High-payroll Mets have taken it to a new level

Baseball is loaded with underachieving teams this season. Then there are the Mets, who have taken disappointment to a subterranean level.

A team with a record $344.1 million luxury-tax payroll — $64.8 million more than the second-place Yankees — went into the weekend 18½ games out of first place in the National League East. They are on pace to lose 90 games.

The Mets are 16th in the majors in runs and 12th in runs allowed. They’re a mediocre team with a giant payroll and a 40-man roster that includes nine former All-Stars, including two Hall of Fame locks in Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.

“I don’t think anyone saw this coming,” said Verlander, who landed a twoyear, $86.67 million deal in December.

Certainly not owner Steve Cohen,

whose pursuit of a World Series championship was so determined that he soared past the highest limit of the luxury-tax tiers installed in the latest collective bargaining agreement.

Now, unless payroll is reduced, the Mets could owe as much as $99 million in luxury taxes after the season. The “Cohen Tax” didn’t deter him.

“There’s nobody to blame. It’s really across the whole team,” Cohen said when he called a news conference on Wednesday.

That’s diplomatic. But the players are largely to blame. Scherzer, Verlander, Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Starling Marte, and Jeff McNeil are all performing below their career norms.

“We’ll see if they can get their act together,” Cohen said.

(And, yes, some owners are still willing to take questions from reporters in bad times.)

Buck Showalter guided the Mets to a 24-win improvement last season. But what was supposed to be a much-improved roster has failed to gain much traction. That falls on the manager to some degree, especially with some of the team’s sloppy play defensively.

General manager Billy Eppler, who essentially had an unlimited payroll to build the team, also bears some responsibility. But the organization also has gone nine months without a team president overseeing Eppler since Sandy Alderson stepped down.

Once closer Edwin Díaz was lost for the season with a freak knee injury during the World Baseball Classic, the bullpen was left with only three reliable relievers: Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley,

and David Robertson.

Cohen, who still plans to hire a president, said he won’t fire Eppler or Showalter during the season. But he also doesn’t plan to stand by idly if the Mets don’t get back into contention.

“I’m preparing my management team for all possibilities. If they don’t get better, we have decisions to make at the trade deadline,” Cohen said. “That’s not my preferred end result. We’re preparing all contingencies.”

But who are the Mets trading? Verlander is 40 and Scherzer turns 39 this month. Even if Cohen pays down their salaries to get better prospects in return, how many teams would part with prime young talent to take back an aging starter with a long history of injury issues?

The Mets haven’t won a series since sweeping the Phillies at home from

May 30-June 1. They play the Diamondbacks and Padres on the road going into the All-Star break, then host the Dodgers when the season resumes.

Lose those three series and Cohen could start making moves.

“It’s been incredibly frustrating. I watch every game. I see what’s going on,” he said. “Hopefully, we can right the ship . . . It’s kind of weird. It’s really strange to me.”

Mets fans viewed Cohen as a savior after the chaotic reign of the Wilpon family. He improved the team’s infrastructure, increased staffing, took needed steps to pay respect to the club’s history, and chased all the high-profile free agents.

When he bought the team in November 2020, Cohen said the Mets would win a championship in 3-5 years.

A free-spending billionaire who was a legitimate fan of the team, what could go wrong? Right now, everything.