The National League champion Mets are sitting in the catbird seat, waiting for the Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays to decide who will be their World Series opponent as Kansas City takes a 3-2 lead into Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

The Mets’ most unique characteristic—the one that has come to define them even in the face of Daniel Murphy’s historic home-run barrage—is power pitching. No team in the era when velocity has been so precisely measured has fielded the multitude of power arms the Mets...