*ALL STATS INCLUDED IN THIS STORY ARE AS OF TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27

What Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo have meant to the New York Mets’ 2016 campaign has gone beyond explanation.

Going into the year, most would argue that the Mets’ rotation was their greatest asset. However, it didn’t take long for this belief to be challenged. Matt Harvey lasted 17 mostly tortuous starts before opting for season-ending surgery for Thoracic-Outlet Syndrome. This was a mere bump in the road at the time as the team had four other horses to take the mound and awaited former number-two starter, Zach Wheeler’s return in the second half.

As the adage goes, “pitchers break,” and Wheeler never made a regular season start. Jacob DeGrom and Steven Matz made 24 and 23 starts respectively before their seasons were announced over with ailments of their own.

This left Noah Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon as the last two standing from the Mets six best options at starting pitcher to begin the season. The holes in the rotation were occasionally and mediocrely filled by the likes of Logan Verrett, Rafael Montero, and of course Jon Niese’s five innings across two starts. This is where Gsellman and Lugo come in. Neither had appeared in the Mets’ rotation until August 19th. Neither ever appeared on a national top-prospect list. 13th and 34th round picks respectively, Gsellman and Lugo now represent the best six/seven starter combination across baseball.

With a combined ERA of 2.70 in 13 starts, the only other team in the game to have a starting-pitcher duo come in mid-year and pitch to a sub-3 ERA (minimum 5 GS each, 10 GS combined), are Rich Hill and Julio Urias of the Dodgers with a 2.82 ERA in 19 starts. All other mid-year duos, whether they include top prospects, trade deadline acquisitions, or whoever, have posted a considerably higher mark than Gsellman/Lugo at 2.70.

That’s not all. By my count and research, there have been 98 pitchers this year to not be part of a team’s original five-man rotation plans, and start at least five games. Of these 98 pitchers, Gsellman ranks 7th with his personal ERA of 2.83, and Lugo 4th at 2.61. The only other pitchers in the top-seven are:

Rich Hill (1.53 ERA, 5 GS) LAD

Clayton Richard (1.71 ERA, 7 GS) SDP

David Phelps (2.22 ERA, 5 GS) MIA

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Andrew Triggs (2.70 ERA, 7 GS) OAK

Javy Guerra (2.81 ERA, 20 GS) MIL

What does this all mean or matter? For one, it once again echoes the importance of not only a competent rotation five pitchers deep, but one that consists of six, seven, eight viable arms. Not only may a team have an unexpected down year from a typically reliable starter like Sonny Gray or James Shields, but they may also face the reality of the volatility of the human arm throwing 95+ miles per hour.

What it means for the Mets is something additional. It means even without 75% of their 2015 postseason starting staff, that they were able to compete down the stretch, and will compete in the playoffs considering they get there. It is impossible to say how many, if any other teams at all would be able to pull this off given a similar plague of injuries. All you need apparently is the best 6-7 punch in baseball. No easy task to pull off.