The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Doing it for the fans’
Cohen eager to turn Mets into winners the right way
Steve Cohen went to his first Mets game with his dad at the Polo Grounds in 1963. Years later, he and his buddies would take the train from Great Neck on Long Island and sit in the upper deck at Shea Stadium.
Cohen recalled he was 13 when Cleon Jones caught Davey Johnson’s fly ball for the last, glorious out of the 1969 World Series. He talked about Jimmy Qualls breaking up Tom Seaver’s perfect game in the ninth inning in July that year.
And oh yeah, Cohen said, “the obvious one.” Mookie Wilson’s grounder that went between Bill Buckner’s legs in the 1986 World Series.
“An extraordinary moment in baseball,” he said.
Two minutes later, Cohen would say, “I’m not competing against the Yankees. This is the Mets. We’re going to create our own excitement.”
Impressive that Cohen, who lives in Greenwich, who has lived and died with the Mets, managed to tweak both the Red Sox and Yankees within 120 seconds of his Zoom call Tuesday.
If Cohen signs free agent George Springer of New Britain, we may have to turn to Donald Trump’s favorite Quinnipiac poll to see how many fans the Mets are gaining in Connecticut.
For Mets fans, of course, he is Stevie Savior. He is one of them … except for the fact that Forbes estimated the hedge fund manager is worth $14.5 billion. Cohen is rich with Mets stories. He is far richer than any other owner in major league baseball.
Already, he has struck up a Twitter relationship with Mets fans. He promises to keep it going even when matters get tough. (We’ll see.)
Already he says things the New York way, not the milquetoast way.
“If I don’t win a World Series in the next three to five years, I’d like to make it sooner, I would consider that slightly disappointing.”
“I’m not in this to be mediocre. That’s just not my thing. I want something great.”
“New York fans have high expectations and I want to exceed them.”
“I don’t just want to get into the playoffs. I want to win a championship.”
“This is a major-market team. It should have a budget commensurate with that.”
“I don’t want to be good one year and bad three years. I want to be good every year.”
After eschewing public comment until the sale of the Mets finally ... finally was approved by MLB and the city, Cohen not only won the news conference. He lit up the sky from Citi Field to Point72 headquarters on Cummings Point Road in Stamford.
The Mets have finished in fourth place in the NL East three of the past four years and haven’t made the postseason since 2016. Yes, they did get to the World Series in 2015, but nine of the past 12 seasons have ended with losing records and 12 of the past 14 have brought no playoffs. Mets fans are sick and tired. They are starving for a championship. They are looking to Stevie Savior for the manna.
“I grew up in Long Island,” Cohen said. “I don’t have a big ego. I’m doing it for the fans. I’m not doing it for the money.
“I relate to them. I know how they feel. These are smart fans. They know what they’re talking about. If they’re emotional, that means they care. I love talking to them (on Twitter). I didn’t know I would. I’m going to keep talking to them.”
Cohen said more than once that no one remembers who finishes second or third — he included himself and his failed attempt to buy the Dodgers in 2012. To make his point, when asked whether the other Mets bidders had reached out to him after the completion of the sale, he asked, “Who are the other bidders? I don’t remember.” No, Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez have not called to congratulate him.
Cohen rehired 72-year-old former Mets general manager Sandy Alderson as club president. Alderson cut loose general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and four others from the front office. On Tuesday, Alderson said Luis Rojas will likely remain as manager, although he wants to consult the president of baseball operations — not Alderson — and general manager after they are hired.
A few leading questions essentially
teed Cohen up to criticize the easy-tocriticize Wilpons and specific Mets moves. Cohen refused to go there. Instead he thanked Fred Wilpon for taking him in as a minority owner in 2011, although he did equate that with being a season ticket holder.
“You don’t really have a lot to say,” Cohen said. “Now I am the owner. I get to be in charge myself.”
He is pointing to the Dodgers as a model of a franchise well-run.
“I like what they are doing,” Cohen said. “They have a really strong farm system. They take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace for free agents and trades. They run a pretty good business operation, too. That’s one team that easily seems to the mark in the places I want to do the same.”
He quickly added that he wanted to do it the Mets Way, with a Mets culture. While he mentioned the Yankees and Dodgers twice, he mentioned Point72 Asset Management, oh, maybe 72 times. He wanted to demonstrate the similarities between his hedge fund firm and a baseball team and to describe some of his core principles. Use analytics. Hire young people. Have an academy. Develop talent to come up through the organization. Sometimes hire people from the outside.
“The key is developing talent all the time,” Cohen said. “If I just depended on going out and hiring people from the outside I’d be out of business.”
He also said this: “You build champions, you don’t buy them. Like I said, we are going to act like a major-market team. Are we going to act like drunken sailors in the marketplace? No. You can spend a lot of money today and tie up your team in bad contracts for the next five years.”
Said Alderson, “You don’t change the perception without changing the reality. I think Steve is going to go a long way toward changing that narrative.
“We’re going to make sure we got enough meat and potatoes, but we’re going to be shopping in the gourmet section as well. I got to find out where that is.”
Cohen bragged about having the best pitcher in baseball in Jacob deGrom, but also about having a clear need at catching and pitching depth.
Alderson pointed out that had the sale been approved sooner, the Mets might have claimed reliever Brad Hand and his $10 million option for 2021 off waivers.
“We can now emphasize the acquisition rather than the cost,” he said.
Cohen calls himself low-key. He said he believes in patience. He said he does
not believe in autocracy. The best ideas, he said, are collaborative and he will take a great idea from anybody.
So hey, that next tweet might be a winner.
“I can only tell you have I run my business,” Cohen said. “I’m very measured. I’m very calm. I try to be very thoughtful. I think impulsive decisions tend not to work. I want to make sure there are checks and balances in the organization. I want people to feel comfortable if they feel differently they will tell me.”
Later he said he’s a stickler for detail, but not a micromanager. He said he played Little League, so he is going to leave the professionals to run the baseball operations. He also said he asks probing questions and expects reasonable answers.
“I hold my people accountable, but I give them a lot of rope to run. I have a day job at Point72. I have two jobs now. I’m not going to second-guess every decision. That’s not my style.”
If Cohen was bothered that four owners voted against the sale and that Mayor Bill de Blasio backed the ARod bid, he didn’t show it. Of the February deal that broke down, he said complicated deals do that. Of getting 26 of 30 owners’ votes, he said, “I only needed 23.”
He struck so many good notes on this day, speaking out on behalf of Black Lives Matter, encouraging diversity of thought, asking his players if they are going to speak out to give 100 percent inside the lines.
He talked fondly of his wife, Alex, who is of Puerto Rican descent and grew up in Washington Heights. And how her, dad, Ralph, goes to all the Mets home games. Alex will hold a small part of the ownership and will run the Mets Foundation.
“She does a great job running our family foundation,” Cohen said. “You’re going to love her.” Alex already is gaining twitter momentum, sporting a Mets T-shirt with “Ya Gotta Believe in Uncle Steve.” Uncle Steve’s hobby is art and his collection is worth an estimated $1 billion. This latest acquisition?
“The amount of work that’s going to be required here is more than a hobby,” Cohen said. “I consider it something I’m essentially doing for the fans. When I really thought about this, I can make millions of people happy. What an incredible opportunity that is.”