Mets' West Coast trips are finished, but that doesn't guarantee smooth landing ahead

It was about 24,000 miles, accomplished in a little more than two months.

That’s how many air miles the Mets covered in what was the most grueling travel schedule in baseball thus far. No other East or West Coast team has traveled cross country four times, and only the Rockies, Yankees, A’s and Angels have made three trips to the opposite coast.

In the NL East, the Marlins clocked about 15,500 miles — second most in the division, while the Nationals and Atlanta trail the pack, with an early schedule that saw them travel more than 10,000 fewer miles than the Mets.

And now it’s over. Barring a playoff appearance, the Mets will barely leave the Eastern time zone for the rest of the season, and frankly, that can only help.

“I love California,” Sean Manaea said, “but I’m happy to just be going up against Chicago — maybe that would be the furthest west. It was definitely a grind but I’m proud of the way everyone handled everything and just excited for the rest of the season.”

Everyone will tell you the travel schedule is no excuse — and certainly not an excuse to be 29-36, but it’s certainly a weird quirk of the season. And it does have its ramifications.

A 2017 study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked into 20 years of MLB data and determined that travel, particularly from the West Coast back to the East Coast, had a significant negative impact on play. Teams were 3.5% less likely to win when they traveled east across at least two time zones — they allowed more homers, and slugging percentage dropped.

Granted, teams don’t travel like the rest of us — planes are chartered, meals are planned, and security is expedited. But when it comes to fostering peak performance, changes in sleep and routine can have significant impact, even when it comes to player health.

“It could be a challenge, but I feel like our guys do a good job of communicating with our training staff, making sure that they recover, their sleep and everything, the nutrition, all of that,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When you go to places like Colorado [with its high altitude], that’s when you kind of feel it the most but for the most part, you go back home and there’s an off day, and we had an off day here [between Seattle and San Diego]. The guys do a really good job of doing what they need to do.”

So, what does that mean for the Mets now?

Well, while the travel part gets significantly easier, the schedule does not. According to Tankathon, they have the hardest remaining strength of schedule in the major leagues, with their opponents clocking in at a .540 winning percentage. No other team in the division comes close to that, with the Marlins clocking in at 10th hardest.

If the Mets are going to break through — and that’s a big if — it’ll have to be done the hard way. They’re making some progress, though: With their win over the Padres Sunday, they went 3-3 on the road trip, and have won seven of their last 10. The road trip featured some bright spots, including a 5-for-5 day from Carson Benge, a bounce-back outing from Nolan McLean, and decent offensive performances from Bo Bichette and Marcus Semien.

“It’s always good to go on the road and win a series,” Benge said. “But I like the traveling. It brings us all closer.”

That is, in fact, the bright side. And so is the fact that eventually, the rest of their divisional rivals will have to take their lumps, too.

“The schedule is the schedule,” Mendoza said. “We knew right away when we saw it that we had the West Coast trips early on, but it’s a part of it. Everyone deals with it, whether it’s early, middle or late, so that’s not an excuse.”

And frankly, going back, would be a privilege.

“We’re done for the regular season,” he said. “I’m trying to be optimistic here.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.