Mets are among MLB's elite. Here's how they stack up against Dodgers, Braves and Yankees

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With a little more than a month remaining in the 2022 season, the contenders have presented themselves across Major League Baseball.

The New York Mets are right there at the top.

On Saturday night, the Mets clinched their first winning season since 2019. At 82-47, they have the second-best record in baseball behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team they're seeing three times this week at Citi Field, and are in a neck and neck dash to the finish with the Atlanta Braves inside the National League East.

While a playoff berth and potential division title are coming into focus, manager Buck Showalter wants to make sure his players stick to the blueprint for success that has gotten them to this point. That means simply controlling what they can control.

"You can’t do anything about what other clubs are doing," Showalter said prior to the series with the Rockies. "They’ve worked very hard to get whatever cushion they’ve had. We’ll see. Our curiosity will be satisfied."

Throughout their successful season, the Mets have proven that they belong in the conversation among the league's elite. Here's how the best in baseball are looking these days:

Dodgers: The model

The Dodgers have set the bar within the National League over the last decade, having reached the playoffs in nine straight seasons including three trips to the World Series.

They have four former MVP's on their roster, including Clayton Kershaw, and one of the top payrolls in the league.

The Dodgers have provided a framework on how to build consistent success for Mets management, led by owner Steve Cohen. The Mets will have another chance to prove that they belong in the conversation as the top National League team beginning on Tuesday when they begin a three-game series with the MLB-leading Dodgers at Citi Field.

"Steve has made it clear that he wants to be a competitor every year and from now on," Brandon Nimmo said. "Steve’s ultimate goal would be to emulate that and to be, let’s say, the Dodgers of the east coast. Yeah, I think this is a part of that transition.

"This season has already been great in a lot of aspects. There’s still a lot for this organization to accomplish, so hopefully this is the beginning of that."

Earlier this season, the Mets showed off their moxie against the Dodgers. After being held to one run in the opening two games of their four-game series, the Mets ripped off nine runs to win the third and received an RBI double from J.D. Davis in the 10th inning to grab the series split.

"I think the confidence in this clubhouse, as in many clubhouses that are winning right now, is we can go toe-to-toe with anyone and on any given night when we play our best game, we’re going to win," Darin Ruf said. "Do you go out there and play your best game every night? Absolutely not. But I think we know that if everyone plays together and we play solid defense and limit mistakes, there’s a good chance we’ll come out with a victory."

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Braves: One last hurdle

A season ago, Ruf was in one of the toughest division battles in MLB history.

The Giants finished with the best record in baseball with 107 wins but had to fend off the Dodgers, who collected 106 victories, to avoid the Wild Card game. Now, Ruf can see a similar race developing between the Mets and Braves to grab one of the two byes for the Wild Card round.

The Braves have won each of the last four NL East crowns.

"Up until the very last day, it was ‘We have to win this game,'" Ruf said. "I have a feeling that’s the way this last week in August and September and the first week in October is going to go too. The Braves are a very talented team as well. Everyone wants that first or second seed bye to rest, to be able to prepare, so it’ll be similar."

The Mets currently hold a 9-7 record over the Braves this season but went 1-3 in their last trip to Atlanta. The three losses included a pair of games where starters Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco both had to exit with injuries after two innings. One of those defeats came by one run with Vaughn Grissom beating a relay from Nimmo to Ruf to home.

The Mets took four out of five from the Braves in their previous series between Aug. 4-7. Each of the team's starters have delivered a gem at some point over the course of the season series. Now, the two teams will meet in the penultimate series with a chance to grab the crown.

"They’re a great team and so are we. Any time we meet up, it’s the little things that matter," Nimmo said. "That’s going to be the difference in those games when we meet up. It’s going to be very, very minor things, mental mistakes or mental cues that help win the game."

Yankees, Phillies: Learn to believe

One of the best ways to judge a team is how it handles adversity.

For the Mets, it began in the final week of spring training when they learned that Jacob deGrom would be out for a minimum of four weeks and then again when Max Scherzer was lost for seven weeks with an oblique strain. Tylor Megill and David Peterson stepped in and delivered to make sure the Mets did not hit the panic button.

But that fortitude has shone through numerous times over the course of the season, including against the Phillies, Cardinals and Yankees.

"One of the things that we’ve trademarked this season is the ability to come back in games," Nimmo said. "That was something that was really tough for us to do in years past. We’ve had some times when we’ve had to come back from some sizable runs down."

It began on April 25 when they were down to their final strike against the Cardinals and used an error and infield single from Dominic Smith to key a five-run ninth inning. It continued on May 5 when the Mets stormed back from down six runs to grab an 8-7 win over the Phillies. After Peterson gave up the tying runs to the Yankees in the eighth inning on July 27, Starling Marte delivered the walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth in a 3-2 win.

In the last week alone, the Mets have overcome a one-run eighth-inning deficit against the Phillies and two-run eighth-inning hole against the Rockies.

Nimmo said he believes this year's team is less reliant on the home-run ball than in years past. And Ruf added that the team thrives on getting a mental advantage on opponents through sharing information about opposing pitching.

"It’s not just one guy, it’s five, six, seven guys in the lineup sharing that information. I think that’s special," Ruf said. "The best lineups always are everyone working together one through nine. To share that information is an example of how it can flow together like that."