Mets Monday Morning GM: 2 aces, 3 World Series rings, 1 task left unfinished

Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander will share the ace title with the New York Mets this season. Two Cooperstown-bound pitchers with three combined World Series rings, there is one task they have yet to accomplish.

Way back in 2012 the Detroit Tigers went up against the San Francisco Giants. This was the first trip to the Fall Classic for the two budding starting pitchers. The Giants held the Tigers hitters at bay in the four games they’d play, allowing 3-0-0-3 runs each. It was a clean sweep.

Both current Mets started a game with Verlander leaving after 4 with 5 earned runs. Scherzer was more effective, tossing 6.1 innings but allowing 3 earned runs. A lot has happened since that series. Who would’ve thought they’d ever become teammates again after leaving the Tigers and finding a ton of success elsewhere?

The Mets aces have accomplished a lot but a shared World Series is something they haven’t achieved

The last time Scherzer and Verlander called themselves teammates was in 2014. The Tigers were swept in the ALDS and that was that. Scherzer left in free agency and Verlander stuck around until he was traded to the Houston Astros in mid-2017. Even that seems like ancient history at this point. 

Since the two last played together in 2014, Scherzer has won two more Cy Young Awards with the Washington Nationals. Verlander captured two with the Astros as well. Mets fans would love to see one of them take the award and add a seventh combined to their resume. More important on everyone’s mind is the two helping the blue and orange accomplish the goal of finishing off the business they started in 2012.

Mets fans know a little bit of how Tigers fans could be feeling right now. The late 1990s New York Yankees clubs were filled with ex-Mets. Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and David Cone were three notables who won with the Yankees Dynasty. At least in the case of Gooden and Strawberry, they helped deliver a championship to Queens. 

It’s not quite the same.

The Mets haven’t won a World Series going on 37 years this October. The 2012 Tigers were on a 28-year drought dating back to the 1984 season. Their success in the Motor City with playoff appearances for the Tigers each season from 2011-2014 is by far the most successful stretch for the franchise for generations. Scherzer and Verlander won’t be around together long enough in New York to achieve four straight postseason trips. All we want in the end is for them to have matching World Series rings. We want what Tigers fans, unfortunately, never received.