Currently, Mets fans are rejoicing now that Steven Cohen officially owns the team, but it may be premature.
The reason Cohen is such an attractive owner to baseball fans is his overwhelming wealth, as well as his winning mindset. Cohen is worth well over 10 billion dollars and is even the inspiration for the main character of the show “Billions.” This makes Cohen both the richest and coolest GM in baseball, which makes it pretty hard for the fans to manage their expectations.
Even with a new owner, the team is the same group of players who just finished with a 26-34 record, tied for last in the National League East. That shows that a lot needs to be done to make this a winning team, and even more before Cohen can deliver the championship he has set as his goal in the first three to five years as owner.
Cohen has made some big changes already, immediately removing Brodie Van-Wagenen as the general manager of the Mets and naming former Mets’ GM, Sandy Alderson, the president of Baseball Operations. Alderson was the GM in 2015 when the Mets went to the World Series and is a huge proponent of the Moneyball scheme that is prevalent in the MLB in the past two decades.
Alderson became sick and ended up leaving the team in 2018, plus there was also conflict that year between Alderson and the owners at the time, the Wilpons. While Alderson and the Wilpons may not have seen eye-to-eye, Cohen believes that with new financial resources, Alderson is a great building block for a championship team. Before joining the Mets, Alderson already had already won a championship in 1989 with the Oakland Athletics and mentored Billy Beane, whose story is portrayed in the movie Moneyball.
Alderson is an important change as he brings a plethora of new ideas and a whole new mindset that is heavily focused on analytics. Already, Alderson and Cohen have re-signed former all-star pitcher Marcus Stroman, and have stated their intentions to pursue other top free agents, including 2020 NL Cy Young award winner pitcher Trevor Bauer.
An important emphasis Alderson is making is that baseball isn’t just about the sport, it’s also about entertainment. This is a big reason as to why he’s trying to bring Bauer on board.
The Mets still need to work on their fielding and offense if they’re going to be a successful team next year, as well as finding an apt closer considering the team’s recent struggles with keeping leads late in the game.
Many Mets fans see Cohen’s wealth as a fix all solution, but it’s important to remember that there are still 29 other teams bidding for free agents at the moment, so the Mets are going to have to battle for some strong players—especially after finishing last in their division.
A promising recent development is Robinson Cano testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs and being banned for the 2021 season because this frees up 24 million dollars for the team and a second base spot for Jeff McNeil. This move also opens up the Mets to look into players such as DJ LeMahieu—currently one of the New York Yankees’ top players—which would really spice up the team.
While Mets fans should be excited by new ownership, they need to manage their expectations and know that it may take some time for the Mets to become the winning team they’re hoping for.