Before each of the past few seasons, we have featured a piece on what the New York Mets needed from the perspective of Wins Above Replacement to be a playoff team. This year, we’re taking a different approach, looking at what it would take for the Mets to have the best record in the National League.

The past four seasons, the NL WAR leaders have been the 2012 Reds, 2013 Braves, 2014 Nationals and 2015 Cardinals. Between them, they averaged 48 Wins Above Replacement, bottoming at 45.5 (Reds) and topping at 49.9 (Cardinals).

So how do the Mets get to 48 WAR? At the bottom of this article is a chart doling out player-by-player projections in what we feel is the most realistic scenario for it to happen. It will take a lot (the Mets totaled 36.9 WAR last season, so they’re looking for an 11-WAR improvement), but it’s not impossible. Here are some of the highlights:

It starts with the starters

For the Mets to be a 95-to-100-win team, it stands to reason that their starting pitching will carry them there. We allotted 15 WAR to the combination of Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, and we could have doled it out any number of ways.

Making Harvey a 6-WAR pitcher is a nice jump from last season and puts him alongside David Price, who pitched 220 innings to a 2.45 ERA in 2015. DeGrom’s 5-WAR season would be almost a match to his 4.7 in 2015. Syndergaard pitched to a 2.1 WAR in 2015. Asking him to be a 4-WAR pitcher would mean he would have to match the 2015 season of Carlos Martinez, whose ERA was a bit better than Syndergaard’s (3.01 vs 3.24) in 30 more innings.

Steven Matz's past health issues could make a 3-WAR season a challenge, but when you look at someone like Gio Gonzalez (3.79 ERA in 175 2/3 innings) and see that he was valued at 2.8 WAR last season, it seems more doable.

Steady pen

To be the highest-caliber team, the Mets need their bullpen to be very good. It’s hard to ask Jeurys Familia to be better than he was last season both in quality of performance and volume of work. But he needs to be reasonably close. We plugged in 2 WAR for him, down from 2.7 in 2015, but still a strong number.

We gave seven Mets relievers at least a half-win value for 2016. They had five relievers at that number in 2015. The keys would be Addison Reed pitching well for a full season, and not just 15 innings, Hansel Robles making a jump from OK to pretty good, and for Jerry Blevins to stay healthy for a full season.

Cespedes

Yoenis Cespedes was worth 6.3 WAR last season, a big jump from the 3.9, 1.5 and 4.1 he put up in his first three seasons. If we say Cespedes will be something in-between his best and second-best seasons, a 5-WAR campaign seems about right.

However, there’s a big difference between being a 5-WAR left fielder (a position at which Cespedes is a good defender) and a 5-WAR center fielder (a position at which he doesn’t rate well defensively). For Cespedes to have a realistic shot at 5-WAR in center field, he’s either going to need 40-homer power (the only center fielder to hit 40 homers in the past three years is Mike Trout) or have a very good offensive season, with at least adequate defense (attainable, though not likely).

Conforto and d'Arnaud

We’re putting Michael Conforto and Travis d'Arnaud together because they are two Mets position players with potentially high ceilings -- and we plugged in the same 3-WAR value for each.

Conforto was a 2.1 in 56 games in 2015, with a solid bat, good power and better-than-expected defense. A 3-WAR season over 130 games would account for a slight drop in production (most likely in power). Left fielders around 3-WAR last season included Michael Brantley, Brett Gardner and Randal Grichuk.

D'Arnaud has the offensive tools to be a 3-WAR catcher, but has been lacking in both defense and health. If he can stay healthy, a 3-WAR season is doable. Stephen Vogt of the Athletics was a 3.5 WAR catcher hitting .261/.341/.443 with slightly above average defense in 136 games. D’Arnaud should be able to come close to that.

A healthy captain

The wild card in this is the health of captain David Wright. The Mets don’t need Wright to be great to be the NL’s best team in 2016, but his being on the field for 130 games would make a big difference, keeping the team’s depth where it fits best -- on the bench.

Below is a player-by-player list breaking down one Mets scenario that would result in them being the best team in the National League. It incorporates what we've written above and more.