CHICAGO (670 The Score) -- Four years ago this fall, the Mets celebrated on Wrigley Field having swept the Cubs and won the pennant. They were heading to the World Series and appeared to have arrived as a perennial favorite in the National League.
The Mets are at the Friendly Confines for a four-game series this weekend, and nearly everything from their 2015 success is gone. New York has a different manager and general manager and is on its third pitching coach after making a change at that position Thursday.
Only seven players remain from the Mets' pennant-winning team, and just four are healthy and active for this series. They're 35-39 and floundering in the NL East. Meanwhile, the Cubs are leading the NL Central at 40-33 and seeking a fifth straight playoff appearance, a run that started in 2015.
Back then, it seemed Chicago and New York would host many more playoff games against each other. So how did the Cubs sustain their success and the Mets find themselves mired in mediocrity? It's the culmination of many factors.
More simply put, the Cubs are the same team today as they were in October 2015.
"I know that we were able to establish a culture," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who was in his first year with the team that season. "To this day, June 20, 2019, I could really feel the work that's been done over the last couple years in today's team.
"I've been appreciative of that all along. It's not easy to do this."
The Cubs also have just seven players remaining from that NL Championship Series roster, but those names are notable. They had won 97 regular-season games that season and reached such a plateau with emerging players in Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber, plus steady starters in Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks and a bullpen linchpin in Pedro Strop.
When Maddon refers to the Cubs' culture established in 2015, he's pointing to those seven players. The Cubs then added more key contributors like Jason Heyward, Willson Contreras, Jose Quintana, Cole Hamels and Craig Kimbrel in the following seasons to ensure that window of contention remains open.
The Mets swept those four games with the Cubs because of their dominant pitching from Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Bartolo Colon. The quintet of Syndergaard, deGrom, Harvey, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler was supposed to sustain the Mets atop the NL, but success in New York proved to be fleeting.
While deGrom won the NL Cy Young last season, only he has produced as the Mets had hoped. Syndergaard is back on the injured list with a hamstring strain and has one healthy season since arriving as a rookie in 2015. Matz and Wheeler have battled injuries and inconsistencies. Harvey was dumped off to Cincinnati last season.
New York has two bright young stars for its lineup in right fielder Michael Conforto -- a reserve in the 2015 NLCS -- and rookie first baseman Pete Alonso. But Yoenis Cespedes has missed 279 games the last two-and-a-half seasons, crushing what New York's lineup could've been. Veterans Robinson Cano, Todd Frazier and Carlos Gomez round out the batting order.
The Cubs were built with sustained success as the hope of team president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, who selected position players instead of pitchers in the first round of his first four drafts in Chicago. The belief was that there was too great a risk in relying on pitchers to pan out.
Epstein came away with Albert Almora Jr., Bryant, Schwarber and Ian Happ in consecutive drafts. The Cubs would ultimately construct rotations they could count on through trades and free agency.
The Cubs open their series with the Mets featuring Schwarber, Bryant, Rizzo and Baez atop Maddon's lineup. They have maintained with continuity in the front office and the same manager for this run of success.
Since the start of the 2015 season, the Cubs have won 427 games -- second to only the Dodgers' 429. The Mets haven't reached the playoffs since losing 1-0 to the Giants in the 2016 NL wild-card contest.
Success is something the Cubs have savored.
"Nothing should ever be taken for granted," Maddon said.
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago's sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670.
