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Nothing is settled in April, but it’s always better to be on top. Just ask Matt Harvey and the New York Mets. 

After defeating the Washington Nationals, 4-0, Friday night, the Mets are 16-8 and 4.5 games up in the National League East.

Washington, meanwhile, is mired under .500 and in fourth place. It is still one of baseball’s most talented teams and will almost surely catch fire at some point. On Thursday, the Nationals drubbed the Mets, 8-2, handing the Amazin’s their first loss of the season at Citi Field. 

On Friday, though, New York sent a strong, unambiguous statement to the club nearly everyone picked to run away with the division.

Not surprisingly, that message was delivered via the right arm of Matt Harvey, “the Dark Knight of Gotham,” who twirled seven shutout frames and improved his record to 5-0.

On the other side, the Nats wasted another strong effort from their ace, Max Scherzer, who racked up 10 strikeouts and carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning but absorbed the tough-luck loss.

The game was a rematch of sorts of the 2013 All-Star Game, which Harvey started for the NL and Scherzer, then with the Detroit Tigers, started for the AL.

“They got you ready for the Kentucky Derby tonight,” Mets outfielder Michael Cuddyer quipped, per MLB.com‘s Bill Ladson and Joe Trezza, “because both of those guys are horses.” 

The Mets have been riding Harvey, who returned from Tommy John surgery this spring throwing like his old self. But he’s far from the only steed in New York’s stable.

Reigning NL Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom (3.34 ERA, 29.2 IP, 23 SO) and the ageless Bartolo Colon (3.31 ERA, 32.2 IP, 25 SO) join Harvey to form a starting corps that so far has surrendered fewer runs and logged more innings than Washington’s vaunted super-rotation.

Offensively, the Mets are missing third baseman David Wright, who was hitting .333 when he landed on the disabled list with a hamstring injury April 15.

Others, though, including first baseman Lucas Duda (.321/.420/.476, 7 2B, 12 RBI) and center fielder Juan Lagares (.305/.323/.358, 13 R, 11 RBI) have stepped up to shoulder the load.

There are question marks, to be sure, as the New York Post‘s Ken Davidoff notes:

Unfortunately for the Mets, Harvey can’t play shortstop, too, as Wilmer Flores’ sixth error provided the game-turning play. But to their credit, the Mets acted proactively late Thursday night and promoted second baseman Dilson Herrera from Triple-A Las Vegas. With David Wright (strained right hamstring) out for at least another week, Herrera will start at second base, with Daniel Murphy sliding over to third base and Eric Campbell (.204/.327/.328) likely headed back to Vegas.

Because the Mets are aiming high this season, and since they honored that ambition with their first 2.5 weeks, good for them for owning it, utilizing their roster depth and trying something different.

That’s the point. The Mets aren’t a perfect team—far from it. On paper, the Nationals are better in nearly every facet of the game, and the Miami Marlins and surprising Atlanta Braves are also lurking as potential division contenders.

The wild-card picture in the NL figures to be as crowded as the subway at quitting time, with more teams in the picture than out of it. 

That’s a conversation for another day, though.

For now, a team that hasn’t posted a winning record since 2008 and hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2006 is playing like it’s squarely in the hunt. For weary Mets fans acclimated to also-ran status, that’s a welcome development.

You can’t win anything in April, but you sure can raise some hopes.

All statistics current through play on May 1 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted. 

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The Mets’ 2015 season is just about here and there is a lot to look forward to, as the Mets attempt to get into the postseason for the first time since 2006.

After rebuilding for much of the decade thus far, most of the Mets’ young pieces are now on the major league roster, which means the team is that much closer to competing and having winning seasons.

Here are 10 reasons to be optimistic about the Mets this year.

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Matt Harvey is back. That’s good news for the New York Mets as they try to put together their first winning season since 2008. More than that, though, it’s good news for baseball.

When he went down with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow in 2013, Harvey was among the most exciting young pitchers in the game. The hard-throwing right-hander was an All-Star that year and tied for fourth in National League Cy Young balloting despite missing the season’s final month and ultimately undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Now, after traipsing the long and winding road to recovery, Harvey is back on the mound and dominating like he never left.

Yes, they’re only spring stats, so add the obligatory grain of salt. Still, you can forgive Mets fans for drooling: 18.2 IP, 3 ER, 1 BB, 17 SO.

Most importantly, Harvey has looked like his old self during the exhibition slate, showcasing the crackling fastball and plus command that made him such a special talent pre-surgery.

“I feel just as normal as I ever have,” Harvey told The New York Times‘ Tim Rohan after racking up five strikeouts in 4.1 innings against the St. Louis Cardinals on March 27, which was the young ace’s 26th birthday.

Forget the cake and ice cream; Harvey served up cheddar. 

“It’s all the process now,” manager Terry Collins said after Harvey’s birthday outing, per Rohan. “He’s obviously healthy.”

Even the best hurlers usually face an adjustment period coming back from Tommy John. ESPNNewYork.com’s Adam Rubin cites data collected by sports medicine specialist Dr. Glenn Fleisig that shows 80 percent of pitchers successfully return to the big leagues after the increasingly common procedure but typically take six months to hit their stride (if they last that long).

Before Harvey ever threw a pitch this spring, Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen predicted an accelerated comeback.

“I just think Harvey is a different animal,” Warthen told Rubin on Feb. 21. “I’ve got to believe this guy is going to be on top of his game right away.”

Harvey may hit some speed bumps over the course of the 162-game grind, but so far, he’s making Warthen look like Nostradamus. 

His swift return to form is especially important for New York now, with the news that budding stud Zack Wheeler will miss the entire 2015 campaign with, yep, a torn UCL and a Tommy John surgery of his own.

It’s a painful blow to a talented young Mets staff, but the Amazins still boast reigning NL Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom and have touted prospect Noah Syndergaard waiting in the wings.

Add Harvey, and you’ve got a staff that could propel New York back to relevance after more than a half-decade as the downtrodden also-ran of the Big Apple.

“Is the team capable of winning 89-90 games? Yeah, I think the team is capable,” general manager Sandy Alderson said in February, per Mike Fitzpatrick of The Associated Press (via Yahoo Sports). 

That may not be enough to keep pace with the loaded Washington Nationals in the NL East. But the Mets could snag a wild-card slot. And who wants to face Harvey at the height of his powers in a one-game, do-or-die playoff?

We’re getting way ahead of ourselves, of course. And maybe Alderson’s lost some confidence after Wheeler’s injury. But it should be buoyed, along with the Mets’ chances, by a so-far undeniable fact: Matt Harvey is back.

All statistics current as of March 29 and courtesy of MLB.com.

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Here’s a contrarian point of view: The New York Mets should be glad the National League East-rival Washington Nationals just splurged $210 million on Max Scherzer. But we’ll get to that in a bit.

Under the deliberate guidance and decision-making of general manager Sandy Alderson, the Mets—finally—appear to be on the verge of becoming relevant and maybe even competitive for the first time since Carlos Delgado was their starting first baseman.

Yes, the same Delgado who has been retired long enough to be put on—and then dropped off—the Hall of Fame ballot.

The last time the Mets had a winning campaign? Try 2008, six seasons ago, which is tied for the longest active streak of losing years in Major League Baseball with the Houston Astros.

Even for the bright and thorough Alderson, who was hired after the 2010 season, this rebuilding project has taken a long (looong) time.

Well, it’s probably going to take just a little bit longer. At least, if the Mets are going to take the NL East by storm on the strength of their stockpile of exciting, young, high-upside starters.

Returning to the front of the rotation after missing all of 2014 while recovering from Tommy John surgery is Matt Harvey, who became one of the sport’s biggest stars with a breakout 2013 (2.27 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 9.6 K/9), in the middle of which he started the All-Star Game—in his home park—for the NL squad.

The big questions, of course, are how much of Harvey’s ridiculous repertoire will return and how many innings he conceivably could pitch, especially in the first year, post-procedure.

“As of now, realistically, throwing 200 innings in the regular season is probably not likely,” Harvey said via Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com in January. “I mean, if you make 33 starts and seven innings a start, obviously doing the math that’s over what I’m probably going to throw.”

Lined up behind Harvey are fellow right-handers Jacob deGrom and Zack Wheeler, both of whom already have had success in the majors and have the kind of stuff and potential to become front-liners, too.

Wheeler started to come into his own over the second half of 2014 (3.04 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 9.6 K/9), at which point deGrom was busy putting together a fantastic run that earned him the NL Rookie of the Year Award from out of nowhere.

While Wheeler still has some work to do to improve his control and command, deGrom is a candidate for regression, simply because it shouldn’t be expected that he will pitch to a 2.69 ERA over the course of a full season, as Anthony DiComo of MLB.com notes. Those two need to fully establish themselves in 2015.

Then there’s Noah Syndergaard, the club’s consensus top prospect and arguably the best pitching prospect in baseball, particularly since the 6’6″ right-hander affectionately called Thor is just about ready to debut in The Show after spending all of 2014 at Triple-A.

As Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com writes of Syndergaard:

The two-time Futures Gamer is knocking on the door with his combination of stuff and command, a fastball that can get up to 98 mph, a curve and a changeup, all of which are above-average offerings. Syndergaard‘s 3.82 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his career thus far speaks volumes about what he’s capable of.

That said, Syndergaard is only 22 years old and had his first real struggles in pro ball at hitter-friendly Las Vegas last year, posting a 4.60 ERA, albeit with a career-best 145 strikeouts in a career-high 133 innings. He’ll likely experience some growing pains and a transition period. That’s what 2015 is for.

All of this is fine, by the way. Despite the losing and controversy that has hovered over Flushing since Citi Field opened in 2009, the Mets shouldn’t be in a rush to have everything come together this year.

Which brings us back to the point above about the Nationals.

They’re coming off an NL-best 96-win season in which they won the division by a ridiculous 17 games, the largest margin in the sport. At the outset of the offseason, they already were favorites to repeat as NL East champs and looked poised to make some waves in October, too, after failed forays in 2012 and last year.

And then, on top of all that, Washington went out and signed Scherzer for $210 million.

That makes the Nationals the overwhelming front-runners in the division, if not the entire Senior Circuit, for 2015.

But after ’15, things could open up a bit more, as four key Washington players—right-handers Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister as well as shortstop Ian Desmond and center fielder Denard Span—are set to hit free agency a year from now.

With Scherzer‘s contract taking up a large chunk of change, the Nationals certainly won’t be able to bring back all four, and they might have trouble replacing them, too.

Enter the Mets’ real window to winning, starting in 2016.

Besides, by that point, they won’t be giving (er, wasting) any starts to the likes of Jon Niese, Bartolo Colon or Dillon Gee, who could be traded even before the start of 2015, per Mike Puma of the New York Post. Those three are perfectly capable mid- or back-of-the-rotation starters, but the wave of arms the Mets have coming back and coming up is far superior to Niese, Colon and Gee—and soon will make them obsolete.

After Harvey, deGrom, Wheeler and Syndergaard—all of whom are 26 years old or younger—the club could hand over the final rotation spot to one of their other young pitchers.

Yes, the Mets have more arms on the way, too, namely highly regarded prospects such as left-hander Steven Matz and righty Rafael Montero.

Matz was named the team’s second-best prospect behind Syndergaard by Baseball America, and Montero already has had a taste of the majors, and despite being a starter, he could be relegated to the bullpen this year and beyond given all of the depth.

The last several seasons haven’t been any fun in Flushing, but the well-armed Mets have slowly, patiently, methodically put themselves in position to return to relevance in 2015.

And if all the pitchers come together and everything breaks right, playoff contention is possible. In 2016.

Statistics are accurate through the 2014 season and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11.

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