Steve Cohen shows his fearlessness in OK'ing Mets' trade deadline sell-off
Mets owner Steve Cohen talks to the media in the dugout before a game against the Royals on Wednesday in Kansas City, Mo. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel
Steve Cohen bought the Mets, like a Picasso or Gulfstream jet. The hedge-fund thing, the business that created his $17 billion fortune, what Cohen likes to call his “day job,” that’s in his blood.
At this years’ trade deadline, along with the days and hours leading up to Tuesday’s pencils-down moment, Cohen reminded everyone just who’s running the Queens franchise. All that was missing was Wall Street’s closing bell.
Because when it came to sizing up the Mets’ future potential, be it now or three years later, Cohen didn’t sweat the sentimental aspects of owning a major-league baseball team. He stripped the roster like another chop shop boss on Seaver Way, dismantling his $377 million team — the most expensive collection of players in baseball history — without flinching.
Cohen’s fearless approach has served him well in the investment biz. And there’s no reason to think the same cold-blooded behavior, along with his limitless financial resources, won’t ultimately succeed at Citi Field, too. Many owners would have blinked when faced with a similar situation. No team faced more pressure to win than the Mets when this season began, primarily due to Cohen’s relentless spending, and tearing it down meant admitting defeat — in essence, that he screwed up.
But Cohen boiled it down to a simple numbers game, and despite roasting under the spotlight of the nation’s media capital, he gave the nod to blow up the Mets. In his mind, selling wasn’t even a question. Once the numbers no longer worked, it was the only play, and Cohen was ready to move on.
“If you’re going to have a 12% chance of winning, just getting into the playoffs, those are pretty crummy odds,” Cohen said Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium, where he visited with his Mets before the game. “I wouldn’t want to be betting any money on that. And I don’t think anybody else would either, OK? And as I said before, hope’s not a strategy.”
Cohen did what had to be done, but we can’t sugarcoat the reality of the 2023 Mets, and the owner was complicit in this high-budget disaster flick. Eager to meet that three-to-five year championship window he’s come to regret, Cohen signed off on two ridiculously-overpriced contracts for Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, gambling that the pair of three-time Cy Young winners could deliver a title before Father Time called in his marker.
It was a risky, free agency-paved shortcut that many believed, myself included, could get the Mets to a World Series way faster than the typical team-building methods. Up to that point, I was still under the impression that Cohen was a billionaire Mets superfan, prone to talk-radio driven strategy. And as this began to go south, you had to wonder if Cohen had the guts to truly do the unthinkable — go into seller mode after investing so much effort and money to build MLB’s Titanic.
On Wednesday, Cohen joked that he telegraphed his deadline intentions earlier last month, when he called his own impromptu news conference right before the All-Star break. The plan already was in the works, but on hold until Cohen was convinced — or close enough — that the “re-purposing” moment had arrived for the Mets. Cohen signaled to general manager Billy Eppler that closer David Robertson could be traded five days before the deadline, then flicked over the rest of the dominos with the massive salary-eating deals involving Verlander and Scherzer.
“I would have kept the players if it turned out it was going to be a mediocre return,” Cohen said. “That was the opportunity. It’s a moment in time where other clubs are thinking very short term and I was thinking more immediate long term. And so I was able to take advantage of that.”
Cohen also was blunt in speaking with Scherzer and Verlander regarding his plans for next season and beyond. He told them the Mets would be “competitive” in 2024 but likely more conservative in the free-agent market, a script he stuck to Wednesday when speaking with reporters. That’s a dangerous admission for any owner, especially one trying to sell tickets in New York, but Cohen isn’t about to shy away from his blueprint now. Trading away future Hall of Famers isn’t for the squeamish, but it should get easier to stomach from here. Not that Cohen sounds all that worried.
“I think the expectations were really high this year,” Cohen said. “And my guess is next year will be a lot lower. But I can’t speak to what’s going to happen in the offseason. I’m opportunistic. I don’t want to roll a team out there that we’re going to be embarrassed by. But we also know that spending a fortune doesn’t guarantee you a trip to the playoffs ... It won’t be as star-studded team as it was, but you know what, stars don’t necessarily make for wins.”
Before Cohen, we never thought the Mets would sign players like Verlander and Scherzer. Then he pulled off the near-impossible by trading them both, two deals that only happen because of Cohen’s millions greasing the tracks.
Some might suggest that Cohen’s bull-to-bear treatment of the Mets has left the fans with whiplash, reeling from the shock. But it’s not personal — just the way Cohen does business, and he was the right man for the job.
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.
