Five years. The guy said five years. Five years to a World Series championship.
Well, we’re now in year three and the distance between where this team is and a World Series championship is about as far as between now and 1986. Steve Cohen is – purportedly: some opinions differ – a lifelong Mets fan. He is a successful businessman, you could say, having amassed a personal wealth basically equivalent to the GDP of about half of Europe. When the opportunity came for him to purchase the team he loves, he pounced on it, with characteristic opportunism and the brashness that comes from having a lot of money. We fans rejoiced, as a fella who was “one of us,” but with gobs of dollars at his disposal, arrived to rescue us from the egregious previous ownership. The ship came to take these New York baseball castaways back to civilization. And he promised it would happen quickly! As was written at the time, he immediately became “our George Steinbrenner,” the guy who would always have the fans’ back and would do whatever was necessary to bring home a winner – that moneyed brashness speaking again. But is he truly the savior we’d hoped for? Well, compared the old guys…
The prior proprietors, the father/son combo of Fred and Jeff Wilpon, were Dodger fans, owing to Fred’s Brooklyn roots. As I’d written many times contemporaneously, “the Wilpons love a team they don’t own and own a team they don’t love.” We had never had the feeling that ownership was on our side, despite whatever lip service was paid to what “the greatest fans in the world” deserved. We never believed for a minute that we were any kind of factor in the team’s decision- making process. By and by, Jeff was appointed as the team’s Chief Operating Officer, a designation that, over time, became an obvious act of sheer nepotism: Jeff Wilpon continually proved himself incompetent and unfit for such a role. It seemed like every move the team made instantly became a PR disaster. Add to the mix the fact that the Wilpons had become the most famous and visible “victims” of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi-scheme scandal, it became unclear whether the family was unwilling or unable to put the kind of money required into the team to keep them contending. In the wake of the Madoff scandal, and needing an infusion of cash, they sold off parts of the ownership, one of the buyers being Steve Cohen.
Upon taking control of the team, he stated that he would be “disappointed” if the team didn’t bring home a World Series Championship in the next three-to-five years – see above. Unlike Steinbrenner, he wouldn’t act rashly, but would rely on the “baseball people.” The problem with that was the baseball personnel in place hadn’t put a contender together since 2016 and it was clear that an overhaul of the front office and development system was in order. Stuff like that doesn’t happen in five years, let alone bringing home a trophy in that time. Any candidate that emerged to take on a President of Baseball Operations title either declined the offer or couldn’t be released from a standing contract. Consequently, Cohen was left to bring back an aging Sandy Alderson as President of all operations for year one. When Alderson retired, the search was on again, and again, nobody wanted the job and the ideal candidate – David Stearns of Milwaukee – had to serve out the remainder of his contract with the Brewers. So, Cohen had to settle for his fifth choice, current GM Billy Eppler. Eppler didn’t have the best track record, having come from the Anaheim Angels, a team that couldn’t sniff the playoffs despite having the two best players in the game, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. He might not have been Mr. Right, but he was definitely Mr. Right Now. Is Steve Cohen such an ogre that no one wants to work under him, given the choice?
We all know what happened at the deadline this year. The Queens bloodbath resulted in a team coming off a 101-win season and with World Series aspirations and expensive additions more resembling a AAAA squad by August 12. All the money thrown around, triggering the draconian luxury-tax scheme that bears Cohen’s name went wasted, in the name of buttressing the farm system, a complete 180-turn from the winter’s financial frolics. Can Cohen be credited for quickly recognizing failure and immediately taking a different tack, or does this extreme pivot show a lack of organization and a scattershot approach to team-building? You want to put your franchise’s future into the hands of youngsters? That’s a good approach: just look at what the Atlanta Braves – in town for a four-game bloodletting this weekend – have done the past two seasons. They let the kids play and then locked them up for a lifetime. Cohen has made noise about wanting to turn the Mets into “the Dodgers of the East,” but I think he’d be better off emulating the Braves than the Dodgers. Of course, we won’t know if the strategy shift worked for at least another two years.
Maybe by then, we’ll have an answer to the question posed in the title.
Got to give Cohen credit for spending money to try and win now. It was Eppler’s fault for essentially bringing back the same offensive team that would be a year older and not expect some drop off. Marte was a big disappointment and has two more years to go. McNeil batting 50 points lower is crazy. Lindor and Alonso, despite the great power numbers, are 30-40 points lower in BA then they should be leading to a lot of outs and killed rallies. Pitching staff looked old but solid but then injuries hit, like they do do most players in their mid to late 30’s, and our starting pitchers evolved into a who’s who of no names. We need a new overseer of baseball operations like Stern to keep moving the entire minor and major league products forward. Still thrilled to have Cohen ready to spend money because the Wilpons never would, instead lining their pockets with SNY profits. He said 3-5 years so I guess we need to once again be overly patient as Met fans.
Interesting article. It’s certainly reasonable to be questioning just what Cohen is doing. Cohen has made two major missteps in my opinion.
1. As your article leads with Charlie — a WS Championship in 5 years. That provided rigidity long before he really knew the state of the team. I also unlined the misguided belief of his that a wallet alone could substitute decades of malfeasance by the Wilson’s. It didn’t. It couldn’t.
2. Somehow comparing his Mets as following a specific team, the Dodgers “East.” That move fixed him to not just the path of the Dodgers, but their success that they have earned in the past decade since McCourt sold. What he failed to realize is that even the McCourt Dodgers at their nadir were much better than the Mets club Cohen purchased.
These two things have tainted the water in which he now swims. Unforced errors. He was using big dreams and big wallet to announce with a big mouth that NYC has two teams. He clearly disliked and notional comparison of the Mets and Angels to their much more accomplished and storied Yankees and Dodgers, respectively. I guess alpha dogs just alpha dog with an expectation of success.
But I think we need to separate the intentions — missteps, mistakes, fumbles or whatever you call it — from actual deeds. For the big league to to be formidable it will take more than adding aging HoFers to the rotation. He had the wealth to give it a try, which we all applauded (even me as Mayor), but baseball gravity, like Father Time, has a perfect record in all competitions. The bloated attempt popped like a balloon and fell to Earth with a thud.
I personally have moved on from the bluster and bellowing from the beginning. He bought a used car with a new Earl Scheib (“I’ll paint any car any color for $99.95” fame) paint job, so he bought some new wheels, buffed out the chrome and expected it to be a race car. Underneath, the engine had broken pistons, the transmission was missing 2 gears, and someone dumped a gallon of Italian salad dressing in the gas tank. So the expensive easy fixes made the car look better, but it was still broken at many levels. Now comes the reality of fixing everything. He’s tidied up the garage, bought some fancy car testing equipment, painted and added new lights in the garage, but the fact is it’s gonna take time to make a race car.
I personally dont believe he’s wavering and shirking responsibility as owner. Every bit of making this team better is not fixable with one or two off seasons and money. Time cannot be purchased.
Back to last year, Brian and I have been having a go around about was last year the real team or just lucky, or is this years team more the real team but more unlucky. I guess perspective matters in chewing through that. However, for those of you with The Athletic subscriptions, they did a very nice article today with some critical numbers about offensive metrics and come to the conclusion last year was really unsustainable luck.
I think this is a good question to ask. And the answer isn’t easy.
I wish we could get away from the narrative that he was some kind of huge Mets fan. From Tim Britton, back in 2020:
” Although Cohen has talked up his own personal Mets fandom, several people who have known him for a long time recall him more as a general sports fan or as a Yankees fan. Knicks games have been a more popular social occasion for Cohen than trips to the ballpark, and he even traveled to Indianapolis one year to watch the Knicks play the Pacers in a postseason series in the late 1990s. It’s Cohen’s wife, Alex, who registers more as the Mets diehard in the family.”
https://theathletic.com/4767345/2023/08/11/mets-offensive-approach-billy-eppler/
So, spending all of the money only to turn around and sell the old pitchers for pennies on the dollar isn’t the behavior of a traitor to the fans. But what is it? Some people say that he realized the plan wasn’t working so he pivoted to a different plan. My opinion was that while I didn’t agree with the need for a pivot, what was really the problem was the return in the pivot.
Things don’t always go to plan and you have to be able to adjust on the fly. But you also need to distinguish between if the plan was just bad or did events conspire against it? My opinion was the latter.
What does 2023 look like if Diaz, Quintana and Verlander don’t get hurt? What does it look like if Marte and McNeil had normal age-related declines instead of implosions? What does it look like if Alonso, Lindor and Nimmo don’t all fall back from what they did in 2022?
It looks a whole lot better.
Note that this doesn’t say anything about the wacky season of Scherzer or the terrible results from Carrasco or the meltdowns of the depth starters or the utter failure of the options-reliever strategy or the failed experiments with Baty and Vientos. You don’t have to make everything perfect to see that it could have been a very different story with the 2023 Mets.
So, we’re left now with an uncertain 2024. It looks to me like striving for “meaningful games in September,” rather than an assault on the playoffs. But who knows? Maybe Cohen changes his mind in midstream again and follows thru with what he told Scherzer he couldn’t guarantee – that the club would be viewing 2024 as a playoff season.
But it also comes down to how good the prospects they got turn out to be. My opinion is that these guys are complementary pieces, not stars. If we look at them in terms of the 2022 Mets – they didn’t get Nimmo (5.3 fWAR) or McNeil (5.8 fWAR) or Lindor (6.8 fWAR) – they got Marte (3.0) or Canha (2.8) or Escobar (2.3)
For me, what it comes down to is that no one has any idea what the plan for 2024 is and no one knows how good the prospects they got at the deadline are. So, how can we tell if Cohen is a good or bad owner? Winners write the history books and if the Mets make strong advances towards a World Series title in the next 3-4 years – well, Cohen is a good owner.
But if in that time span he keeps changing his mind every six months and the peak of his tenure is a first-round playoff exit – well, the answer changes.
Not a good owner. A great owner ! He is a fan and he has the motivation and gumption to win. Did it work this year? No. Did he try his best ? Yes. Does he swing the bat or pitch ? No. Is he going to put the Mets in best possible position to win always? Yes. Good owner, no. Great one, yes.
Dead horse Dept.:
Not fair to label Fred Wilpon ( not sure about Jeff) a “Dodger fan.” He was, of course, a Brooklyn Dodger fan (as am I) which has nothing to do with that LA team. There’s a rhumb line from Campanella to Alverez which does include Piazza but not Furgeson.
It’s a real thing.
No, Mets fans are impatient.
They are impatient with good players that don’t produce right away and want them run out of town then bitch when they do well elsewhere, they are impatient when an owner dumps alot of his hard earned money into a team with intentions of winning (who was complaining in December?) but things didn’t work out, and they are impatient when older pitchers pitch like older pitchers. As Brian said, many factors this year sabotaged the result, plus players didn’t play to their expectations. You guys want Cohen to grab a bat and walk up to the plate, or you want him to toe the rubber too? LOL, in my line of work, whoever doesn’t perform, it’s my fault. At least Cohen doesn’t have that headache!
In September, I want to see Baty, Mauricio, Vientos, Alvarez, Alonso, Lindor, MccNeil, Marte and Nimmo playing every day. I want to see the team of the future and not interested in anyone else. If they are still running out there the AAAA types, well, then someone needs to answer.
I totally agree with you Gus about your starting lineup. Revaluation is so important. These AAAA players aren’t in the Mets future plans. They’re a wasting on time.
Nice article and comments as well.
My two cents – I consider Cohen a good owner. I am glad he owns the team. He has done many good things. His initial comment about a championship in 3-5 was almost cliche – every team is baseball has a plan to win it all within 5 years, even the Royals and As.
Hobie makes a good point, the Wilpons missed the mark a bit with the decoration of Citifield lacking Met history, but I can’t call them Dodger fans, especially Jeff. The also fielded top payroll teams in the Willie/Omar years. Those players fell short.
I also don’t agree that the Met franchise Cohen purchased was a train wreck. They did make a World Series in 2015, they produced a great crop of young pitchers, including an all-time great. They have a great ballpark. Yeah, they had issues and fell short in some areas…mostly pitching depth drafts that were total misses.
2023 is not on the owner. Maybe it’s 10% on the GM due to the bullpen miss. It is predominantly on the players, healthy was a big issue but performance is the overriding issue.
The pivot is on the owner. I share Brian’s take. Time will tell. The system is deeper, they have 5 top 100 prospects, which they have had before. None are cream of the crop studs, but you never know.
I love Cohen as an owner. He wants to win and backs it up with his wallet. So what, he whiffed this year. He will spend his money again. It is exciting to know that we will surprised in a good way when we sign free agents.
I just think he needs a new GM. I don’t think Eppler will get fired after the season because he has ties to Ohtani. I would love to see Ohtani and Yamamoto signed. That would a heck of a top three in the rotation.
So for those reasons, he is a good owner.
I won’t be surprised if they win a WS in 2025. Watch the Ohtani sweepstakes. If Cohen gets him the race is on,maybe even a WS next year. No Ohtani,sign Yamamoto, a few relievers, and maybe bring Conforto back?
Cohen is a good owner. Brian’s comment about their first half and how they got there was excellent.
Cohen hasn’t changed his plan. He said that he will spend money to bring in veterans with short-term contracts and buy time so that the minor league system would develop. It seems like everybody is blaming Scherzer and Verlander for this mess. The real blame is the position players that imploded and the depth starters that failed. Eppler should get blame for his construction of back of the bullpen.
The first half failure indicated that the Mets weren’t going to compete this year and the only way that the plan would be still on course is to enhance their minor league system. The only players that had value was Scherzer and Verlander and so he pivoted to his second goal and enhanced his minor league system. If he kept Scherzer and Verlander, their contracts were going to expire next year. Then what would happen? They’re minor league system has no potential aces and Megill and Peterson have been a failure. There are 7 to 10 good, young free agent starting pitchers available this year. Cohen saw the opportunity to enhance the minor league system and he will spend for a rotation of younger, good quality pitchers, all at the cost of a half season.
We should give Steve Cohen a break for right now! If you look at all the teams that went to the World Series after changing ownership, they had a transition period of more than 5 years. Right now the Mets are so bad that they were hard to watch. Back in the late 1990s we had players like Robin Ventura, Mike Piazza, John Olerud, and Al Leiter and the team was a much better team, even though they weren’t winning World Series. They do have to stop making stupid decisions like getting rid of Verlander for really nothing was just a dumb decision and then he comes out playing the Yankees and he wins.