The New York Mets obviously have had a disappointing 2023 campaign. They’ve been playing under. 500 baseball for most of the season and are seven games back of the last Wild Card spot in the National League. And that is also with the highest payroll ever in Major League Baseball history at nearly $364 million.
With the trading deadline approaching and the Mets having a bad season, seemingly in a tough position to make it back to the playoffs, the team decided to be in selloff mode. In a six-day span, the Mets traded David Robertson, Max Scherzer, Mark Canha, Justin Verlander, Tommy Pham and Dominic Leone. In all these trades, the Mets received eight prospects in return. They also traded cash to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two pitchers as well.
With all these deals, a lot of the attention has gone to the Mets owner Steve Cohen, who basically did the opposite of what he’s mainly done as owner so far.
When he took over as the owner back in 2020, Cohen came in with a boatload of cash and riches. In fact, he immediately became the richest owner in baseball with his hedge funds. And Cohen didn’t waste much time, using his riches to try to make the team better.
Cohen traded for shortstop Francisco Lindor from the then Cleveland Indians in the 2020 offseason and signed Lindor to a 10/$341 million contract. Then a year later, he signed Scherzer to a 3/$130, making Scherzer the highest-paid pitcher. Then last offseason, Cohen signed Verlander to a 2/$86.7 contract. He also re-signed Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Diaz to multiple-year deals, and he also signed Japanese import Kodai Senga to a 5/$75 contract.
Unlike the previous ownership regime of the Wilpons, Cohen brought up the Mets payroll to one of the highest again with his spendings. While the Mets have been considered a cheap organization under the Wilpons, for not spending as much as a big-market franchise normally does, that is not the case under Cohen. Not only has he made the Mets the most expensive team in baseball, he set a record for the highest payroll ever in a season.
However, the 2023 Mets have underachieved and have been a major disappointment. So Cohen has now done the opposite. He has been in selling mode during this trading deadline, trading away pieces in order to build a winning team in the future. Additionally, he is also still paying some of the traded players’ salaries, in order to get a bigger prospect in return.
Cohen is unlike any owner and not afraid to do anything in order to improve the Mets as a whole. We already saw his strengths as a spender, willing to go all out on any free agent that he covets, and willing to pay the most amount to them, just like he did with Scherzer and Verlander.
But with the Mets floundering this season, Cohen has now been willing to trade even some of his signings in order to better the future. Ever since he became the Mets owner, he has strongly talked about a desire to improve the farm system and make the Mets a winning team for the long run. And he has drastically improved the Mets farm system within less than a week’s span.
The way Cohen has improved the farm system, was because he is able to still pay a good amount of money to the players that he traded. Especially with Scherzer and Verlander, who Cohen will pay $35 million to each of them. With Scherzer, Cohen was able to acquire Luisangel Acuna, who is Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna’s younger brother. Acuna is already now the Mets No. 2 prospect behind catcher Kevin Parada and has been raking it in Double-A. He is expected to make it to the majors next year.
With Verlander, the Mets were able to get two of the Houston Astros’ top outfield prospects, including their No. 1 prospect in Drew Gilbert. The Mets acquired a total of eight prospects in all their midseason trades and four of them are now in the Mets top 10 among their prospects. All because Cohen was able to sacrifice more financially even while selling.
Once again, Cohen came in as the richest owner in baseball and so far, he has put his riches for good use in the Mets most of the time.
There were the spendings that he made early on, that propelled the Mets to a 101-win season last year.
And even in a disappointing stretch now, Cohen has put his riches once again to good use, to improve the future now with multiple prospects all because he was willing to still pay some of the salaries for all the departed Mets players.
I respect the right of Steve Cohen to run his team any way he chooses. Hopefully, he respects my right to disagree with the way he does things, when I think they’re sub-optimal.
My opinion is that these moves are an indication that Cohen is punting on both 2023 and 2024. I don’t like either of those things, especially ’24.
Could the Mets have gotten more if they traded the two aces in the offseason? I think that’s a point we have to consider. Maybe Scherzer could have continued to pitch more like he’s done in his last 14 starts and teams would have felt more confident about his ability to be more than a low-end SP3. Maybe Verlander would have been open to teams besides the Astros, if that was the case. More teams might have led to a better haul.
The Mets’ farm system is in better shape today because of the trades. But just because it’s better doesn’t mean the club got great value in the trades. It’s my opinion that both Acuna and Gilbert are supporting players, not stars – kind of like what Canha and Escobar were to the 2022 Mets.
We’ll get to find out in the years ahead. Maybe Cohen ordered the deals of Scherzer and Verlander at the exact right time and the players they got in those trades lead to a run of success like the Mets had from 1984-1990. Or maybe Scherzer and Verlander both pitch well the remainder of 2023 and all of 2024 and the players the Mets got in return end up nothing special. We shall see.
You essentially said nothing in your post. You said you disagreed with what Cohen did but you hedged your bets by saying maybe the moves will work out in the future. I think its good for us in the long run as long as he breaks his bank book out again in 2024-2025 when some of these prospects become legit ball players. Sherzer and Verlander should shut up about the rebuild because if they along with Lindor, Polar Bear, and others had remotely performed to the levels they were supposed to, we wouldn’t be sellers.
Since you probably didn’t read all of the other deadline trade posts that we had, let me make it perfectly clear to you – I don’t approve of either the decision to sell or the return that they got for the two old pitchers.
What you call hedging is simply an acknowledgment that my opinion is just that – an opinion. It’s certainly possible that I could be wrong.
And it’s fine for you to share your opinion. Your opinion of the Mets’ moves is valid. Your opinion on my take is just wrong.
All Mets fans should watch the interview with Cohen yesterday. It is very enlightening.
You can see it here on SNY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySykm111QHQ
I applaud Cohen for sticking to his guns and not accepting failure as “ok”. This team is an embarrassment on the field, which is even more amplified by the unimaginable investment he made for success. The star pitchers will be another year older and encumbered for even more time and so it made sense to move them when the rest of the Frankenstein-Mets produced little. Further gambling on this year would have been a major mistake. And Im not counting out next season by any means, because Im certain there will be solid FA signings in prep for the season and the following seasons.
I have stated repeatedly, this team has holes all over, and that it plain for everyone to see. He went for gold, and got a lump of turd. There are major holes at 3B, 2B, LF, and RF not to mention even with MS and JV, the rotation — and the pen is a hot mess. There was no way he was going to run up to 600M$ and lux tax to pretend what we are seeing is acceptable.
In return, it seems we have a solid 2B of the near future, needed OF help to replace the massive disappointment in a failing Marte and a serviceable Canha, pliable IF options and farm depth. Im calling it a solid win. Im also not grading the return players based on the moment compared to who left. That’s ridiculous IMO. This team desperately needs to get younger and this accomplished that.
We also learned this guys is a businessman. His statement about the chances at <15% to make the playoffs is not what he sees as viable. “Hope is not a strategy” should replace “Ya gotta believe” nonsense. It’s a different time and day. He wants to build a perennial winner, not a “all in right now” (like the Angels…wow what a disaster that will be) and damn the future. he had the money to make these trades. I think he got an excellent return for 3 aging stars coming to the ends of their storied careers and solid stuff from the spare parts they could spin off.
I forgot to add in my apparent complete denial of the new world of the national league. (Why are there even leagues any more?).
We have major holes in the field at 2B (McNeil is not good), 3B (Baty not good), LF (Canha gone), RF (Marte not good), *and* DH (Vogelbach not good). I forget about DH, perhaps because DH has been completely forgettable.
While the Mets clearly punted on 2023, based on Cohen’s comments it does not sound like a forgone conclusion that they have punted on 2024 as well. I have no idea what Cohen is thinking the plan will be at this point for the offseason, and it may very well change between now and then. It’s conceivable, as Chris said, that they make some big FA acquisitions. If they do that, and replace the players that they traded away with new signings, then basically what they did was punt on 2023 and use Cohen’s money to buy a bunch of prospects. I don’t expect that they will make the same big signings as last year and try to run back with another superteam, but I would like to see some strong signings of guys who can help for several years, while giving the new talent some time to develop. I’m OK with not being a top 3 WS favorite next year if we are setting things up well for the next couple years.
We can argue all day long about whether they got appropriate value for the guys they traded away, but most of us only know what we’ve read. We also weren’t on the phone with other teams to know what other options may have been out there. I was hoping they would have kept Verlander, since I don’t have any reason to think he wouldn’t have pitched at a high level the rest of this year and next, but overall, I’m OK with the path they went down.
I agree with Chris whole-heartedly. First off, it is unbelievable that the Mets fan base has been blessed with Cohen. The guy is just unbelievable. Second, if Verlander would only accept a deal to Houston, I think our hands were tied somewhat on that. Third, Scherzer may have needlessly opened his mouth by divulging some private statements made between him and the club and the team may be trying to mitigate those statements by the additional comments which have been made subsequent to the trading deadline.
Well said Chris. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Scherzer and Verlander were not blame for year’s failure but they had the most value for trades. Eppler, with Cohen’s money, did a good job by stocking and improving the Mets minor system. This offseason Cohen will sign free agents to make them competitive for a playoff spot. Eppler will be responsible for trades to achieve that goal and present a more balanced roster. It won’t be a punt in 2024. It will be more tempered off season than in the past.
At some point, Cohen will need to field a team with payroll below the luxury tax threshold in order to avoid the high end penalties and cost he currently experiences. It would make sense to do that in 2024, but with the complete lack of pitching he may need to spend to $300 million to field a 75-80 win team. Or…trade Pete and even Diaz, save some money, sign some mediocre pitching, get below the tax line, and hope like hell the first wave of kids performs in 2024.