The Mets and Yankees are off to sluggish starts while the Braves and Rays have raced past them to sizable division leads.

The Yankees built their rotation around Gerrit Cole and newcomer Carlos Rodon, as well as Luis Severino. The Mets paired Max Scherzer with new co-ace Justin Verlander, and brought in Kodai Senga as an intriguing newcomer.

At least part of the reason the teams focused so much on top-of-the-rotation additions — Rodon signed in The Bronx for six years and $162 million, and the Mets signed Verlander for $86.67 million over two years and Senga for $75 million over five years — is that teams generally rely on three top starters in the postseason.

But teams have to get to the playoffs for that to matter, and at this point, both the Yankees (fourth place, one-game lead for third wild card) and Mets (fourth place, half-game back of third wild card) are on the edge of the expanded wild-card races.