Steve Cohen's checkbook puts Mets in place all their own

Even in our short-attention span world, Carlos Correa’s (rumored) Mets career was particularly brief, the fever dream flickering for about an hour late Tuesday night before the free-agent shortstop signed a $350 million deal with the Giants.

But the impact is lasting. So when The Athletic first revealed the Mets’ interest, it didn’t matter that a source who would know followed up with a text shortly afterward that simply read: “Ain’t happening.” Sure Correa wound up signing with the Giants, and yet the takeaway is maybe the Mets could have got him, slid him over to third base alongside his buddy Francisco Lindor and Steve Cohen would have gladly laid out close to $500 million (luxury tax included) for the upcoming season.

Why not? Nothing is impossible in Flushing these days, and what better sales pitch is there, whether you’re talking about free agents or fans? The Mets haven’t even won a division title yet, but Cohen gets a huge "W" for flipping the perception of this franchise, and making Citi Field the place to be now, helped by the lure of a career-changing payday.

Cohen is making plenty of players rich, of course. In the two-years-plus  since buying the franchise, he’s invested more than $1.16 billion in free agents (counting Lindor’s $341 million extension) and already is on the hook for a record $350 million payroll this season. But it’s more than just money. Regardless of how you’re recruiting players to Queens, the more talent a team collects, the greater the odds of getting to a World Series, and that’s how the Mets ultimately will be judged. This winter’s upgrades so far should put them on that track.

“For me, it just shows that ownership wants to win,” said David Robertson, newly signed to a one-year, $10 million contract. “You look at the payroll and what they’re putting out there. They’re trying to get what they think are the right guys and I’m glad to be a part of that group. Sometimes you have to put out a little more money to get the players that you want ... I think it just shows a lot about our owner, that he’s committed to it.”

Robertson, who turns 38 in April, mentioned how he’s “not getting any younger” in chasing down another championship, already having one ring from the ’09 Yankees but narrowly missing out with the Phillies last October. The Mets hardly represent a sure thing. You could argue that they’re the third-best team in the East, behind the defending NL champs and Atlanta, the owner of five straight division crowns. But the Cohen Mets aren’t defined that easily. They don’t appear constrained by the bottom-line financial motivations of many clubs, making them a very dangerous team to contend with in the long haul.

And now people are buzzing about the Mets for the right reasons rather than using them as a punchline. Maybe it’s too early to retire #LOLMets, but nobody’s mocking the franchise now. They’re pestering their agents to call general manager Billy Eppler. Or from a fan’s viewpoint, furiously scrolling through social media to see who may be coming next.

“Obviously, I think it was a heck of a last week,”said reliever Brooks Raley, picked up via a winter-meetings trade with the Rays. “I think the Mets are definitely a destination. A lot of guys have taken notice.”

It had been a while since the Mets were connected to all the top-shelf free agents on the market. Before last winter’s Max Scherzer signing, you’d have to go back more than a decade, pre-Madoff, when GM Omar Minaya was big-game hunting for the likes of Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. Not long after, strapped by financial woes, the Wilpons  were relegated to shopping in the “fruits and nuts” aisle of the offseason marketplace -- a metaphor crafted by agent Scott Boras at the time.

Boras fawns over the Mets now, as Cohen possesses his two most attractive qualities in an owner: piles of money and a willingness to spend it. His client Brandon Nimmo crushed the projections by landing an eight-year, $162 million deal to return to the Mets. Last winter, Boras got Cohen to give Scherzer a three-year, $130 million contract, making his $43.3 million annual salary the highest in baseball history.

Consider this the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The Mets didn’t get Correa -- another Boras client -- but there’s little doubt even the hint of Cohen’s possible involvement with the two-time All-Star helped coerce that $350 million from the Giants. While it’s hard to imagine the Mets going anywhere near that asking price, how can anybody be certain? Cohen is in uncharted territory now as far as the payroll is concerned, and the Mets likely have more moves to make.

“The commitment is very evident here,” Eppler said Wednesday. “And the goals are very evident. A lot of the heavy lifting is done, it doesn’t stop us from being opportunistic ... Always just kind of keeping our antennae up.”

And Cohen’s checkbook open.

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.