Cohen sees Mets winning World Series in 3-5 years
It was the Mets’ most euphoric moment since the evening of Oct. 27, 1986, with Jesse Orosco leaping off the mound, throwing his glove high into the sky as the Mets won Game 7 of the World Series.
This day there was no around. But after listening to new Mets owner Steve Cohen and President Sandy Alderson speak for 90 minutes Tuesday, a despondent, neglected fan base was suddenly jolted awake.
Cohen and Alderson talked about the potential of a dynasty.
They talked about the Mets morphing into an iconic franchise.
They talked about winning World Series championships.
They talked about going where no Mets franchise has gone before, being a championship-caliber club year after year, becoming the Braves of the ’ 90s and the Dodgers of this decade.
“We want to be iconic,” Alderson said. “We don’t want to be just known for winning. We want to be known for how we win.”
The easy narrative would be for Cohen, worth $14.6 billion, to announce that he’s going to buy every free agent they want, blow past the luxury tax and become the ultimate destination for any player who wants to set up generations of his family.
Cohen swiftly dismissed those ideas. “You build championships,” he said, “you don’t buy them.”
The Mets instead want to spend the money building an infrastructure, a model franchise that reaches the postseason every year, scouting and developing their players better than everyone else and generating ideas with a diverse workplace that make the Mets into a baseball utopia.
“Suddenly, overnight, I think people are interested in working for the Mets who were perhaps not before. I think players are interested in playing for the Mets who perhaps were not before,” Alderson said. “You don’t change perception without changing the reality.”
Cohen, 64, spoke about his lifelong passion for the Mets, seeing games at the Polo Grounds with his father, taking in games from the upper deck at Shea Stadium, and now wanting to satisfy a passionate fan base that felt neglected during the Wilpon ownership era.
There were attempts to bait Cohen into ridiculing the past ownership, but he declined. He acknowledged he had not heard from Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez, who also bid on the Mets, but he wished them well. He wouldn’t even chastise the ill-fated trade with the Mariners, taking on aging second baseman Robinson Cano and All-Star closer Edwin Diaz for prized outfield prospect Jarred Kelenic and pitcher Justin Dunn.
The past didn’t matter, Cohen reiterated. “I’m not in this to be mediocre,” he said. “That’s just not my thing. I want something great. The fans want something great. … I’m essentially doing it for the fans. When I thought about this, I can make millions of people happy. That’s how I’m thinking about it.”
No promises were made. Cohen said he’d be disappointed if they don’t win a World Series title within three to five years but offered no guarantees. There may be similarities between running a hedge fund and a baseball club, in that nothing is ever promised.
Will the Mets, who already have about $153 million in committed salaries to 18 players, dive into the free agent market? Absolutely.
Will they spend wildly and topple the Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs for biggest payroll? Nope.
“I can promise you that we’re going to act like a major market team,” Cohen said. “Are we going to act like drunken sailors? No. We want to win now but also build for the long term. I’m trying to build a sustainable franchise. I don’t want to be good one year and bad three years. I want to be good every year.”