David Stearns Mets hold almost all the edges with mission against Braves clear

You don’t need an Ivy League degree (Mets owner Steve Cohen and baseball president David Stearns have them) or analytics expertise (the Mets employ as many numbers crunchers as anyone) to understand that the 2024 Mets’ chances to make the playoffs and eliminate the hated Braves are better than ever now.While FanGraphs puts the Mets’ October opportunity at 76.2 percent, their chances seem even better than that.All the Mets need to do is win the highly anticipated series in Atlanta that starts Tuesday night.That’s it, take two out of three and their ticket is punched for very meaningful games in October (and even if they win only one of three, they still hold the edge with a series to go in Stearns’ old stomping grounds of Milwaukee).Stearns told The Post in spring training he believed they had a “playoff caliber” team, and for today he looks right about that, and just about everything else, too.

He is as good as advertised when Cohen signed him to a near-record contract, complete with postseason incentives that weren’t expected to come into play until 2025.Fairly, too, it doesn’t hurt to have a tiny bit of luck (more on that below).The Mets hit Atlanta with all the advantages, with the obvious exception of recent history, where the Braves are practically pitching a shutout against the Mets.Rookie fill-in shortstop Luisangel Acuña, a “blessing” according to one Mets person (no pun intended), has a 1.000 slugging percentage over the week, which is better than most everyone but Shohei Ohtani.

(Not even Mets people saw this coming, not after Acuña posted a .654 OPS in Triple-A.)Now for that little bit of luck.Rival execs suggest Acuña was the highest-ranked prospect the Mets were seriously listening on at the deadline.

Wisely, they didn’t trade him, and the belief of team execs now is that he’s a player who prefers the big stage, where they find themselves now.Meantime, Lindor’s leadoff replacement, the very veteran Jose Iglesias, leads...