PORT ST. LUCIE — Steve Cohen said something late Sunday morning that struck me. He was speaking in the home dugout at Clover Park amid a group of reporters when within the context of responding to a question whether the Mets are where he imagined they would be entering Season 4 of his ownership he offered this:
“I was given what I was given.”
That was a pleasant way to never mention the Wilpons and yet acknowledge the mess he inherited of anti-modernity, problematic morale and a sketchy farm system. Cohen’s initial instinct was to see if he could paper over the problems. Could he use his money to construct an entertaining/winning major league squad to provide time and camouflage to fix and restructure all that needed attention.
He was slowed initially because all the top executives he sought to run baseball operations were either scared of his reputation or New York or were just happy where they were. Within the organization, Cohen refers to that first ownership year as his “hazing” season. So much went wrong from “thumbs-down” to two heads of baseball operations — Jared Porter and Zack Scott — having to be moved out for off-the-field transgressions.
In the 2022 season, the money played. The Mets were generally healthy. It bought and brought 100 wins, but also frustration at the late division fade and early playoff exit. The response was to pump even more into the major league product — a record payroll … and not by a little.
But by midseason 2023, Cohen had evolved to an epiphany. He was “given what he was given” and fully understood that throwing money at the major league roster was not going to be enough. He needed, in his mind, to redouble efforts toward his long-term vision of a replenishing organization that provides the bulwark for sustained success. Thus, namely, he redirected a bulk of the contracts of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander to essentially buy prospects at the trade deadline. He finally got his man in David Stearns to steer baseball operations in the offseason. And he lowered the temperature from championship-or-bust to simply making the playoffs being a successful season.
And you know what I think Cohen sees now for the first time since taking over in September 2020? His team. He has largely moved beyond being “given what he was given.” His infrastructure is in place. He seems thrilled by his new hires of Stearns, manager Carlos Mendoza and Scott Havens to run business operations. He sounds like an owner who feels the pillars are in place to execute a vision. That the hard work of cleanup is over and buildup is now full steam ahead. That he can see tomorrow and it is not impossibly far away. That this is Season 4 of his regime but in many ways a beginning.
“For the first time, I would say that we’re starting to stack [prospects],” Cohen said. “I don’t think I’ve ever used that term. That’s a good feeling. OK. Between that and our ability to use our resources in the free-agency market, that’s a pretty powerful combination.”
Now here comes what I would describe as the warning for March delusion. Go to any camp and the people in charge will look out and see the bright side. If you can’t believe and dream at this time of year — about a new pitch, the impact of better technology and coaching on youngsters and the depth of your prospect base — then you never will. And Cohen, who isn’t someone you would associate with giddy, was as close to that as he might allow himself about a system that even if it is not what he sees with starry eyes is so clearly better than what it had been.
“For the first time, I’m excited about what we’re building in this farm system,” Cohen said. “We hadn’t developed pitching in a long time. And for the first time, it looks like we have depth down there. We have six, seven, eight pitchers that potentially could be our next starters. To me that is so exciting because pitching is so freaking expensive in baseball today. So we can start building a team where we have some young, fresh blood, and then surround that with veteran talent. That’s a winning combination.”
Notice the use of “For the first time” in each of the last two quotes from Cohen. It sounded akin to a fresh start. And also look at even Cohen believing the cost of pitching is too expensive. For now, he will still back the largest payroll, fed, in part, by so much dead money via Scherzer and Verlander. And he didn’t sound like he was about to, say, add J.D. Martinez when reiterating: “We’re following a plan. We’ve been very clear that we want to play our younger players and find out what we have. I fully expect that’s the way it’s gonna go.”
Cohen recognized the semi-youth movement has brought change in 12 months from huge expectations to “pretty low, but I think we are going to surprise to the upside.” Yep, it bordered on giddy. It felt like what he was given has been replaced by what he has now and the direction it has taken. It felt, in Year 4, like someone at the beginning.
“I’m excited by what we are putting together here,” Cohen said.