Mets owner Steve Cohen cautions the team’s record spending won’t necessarily lead to a World Series title this year.
“You
know how hard it is to get to get into the World Series — as we saw
last year, right?” Cohen said Monday at New York’s spring training camp.
“So the only thing you can do is put yourself in position where good
things can happen. Got to make the playoffs. The team’s got to be
healthy. It’s got to be rested. It’s got to be raring to go. And then
you let the chips fall where they may. And if you keep putting yourself
there, one day we’ll get there. Obviously, I’d love it sooner than
later. But, you know, I can’t control that.”
New
York won its only World Series titles in 1969 and 1986. The Mets won
101 games last year, second-most in franchise history but were unable to
hold off Atlanta in the NL East after sitting atop the division for all
but six days. The Mets were eliminated by San Diego in a three-game
Wild Card Series.
New
York raised its payroll to a projected $370 million and is set to
shatter the record, set by the 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers at $291 million.
The
Mets had a $146 million payroll in 2019, the last fully played season
under the Wilpon and Katz families. New York boosted payroll to $199
million in 2021, the first season after Cohen bought the team, and $275
million last year, when the Mets led the major leagues in spending for
the first time since 1989.
Cohen cited inflation as a factor in the offseason spending spree.
“All
of the sudden we were looking at prices up 20, 30%,” Cohen said. “That
was a shocker to me, and certainly changed our plans, and I had to think
differently. You know, $300 million, which is still a lot of money,
didn’t get us like it used to — what we could.”
Cohen’s
Mets signed AL Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander to a $86.7
millon, two-year contract, added pitchers Kodai Senga ($75 million for
five years), José Quintana ($26 million for two years) and David
Robertson ($10 million for one years), along with catcher Omar Narváez
($15 million for two years). New York also re-signed closer Edwin Díaz
($102 million for five years), outfielder Brandon Nimmo ($162 million
for eight years), infielder Jeff McNeil ($50 million for four years) and
reliever Adam Ottavino ($14.5 million for two years).
New
York projects to have a luxury tax payroll of about $390 million, which
would result in a tax of about $116 million. While negotiators for
teams and players adopted a fourth tax threshold last year know as the
“Cohen tax,” the Mets owner has used his hedge-fund riches to keep
spending. That has increased disparity in a sport that saw four teams
finish last year with payrolls under $100 million.
“They’ve
been dealing with that problem for a long time,” Cohen said. “It’s
really hard for me to say how to solve that because I think it’s a
multi-variable problem. I think ultimately, I think the key for baseball
is you need to grow revenues. And it can’t be through constantly
raising ticket prices. It’s got to be getting more attendance, getting
more interest in the game.”
Cohen
said some other owners told him at recent meetings they realized he was
following the established rules. He doesn’t believe the owner’s new
economic study group will formulate proposals specifically aimed at him.
“Absolutely
not,” Cohen said. “There’s plenty of issues there. The media issues, as
we know about, there are revenue issues, right? Attendance issues. So,
you know, I say it again, I think it’s great that the owners are getting
together discuss all these issues.”
With
team president Sandy Alderson shifting to a special assistant role,
Cohen intends a more of a day-to-day role in management.
Cohen
expects improvement from the Mets farm system will cause less
dependance on free agents, calling current behavior a “bridge” to the
future.
“People
have to be patient,” Cohen said. “It’s taking time. I see progress, and
I’m encouraged what we’re doing down in the lower part of the system.
And from what I hear, we’re developing pitchers, which I think is really
important.”