Carlos Correa scenario demonstrates Steve Cohen won't let anything stand in way of World Series

Perhaps the most shocking element to Steve Cohen’s merciless ravaging of free agency this offseason is the fact that Aaron Judge actually made it to the Bronx stage Wednesday afternoon wearing a Yankees jersey.

Why did Cohen take a pass on him?

Whatever the reason, and maybe it was as simple as the Mets’ owner wanting to play nice with Hal Steinbrenner, something had to compel Cohen to steer away from Judge. Because, now that Carlos Correa is coming to Flushing, fresh off his stunning post-midnight agreement on a 12-year, $315 million deal, it’s crystal clear that Cohen won’t let anything stand in his way of winning a championship with the Mets.

We already were getting that vibe of course, back when Cohen was gobbling up free agents using more conventional means, and the team’s 2023 payroll meter was flipping faster than the National Debt Clock in midtown Manhattan. The key word involving these players being “free.”

As for Correa, well, his availability seemed somewhat open to interpretation, as the two-time All-Star was scheduled to be introduced Tuesday afternoon as a San Francisco Giant, courtesy of the 13-year, $350 million contract he accepted last week to play there. Turns out, that happy occasion was canceled only a few hours before kickoff, reportedly due to unresolved issues regarding Correa’s physical for the team.

Those types of discrepancies, the ones on a deal-busting level, tend to surface much earlier in discussions. But for the Giants to have Correa virtually at the steps of Oracle Park, call the whole thing off, and then have him bolt to the Mets only hours later, in the middle of the night?

There’s only two words that begin to even describe such a mind-boggling event: Steve Cohen.

Evidently, Cohen was not over his failed 11th hour courtship of Correa from a week earlier, when the Mets suddenly popped up as a suitor of the former Astros’ shortstop only to have him agree with the Giants in a matter of minutes. At the time, just the idea of Cohen laying out another $300 million for Correa -- following a week of adding five players at a cost of $359 million, and a $461 million tab for the offseason to date --  was nearly impossible to wrap our brains around.

It couldn’t be true, right? What owner, in any sport, would manage their payroll like a Monopoly board? The concept of stockpiling free agents, at this pace and speed, in a never-before-seen winter blitz, was hard to evaluate because we had nothing to compare it too. And we’ve never encountered a baseball owner -- yes, George Steinbrenner included -- that treated money as an infinitely renewable resource.

But Correa wound up going to the Giants, and we thought the fever dream had subsided, leaving the Mets to pursue more complimentary, relatively cheaper upgrades, like bullpen pieces, some rotation depth and maybe another bat. That assumption proved incorrect.

The mistake was believing that Cohen ever stops thinking big, even when the boxes at the top of the list are checked. And, as someone who made his fortune in the hedge-fund industry, Cohen doesn’t view an opportunity as dead until it’s entirely removed from the landscape. Technically, Correa still was in play, right up to the point when he fastens that top button on his Giants jersey.

Correa never got that far, and you have to wonder if part of that was cold feet about signing with the Giants -- especially with Cohen more than ready to make him nearly as rich as well as give Correa the chance to play alongside his buddy, Francisco Lindor. Once the Giants opened that window because of health concerns, Correa dashed right through, facilitated by his agent Scott Boras, who has quickly become BFFs with Cohen.

There are undeniable red flags here. Correa does have a history of back issues, and only once has played more than 150 games, in 2016. That’s concerning for a 28-year-old shortstop. By comparison, Lindor played 161 games at age 28 last season. Maybe shifting to third base will help with the wear-and-tear, but Correa’s past suggests he’s going to need his share of maintenance days.

And 12 years? Even in this era of the lifetime contract, designed to soften the immediate AAV impact on payrolls, that’s crazy talk from a pure baseball perspective. But Cohen doesn’t worry himself with such things. All of his actions this winter obviously have been win-now moves, only the Correa contract is taking that behavior the extreme. As much as GM Billy Eppler has preached about shorter-term deals literally buying time to help rebuild the organization, Cohen’s sole objective is to win a World Series, regardless of any blueprint or budget.

We saved the payroll for last because Cohen has basically made any of that discussion irrelevant to his goals. The Mets are now up to $388 million for luxury tax purposes, according to FanGraphs. By our calculations, that saddles Cohen with a a tax bill of roughly $114 million, nudging him over the $500 million mark for total investment in this year’s team.

Cohen doesn’t care about the cost, but the Mets will be wearing a blue-and-orange bullseye this season. The pressure to win a title will be as enormous as the payroll, and everyone hates the rich teams that stockpile All-Stars.

The Mets are a member of that club now, thanks to Cohen’s billions. There’s no place the franchise and its fans would rather be.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.