Chicago Cubs: This National League rival is really going all in

It feels like a decade has gone by since the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs met in the National League Championship series. Since then, each team has gone on to do wildly different things. The Mets won that series but fell in the World Series while the Cubs turned around and won the whole thing the following year.

They have each had their struggles in recent years but the Mets are now going all in. They had a brilliant start in 2021 and it looked like they were on their way to an easy National League East crown. Instead, they fell off and the Atlanta Braves came up and won the division and eventually the World Series.

New York didn’t take kindly to that and they appear to be all-in on 2022 and beyond. They are in an agreement on a three-year deal worth 130 million dollars with Max Scherzer who was the biggest free agent on the market this offseason. A big contract like this comes a year after they made a huge trade for Francisco Lindor and then gave him a very lucrative contract.

Scherzer is going to be a force with the Mets. He will join Jacob de Grom to form the best 1-2 punch in Major League Baseball. If each of them pitches as they did in 2021 (when healthy), they could form the best duo on the same team in the history of the sport.

The Chicago Cubs are going to be seeing a lot of this good New York Mets team.

Max spent 2021 split between the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers. With L.A., he came up just short of winning another World Series as they fell in the NLDS. Now, his focus is on helping the Mets finally turn it around.

With Lindor and Scherzer in mind, it is interesting to see the Mets all in. The Cubs tried to help them with that as they took prospect Pete Crow Armstrong in exchange for Javier Baez at the 2021 trade deadline. It didn’t work out as they thought but it was a move that they made to try and help themselves. It doesn’t sound like he will return to Queens.

Scherzer also joins Eduardo Escobar, Mark Cahna, and Starling Marte as Mets offseason additions. With some of the talent that they already have there, they might be able to hang on for a full 162 games in 2022.

When they play against the Cubs, it is going to be a lot of fun to see those guys play and it will be a good test for them in every matchup. The Cubs are retooling right now but they can learn a thing or two from the way the Mets have handled this.