Can Mets owner Steve Cohen buy a World Series?
Mets owner Steve Cohen talks to the media during spring training on Feb. 20 in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: AP/Jeff Roberson
MIAMI -- Of all the questions the Mets face at the start of this season, from replacing Edwin Diaz to the DH conundrum to the back half of the rotation, there’s one over-riding theme as we head into Opening Day against Marlins.
Can owner Steve Cohen buy a World Series?
History suggests we may already know the answer. But that didn’t stop Cohen from going to his checkbook early and often this winter, spending nearly $483 million on free agents alone and pushing the team’s payroll to an MLB-high $376 million — almost $100 million over the luxury-tax threshold named after him.
Does that mean these Mets are better the 101-win team of a year ago? As currently assembled, we’d have to say no, based on the absence of Diaz — the game’s most dominant closer last season — and the rotation uncertainties. The Mets’ lineup also stayed remarkably healthy in 2022, a fortunate bounce that helped put Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor in the MVP race and Jeff McNeil win a batting title.
Knowing the price tag the Mets carry for this season, I asked Lindor about the correlation between spending big and winning big. While the four-time All-Star didn’t shy away from the financial pressures on this club, Lindor acknowledged that his ’16 Cleveland team made it to Game 7 of the World Series (and a wild 10th inning) then went backward in subsequent seasons, despite significantly bumping up the payroll.
But Lindor also realizes the pressure that comes with the cash. He knows it personally, as his $341 million contract is the Mets’ largest, along with he team-wide expectations, both inside and outside the clubhouse walls. That’s a very real thing, and everyone feels it.
“One hundred percent,” Lindor said. “I mean, [Cohen] is putting together a good team, he’s given us all the resources. I’m sure he expects excellence from us -- just like I expect it from everyone else and they expect it from me. Am I going to be perfect? No. But excellence in how we go about out business? Yeah.”
This spring did not go all that excellent for the Mets. They lost Diaz (patellar tendon surgery) for likely the entire season to the most freakish of WBC injuries and also must cope without Jose Quintana for at least three months due to a bone graft to treat a benign lesion. Having to dump Darin Ruf was a minor catastrophe as well — not so much for ditching an unproductive platoon DH, but sacrificing four players in the deadline deal to the Giants.
The Mets are going to need retooling again during the course of this upcoming season, and Eppler obviously can’t be whiffing like that with a team that has World Series aspirations. When Eppler was asked during Wednesday’s workout if this club was an upgrade over a year ago — based on the the sizable winter influx of cash — he steered the conversation away from comparisons.
“I feel good about where we are,” Eppler said. “But we can always be better. We’re always going to look to make improvements where we can.”
There’s zero doubt of that. Cohen didn’t amass a $17 billion hedge-fund fortune by standing pat. But this is Opening Day, and the Mets will be taking on the Marlins with the players they bused down from Port St. Lucie, so the task at hand is more immediate. And the other clubs are seeing dollar signs on their backs instead of names and numbers.
“The best teams in the league always have that target,” Lindor said.
The most difficult bar for these Mets to clear, however, is what they did last season. The payroll is a huge part of it, sure. But winning 101 games sets a tremendous on-field standard that prompts people to demand an encore, especially when October ends abruptly in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Buck Showalter earned his fourth Manager of the Year award — the first to do it with four different teams — for guiding the Mets to triple-digits wins as a Flushing rookie. He’s not buying into the price tag as a measure of this team’s ceiling.
“The game’s played between the lines,” Showalter said. “I think everybody knows that. We’ve had some curveballs thrown at us this spring with a starter and closer ... We don’t sit around and talk about that. But people will dwell on whatever they want to dwell on, whether it’s payroll or how much somebody spent. We all know that doesn’t necessarily equate into [success].”
One undeniable fact about money. You’d rather have more than less, and the Mets lead the majors in the wealthy owner category -- along with the willingness to spend it. Cohen is the gold standard when it comes to shelling out cash in pursuit of a title. Now the Mets have to show that the have staying power at the top, too.
“We took a step forward last year and the year before,” Lindor said. “But no one here really cares how many games we won last year. That’s in the past. Those wins don’t roll over. We’ve got to focus on what we have right now.”
For the Mets, on this Opening Day, that’s a lot -- talent, experience, money. Now, it’s up to them to use it.
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.
