Jun 28, 2023; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets owner Steve Cohen speaks to the media during a press conference before a game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
MLB: Milwaukee Brewers at New York Mets
(Queens, NY) – “It’s early,” said Mets owner Steve Cohen as he reacted to the club’s slow start during an appearance on CNBC. That said, he acknowledged “nobody wants to start 0-4.”
Cohen, who’s owned the team for several seasons now, is taking the long term view: “During the season you’re gonna have losing streaks. We just happened to have one at the beginning.”
Naturally the conversation turned to matters of finance, given this was on CNBC. Cohen deadpanned “clearly not” when asked if you can buy wins in MLB. He reiterated his belief that free agency doesn’t provide a solid foundation for a franchise: “The real problem is, if you’re trying to build a team through free agency it’s such a tough place to be — because you’re fighting the aging curve. You’re buying players based on their previous history, but they’re getting older. As they get older, performance over time declines. And so it’s a tough place to be.”
The billionaire and noted financier compared owning the Mets to his day job: “What you really want to do is develop talent, which is no different than what I do at my hedge fund.”
But Cohen is also maintaining a hands-off approach in Flushing, as he explains “I’m not making the decisions. My baseball people are making the decisions. My job is when they need me to support their decision. They come to me and say ‘this is what I want to do.’ I’ve never said no to anything. We have discussions and we talk about it, but those ideas are not coming from me.”
Toward the end of spring training the Mets made use of Cohen’s checkbook and inked a one-year deal with veteran DH/outfielder J.D. Martinez. And while it’s true that it doesn’t always translate to wins, spending cash is not something that Cohen has a problem with. “I don’t care about the cost side,” Cohen said while addressing the team’s bloated payroll in recent seasons. “That’s why I bought the team. That’s exactly why I bought the team. I said in my original press conference if I can make millions of people happy, how cool is that? I actually view it as a civic responsibility. Nobody wants to lose money forever and spend money and not have success. To me, I deem success as not only getting in the playoffs and winning the World Series. It’s also developing a deep farm system that creates talent over the years — over and over again.”
Which partly explains the Mets’ relatively quiet offseason – and last year’s trade deadline – when Cohen signed off on continuing to pay Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander this season, rather than pushing their salary off on their new clubs. As a result of that approach, the Mets beefed up the talent in their minor league system, because both the Rangers and Astros sent prospects Mets way in each trade.
