Mets' owner Steve Cohen has come under fire this week, after he deleted a post on X where he seemed to admitted that his team would not be competitive in 2024.
Being the New York Mets manager has never been an easy task. It rarely promises a career of longevity, no matter how well you do. Most recently, Buck Showalter was fired one year after winning the National League Manager of the Year award.
The New York Mets have had more than their fair share of dysfunctional general managers throughout the years. From Joe McDonald allowing "The Franchise" Tom Seaver to be traded in 1977 to hiring Jared Porter, in between his inappropriate text messages to reporters, the Mets GM position has been anything but "Amazin'."
Over the past decade, the development of the daily line-up card, more importantly who's on it and where, has become more of an organizational decision, rather than one that sits solely with the team's manager. For a grizzled veteran skipper, like Buck Showalter, that has been a dooming change.
David Stearns took over the New York Mets on Monday, as their new president of baseball operations. Besides being force-fed general manager Billy Eppler by owner Steve Cohen, it appears that Stearns will have free rein.
The saying goes something like 'you can take the New Yorker out of New York but you can't the New York out of...' Well, you get the idea. Now let's apply that same philosophy to the "Charlie Brown" of major sports franchises, the New York Mets. Can anyone really save the Mets from themselves? David Stearns, a Mets fan from Manhattan, will be next up to have that unenviable task.
When right-handed relief pitcher, David Robertson signed a one-year $10 million contract at Citi Field back in December, the last that crossed his mind was that his new team, coming off 101-wins and a playoff appearance in 2022, would be out of the post-season tournament picture by August 1st. Well David, welcome to the New York Mets.
It all started out so promisingly. The 2022 New York Mets jumped ahead to a 10.5 game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the National League East on June 1st. However, by the beginning of October of last season, that lead was gone and the rest is history. Manager Buck Showalter, once again, got his team close to a championship but lost in the process.
'Ya Gotta Believe' was a slogan that New York Mets fans clung onto 50 years ago this summer. Famous Mets' reliever Tug McGraw, father of country music star Tim McGraw, coined the phrase during the Amazin's improbable run to the World Series in 1973.
Owner of the New York Mets, Steve Cohen is worth about $13.2 billion, depending on what day it is. Say what you want about the accumulation of that wealth, but there is no doubt Cohen is a shrewd businessman and Mets fans should expect nothing less when it comes to running his team.
It is no secret that the New York Mets are struggling. After a little more than into the season, owner Steve Cohen is watching his $358 million team sit 6 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East.
The New York Mets have been keeping pace with the red-hot Atlanta Braves at the top of the National League East to start the season. However, Mets owner Steve Cohen is investing $144 million MORE in payroll than Atlanta in 2023. One would assume that in year three, the primary stakeholder has higher expectations this season than a wild-card-round loss at Citi Field.
Babe Ruth last played for the New York Yankees almost ninety years ago. Yet, when you mention the name Shohei Ohtani to a New York baseball fan, Ruth's name comes up more often than not. There is a pretty good reason.
So much has to go right for a major league team to play 162 games, win all of their playoff series and then four games in the World Series, against the other league's best team. Even more would have to go right for the Amazin' Mets.
[bran
Just after announcing their exclusive new "speakeasy" in right-field, the New York Mets told reporters that they are working on a new ticket plan exclusively for New York's 600,000 residents that are attending college.
Well, at least we know how New York Mets owner Steve Cohen plans to pay for his luxury tax laden player payroll. The Queens based team announced on Tuesday that a new, exclusive speakeasy is available to fans in the right-field corner.
If one player was a lock to succeed for Buck Showalter in 2022, it was closer Edwin Diaz. When Timmy Trumpet's "Narco" began, that usually meant the game was ending for the Mets' opponents. The "lock" took a big hit in the WBC on Wednesday and in essence, so did the World Series dreams for Buck and the Mets.
New York Mets fans are thrilled with their owner Steve Cohen. The lifetime fan of the Amazin's paid a record $2.4 billion for the team in 2020. Cohen hasn't stopped investing in his investment. That's what smart money people do. Some Major League Baseball owners are trying to make rules that would prevent owners like Steve Cohen from making such investments. In fan interest, MLB should politely tell those owners: sell their teams!
Money can't buy happiness, nor can New York Mets owner Steve Cohen buy a World Series for his team's fanbase. Cohen will certainly try but it's not going to happen in 2023. Here are 5 reasons why:
A few weeks back, the New York Mets and first baseman Pete Alonso agreed to a 1-year $14.5 million contract to avoid salary arbitration. Alonso, coming off of a 40 HR and 131 RBI season in 2022, is still under team control until after the 2024 campaign. Mets fans would love to see 'Polar Bear Pete' make his home in Queens for the rest of his career. However, the Amazin's may encounter some icy waters before a contract like that gets done.
Woody Johnson, along with his brother Christoper, purchased the New York Jets from fellow billionaire Leon Hess in 2000. For the first decade as NFL owners, the heirs to the Johnson & Johnson fortune enjoyed watching their investment go to the playoffs in six times. However, the Band Aid brothers wanted more. Their stadium partners, the New York Giants had won two Super Bowls in that same decade. The Johnsons, rightfully so, wanted a Lombardi Trophy of their own and trust me, so did their fans.
Major League Baseball fans are growing impatient with the cat and mouse game going on between super-agent Scott Boras and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, involving the contract of Carlos Correa. The issue at hand? Correa's lower leg injury, that appears significant enough that the San Francisco Giants pulled away a $350 million deal and now the Mets are keeping the All Star infielder at a little less than arms-length for the same reason. Rumors came out on Thursday night that Correa's agent has reached out to other clubs. That may be true but Correa will end up a Met and this is why.
Back on May 3rd of 2015, Danny Mendick was playing shortstop for UMass-Lowell over at University Field, on the campus of UAlbany. The Rochester, New York native went 1-3 with 2 walks and a run scored in the America East match-up. The former Riverhawk played a flawless shortstop that day. A few weeks later, Mendick was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the 22nd round of the MLB draft. Fast forward 7-years and a few months and that former foe of the Great Danes, Danny Mendick, just signed a $1 million contract to play for Steve Cohen's star-studded, super-team in Queens.
It is an age-old story in New York. When the iconic Yankees are good, they rule the region. In fact, it was 65 years years ago that the Bronx Bombers' National League neighbors, the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers abandoned their fanbases and moved across the country. Many believed the move was primarily done to get away from the powerful lure of the team in pinstripes. Many decades later and billions of dollars ready to spend, Mets owner Steve Cohen is at least trying to put up a fight for his Queens franchise.
Jacob deGrom's career with the New York Mets has come to an end, leaving the team without an elite pitcher in their rotation. So, what do the Mets do now?
Some may say that dishing out a record contract to your closer days after the conclusion of the World Series isn't playing your hand slowly. As New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler heads into his second off-season at the helm of Steve Cohen's team, he is well aware that one has to move fast at times and be patient at others to be successful. Eppler made some key acquisitions last winter, like right fielder Starling Marte, left fielder Mark Cahna and third baseman Eduardo Escobar. Those three moves, along with Eppler's hire of Manager of the Year, Buck Showalter, changed the culture of the Mets. Now it's time to continue the improvement. That is what Cohen expects.
Developing the surrounding area of the Mets home ballpark and the U.S. Open Tennis Center is a major win for New York sports fans. Now it looks like Amazin's billionaire owner Steve Cohen is looking for his own win.
If the New York Mets want to be a perennial playoff team, then they have to make decisions with their head and not their heart. Faced with the prospect of paying their free-agent, ace right-hander, Jake deGrom for the next 3 or 4 years, at $40 plus million per, Amazin's general manager Billy Eppler had better think long and hard about the investments that he makes over the next year, as Mets president-in-waiting David Stearns bides his time, collecting checks from the Milwaukee Brewers and making notes on his future employees.
Not one, but both of New York's baseball teams have been implicated in a collusion scandal over the biggest free agent in Major League Baseball this offseason.