaos this month, let alone in the next week with these five teams, but let’s break down where they are at and where I think they will end up.

Atlanta Braves

Coming off a hot streak, the Braves successfully beat down two of the worst teams in the majors to mount their comeback. The Braves clawed their way back from third place, even after losing one of their top players in OF Ronald Acuña Jr. But, while they sit at the top of the division standings now, the Braves will undergo the dreaded NL West matchups against the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres. I’m pretty confident they can pull at least a winning record out of those games, especially after watching the Braves come back recently. Still, in the NL East, anything is possible.

Overall, I’m hedging my bets on Atlanta to take the division. I think the Braves have made the best of a terrible situation, with players like 3B Austin Riley and 1B Freddie Freeman providing crucial run support and pitchers like Charlie Morton playing some of the only decent baseball in the division.

Washington Nationals

To be fair, I’m honestly surprised the Nationals are as good as they are with just the scraps of players they have left. But even then, their best still isn’t that great. So far this month, they have lost almost every game against an NL East opponent, going 1-13.

The trade deadline was brutal for Nationals fans as they watched RHP Max Scherzer, SS Trea Turner and OF Kyle Schwarber leave Washington. On the bright side, they still managed to keep OF Juan Soto. However, even with Soto, the Nats face a mountain of a challenge even to come close to challenging the top three teams in the division now. The Nats play 15 games in September against an NL East team, and unless they pick up the pace, they’ll run away with fourth.

New York Mets

We all expected this, right? There’s only so long your team can go playing with a majority of minor leaguers and a slew of injuries. Unfortunately, what seemed to be a brilliant start and a step in the new direction for the Mets, especially with new ownership, injury after injury broke down the team until they dropped to third in the standings.

Even worse, the team can not hit fastballs. Don’t take my word for it; Mets manager Luis Rojas said it for me. Unless the Mets can get themselves back up and stop humiliating me in front of my friends for holding out hope this season, the Mets should expect to round out in third place.

We are pretty bad, but hey, at least we aren’t the Marlins.

Philadelphia Phillies

Ring the bell, Phillies fans, because your team managed not to crush your playoff chances. Going 14-12 in July, the Phillies desperately needed to gain ground on the then division-leading Mets and Braves. Somehow, they managed to do just that.

This week, the Phillies can get revenge against the Arizona Diamondbacks after an embarrassing sweep and face a mixed bag of competitors in September. If they continue to heat up, they can earnestly contend for that top spot. However, their issue is how poorly, compared to the Braves, they have performed against the six worst NL teams. The Braves beat up their competition, going 31-18 against the six worst teams in the NL, while the Phillies sit at a 22-20 record. 

Miami Marlins

Honestly, there’s not much to say about the Marlins this year. I can always count on them every year to hold down last place, so at least in that regard, they are consistent. But, for me, there is no miracle play for them at this point ever to take the division, let alone a wild card.

However, in September, they play a crucial role in how the rest of the division will finish. Playing eight games against the Mets and six against the Nationals, the Marlins can try to shake up the race for first if they want to.

The dumpster fire that is the NL East only will continue to heat up over the final few weeks of the regular season. But, at least, this heartbreaking, injury-ridden and disappointing division has the strong support of fans like myself to keep the hope alive that one of our teams can become a World Series champ again one day.

Cover photo courtesy of Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal Constitution