No matter what marker you use – whether the calendar flipping to August, the Trade Deadline, or August 15 (as Keith Hernandez recently explained on a broadcast), we’re officially in the stretch run of the regular season. While the 2026 Mets may not have much to compete for, there’s still a thrill in watching established stars and up-and-comers alike slam on the gas pedal to cross the season’s finish line on a high note.
In that spirit, I’ve selected a roster of position players who put together some
of the best stretch runs in Mets history, primarily weighing individual performance with a slight edge given towards those who made a meaningful impact on a playoff-bound team. I looked at players’ performances only from Game 113 on (in a normal 162-game season, that’s the final 50 games) and put those stats in italics under each player’s bolded name in their entry. Only time will tell whether Carson Benge (currently batting .343 with a 1.009 OPS since entering the 50-game stretch on August 9) might make his way onto the list by season’s end.
Without further ado, here is my All-Stretch-Run team…
C – MIKE PIAZZA, 1998
.378 avg, 1.169 OPS, 13 HR, 48 RBI
Piazza hit the ground running from the moment he landed in New York via trade on May 22, posting 5.4 bWAR in just 109 games while maintaining a .348 average. As the season wound down, he only seemed to get better, batting .326 in July, .347 in August, and .378 in Sept/Oct. The future Hall of Famer had other tremendous stretch runs, particularly in ’99 and ’01, but his introduction to Mets fans late in ’98 still stands as his best.
1B – PETE ALONSO, 2019
.267 avg, .948 OPS, 19 HR, 41 RBI
Was it an absurdly offense-rich environment? Sure. But Pete Alonso’s stretch of 19 homers in 50 games as he raced to set the franchise home run record and then the all-time rookie home run record is still a marvel. Alonso’s 2021 and 2025 stretch runs were arguably more impressive showings as an all-around hitter in more pitching-friendly seasons, but 2019’s home run total is simply too awesome to beat.
2B – EDGARDO ALFONZO, 2000
.319 avg, 1.033 OPS, 12 HR, 30 RBI
In his lone All-Star season, the 26-year-old Alfonzo entered the break batting .318 with a .955 OPS, both of which would have been career-best marks had he simply maintained them. Instead, he raised them over a stellar second half, finishing with a .324 average and .967 OPS. In the postseason, he reached safely in 13 of 14 games as the Mets made their way to the World Series for the first time in 14 seasons.
3B – DAVID WRIGHT, 2007
.376 avg, 1.109 OPS, 11 HR, 40 RBI
Wright’s 2007 season was about as close as you can get to a video-game player – not only because of his stellar numbers, but because of how comically well-rounded they were. .325 batting average. 30 homers. 34 stolen bases. 107 RBI. Wright became the third Met to win a Gold Glove Award and Silver Slugger Award in the same season (after Keith Hernandez in 1984 and Carlos Beltrán in 2006), and the second Met to start an All-Star Game at third base (after Howard Johnson in 1989). While the Mets may have infamously collapsed down the stretch, Wright kept rolling, capping perhaps the greatest season from a position player in franchise history.
SS – ASDRÚBAL CABRERA, 2016
.345 avg, 1.041 OPS, 10 HR, 29 RBI
As the injury-riddled 2016 Mets willed their way to a Wild Card berth, Cabrera – a free-agent signing the offseason prior – transformed into the slugger at the heart of their lineup. The 30-year-old’s signature moment of the ’16 stretch run (and of his entire Mets tenure) came on September 22, when he crushed a walk-off three-run homer off Phillies reliever Edubray Ramos, capping one of the wackiest games in Citi Field history and fueling further bad blood between the two feud-prone clubs.
LF – YOENIS CÉSPEDES, 2015
.286 avg. .994 OPS, 17 HR, 39 RBI
Céspedes’s 17 homers with the Mets after being acquired minutes before the Trade Deadline on July 31 don’t tell the full story. It wasn’t just about the volume of Céspedes’s production, it was the timing of it. Each blast seemed to be clutcher than the last, whether he was setting the franchise record for team homers in a game, pulling off a hat trick during a slugfest at Coors Field, or effectively putting the Nationals’ playoff aspirations to bed with a homer off a frustrated Drew Storen.
CF – CARLOS BELTRÁN, 2007
.304 avg, .991 OPS, 14 HR, 50 RBI
By most rate stats, Beltrán’s 2008 stretch run was actually superior to his ’07 run, but this one stands out because of the 50 RBI – the most in franchise history for a player over the final 50 games of the regular season. Beltrán was also playing elite defense, en route to his second of three consecutive Gold Glove Awards with the Mets.
RF – JUAN SOTO, 2025
.297 avg, 1.050 OPS, 18 HR, 42 RBI
How do you go from an All-Star snub to an MVP finalist? You hit 18 homers and steal 22 bases over the season’s final 50 games (a 58/71 full-season pace) while also walking a whopping 43 times. The 2025 season didn’t end the way the Mets had hoped, but Soto’s dominant stretch run was a welcome sight after mild stumbles out of the gate during his first campaign in Queens.
BE – GARY CARTER, 1985
.312 avg, .986 OPS, 15 HR, 39 RBI
Carter ended his first Mets season with a crescendo, batting .320 with 13 homers in September and October as the club tried to chase down the first-place Cardinals in the NL East. That stretch included a three-homer game in San Diego on September 3, which at the time marked just the fifth three-homer game in Mets history (and is still the only one by a catcher).
BE – JOHN OLERUD, 1998
.378 avg, 1.041 OPS, 7 HR, 27 RBI
No, this is not a typo, and no, I didn’t accidentally copy Mike Piazza’s batting average from earlier in the article; the 1998 Mets somehow had two players bat exactly .378 over the final 50 games of the 1998 season. Olerud’s surge helped him land at a .354 average by the season’s end, a mark which overtook Cleon Jones’ record of 29 years (.340 in 1969) as the highest single-season batting average in Mets history.
BE – FRANCISCO LINDOR, 2024
.329 avg, .998 OPS, 11 HR, 27 RBI
Putting a team on your back is a hard enough task; doing so while battling lower back soreness makes the feat even more impressive, and even more legendary. Whether breaking up a no-hitter and tying the game with one swing in Toronto or clinching a playoff spot with late-game heroics in Game 161 in Atlanta, Lindor did everything he possibly could to will the scrappy Grimace-powered squad to glory.
BE – J.D. DAVIS, 2019
.329 avg, .987 OPS, 11 HR, 23 RBI
New Mets prospect Sammy Stafura’s all-time favorite Mets third baseman, Davis benefits this bench in his flexibility to really play anywhere on the diamond. He showed promise with the bat throughout his four-year Mets tenure, but never more so than in late 2019, after earning a full-time role rather than just platooning against lefties. Davis delivered one of the team’s many electrifying late-season walk-off wins with a tenth-inning double against Cleveland on August 21.
BE – MOISÉS ALOU, 2007
.373 avg, .987 OPS, 9 HR, 32 RBI
Maybe this article should just be called “The 2007 Mets, and also some other people.” The 41-year-old Alou joins Wright and Beltran representing the ’07 contingent on this roster for his late-season efforts after missing two and a half months with injury. With all these hitters going on tears as the regular-season calendar wound down, one might wonder how the Mets went 25-25 over their last 50 games and 5-12 over their last 18.
