The Mets are so far under .500 that they can’t even get in the mix for what is a wide open National League Wild Card.  They’re not even following the Nationals lead who traded off Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams at the same time the Mets are playing Jose Bautista and Austin Jackson everyday.  Given the record and the poor direction of this organization, it becomes increasingly difficult to find reasons to watch.

With that in mind, here are reasons to watch the Mets other than you love the Mets or you hate yourself:

• Will Jacob deGrom finish the season strong enough to the point where he overcomes everything to become the Cy Young winner with the fewest wins from a starting pitcher?
• How will the Mets handle first base with Jay Bruce, Wilmer Flores, and Dominic Smith?  Will the team actually call up Peter Alonso?
• Is Zack Wheeler for real, or is the guy we have known him to be during his Mets career ever going to show up again?
• Can Kevin Plawecki be an everyday catcher?  With the Devin Mesoraco neck injury we should finally find out.
• Which one of the young relievers are for real?  So far, the answer appears to be Drew Smith and Daniel Zamora, but maybe just maybe Tyler Bashlor can enter the mix as well.
• How much progress can Amed Rosario make on both sides of the ball?
• Will Michael Conforto continue this second half surge, or will he regress as his shoulder presumably tires?
• Is Jeff McNeil really the next Daniel Murphy?

More than any of this, we wait for baited breath to see if David Wright will actually take the field for the Mets again.  If he does, that will be the greatest reason of all to watch the Mets again this year.