The Cubs’ quick exit from October has the Mets looking at the whole thing with a familiar, and slightly twisted, sense of irony.
Chicago fought all the way to the finish line for playoff seeding and wound up fifth, which sent it into a best-of-three Wild Card Series on the road against the Padres. That didn’t go well. The Cubs were outscored 12-1 and swept, and for Mets fans, the matchup carried extra weight because Chicago’s roster was packed with ex-Mets - including three notable players acquired just this season via trade.
NJ.com’s Max Goodman pointed out the part that really lands for New York.
“The Mets got Jefferson Rojas, now their top prospect, from the Cubs for Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor at the trade deadline.
Chicago was swept by the Padres in the Wild Card Series. Holmes was on the roster, but didn’t pitch.
Taylor was 1-for-1 with a pinch-hit single in Game 2. …
- Max Goodman (@MaxTGoodman) October 1, 2026”
That leaves the Mets with Jefferson Rojas, while Holmes never got into a playoff game and Taylor’s entire October contribution was one pinch-hit single. Put simply, it’s the kind of trade that can age very well for New York, especially since both Holmes and Taylor are soon-to-be free agents.
It’s Pete Crow-Armstrong deja vu all over again, just running in reverse.
Rojas is the kind of prospect the Mets have been waiting to see emerge in their system. He could flame out fast and become another Jarred Kelenic, sure.
But the other side of the equation looks a lot more compelling. Crow-Armstrong wasn’t a top 100 prospect when the Mets moved him, but he was a first-round pick with real upside, and a rapid climb was always possible.
Maybe nobody was forecasting MVP-level production, but a big-league breakthrough was never a wild idea.
Rojas already looks farther along in some ways. He has only a week of Triple-A work under his belt, but the path to MLB action in 2027 looks clear as long as there is a season.
He fits neatly into what the Mets may need next, whether Bo Bichette is part of the picture or not. Second base is shaping up as a competition involving Rojas, Emilien Pitre, Mitch Voit, and possibly others.
Third base may be the cleaner fit, and with 27 home runs in the minors this past year, he looks like the kind of long-term answer the organization has been trying to find.
For the Cubs, the fit wasn’t nearly as clean. They already had Alex Bregman signed for multiple years, so another third baseman wasn’t a real need.
Even so, the return hasn’t exactly been a disaster on paper. Holmes posted a 4.25 ERA in nine starts, while Taylor hit .351 in a part-time role.
Both are also plausible return candidates for the Mets, which only adds another layer to how this deal could look as time goes on.
The old joke around the Crow-Armstrong-for-Javier Baez-and-Trevor Williams trade has always worked both ways: plenty of joy for Cubs fans, plenty of frustration for Mets fans. New York didn’t even reach the playoffs in 2021, while Chicago just did and still didn’t get much out of it.
The Cubs may end up with another round of laughs when Crow-Armstrong is announced as the NL MVP, but after the way his October went - 0 for 7 with four strikeouts and a walk in the Wild Card Series - that shine is muted. He is now a .147/.194/.147 hitter in the playoffs with 16 strikeouts in 37 plate appearances, and last year Chicago at least pushed things to Game 5 of the NLDS.
For now, the storyline feels like the mirror image of the old one. “can you believe the Mets traded this guy?” has followed Crow-Armstrong for years.
Now there’s at least a chance the same question gets asked in reverse about Rojas and the Cubs. Chicago didn’t even get to play a full October game.
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Grays own reaction underscored the tension behind the decision-making. He said he wanted to keep going and believed he was still effective even as the lineup came around for a third look, while Willson Contreras suggested the call to pull Gray may have leaned too heavily on data instead of experience. For a Red Sox team that could not afford any cracks in the pitching plan, the choice to go to the bullpen ended up looking like the biggest one of all. [Read more 🡒]