The New York Mets: A Dramatic Shift in Expectations
KANSAS CITY — The day he officially took control as owner of the New York Mets, Steve Cohen did not shy away from setting a high bar. “If I don’t win a World Series in the next three to five years — and I’d like to make it sooner — then obviously I would consider that slightly disappointing,” Cohen said back in November 2020.
This week, the standards for the Mets’ immediate future were lowered quite a bit. “We will field a competitive team in 2024,” general manager Billy Eppler had to clarify. “Whatever we have, it’s going to be a big-league team,” said Francisco Lindor. “We have to go out and compete and give our best.” Even Cohen himself has said multiple times this year that he regrets setting the goal of winning the World Series so soon.
As about-faces go, no, it’s not as swift as Brodie Van Wagenen shifting from “Come get us” in January to “They came and got us” in July. But it’s just as dramatic a change in hubris. Looking ahead to 2024, Lindor talked about sneaking into the playoffs with 83 to 87 wins. Eppler might as well have quoted Fred Wilpon’s desire to play meaningful September baseball, and the Mets haven’t even gotten through this September.
Yes, what Cohen, Eppler and Co. decided to do over the last week may very well have been prudent. They recognized sunk costs on the roster, and they didn’t shy away from using Cohen’s financial muscle to best set the organization up for the future. The plan was well-executed, and the 2026 and 2027 Mets should be better for it. It is good to admit something isn’t working.
But before there’s any kind of victory lap here, let’s pause to contemplate how absurd it is that this became the plan. The Mets didn’t just enter this season with the highest payroll in the sport’s history. They entered it with expectations earned off a 101-win campaign a year ago, one whose pratfall of a conclusion left a bitter taste in their mouths and the mouths of the fan base. There have been few Mets seasons more anticipated in their history.
And yet, the team underperformed so consistently and so comprehensively that they didn’t just sell on the rest of this season, they sold on next season as well. Eppler acknowledged that the club was, in his parlance, chipping away at 2024’s championship odds to improve those odds further down the line. (It may not sit well to hear that on this day, given Eppler so steadfastly refused to chip away at future odds to improve present ones last deadline.)
That’s a failure that’s shared across the organization. It extends to Cohen, who’s had to endure a steep learning curve when it comes to hiring executives in baseball. That he’s still looking for a president of baseball operations this deep into his ownership has set the Mets’ organizational overhaul back. It extends to Eppler, whose execution of the initial plan to bridge the years before the farm system was sustainable was not as crisp as it was this deadline. Building the oldest roster in the majors left the Mets vulnerable to this type of unexpected regression. It extends to Buck Showalter, who hasn’t maximized the talent on his roster. It extends most certainly to the players who have, almost to a man, fallen short of their own expectations.
That cascade of failures can’t help but peel away some benefit of the doubt that Cohen possessed when he first came in as owner. Cohen and the Mets can, quite literally, buy some of that back this offseason. But if the Mets are as cautious in free agency this winter as they’ve suggested and eschew big-name additions — especially in a starting pitching market that fits their obvious needs — it will erode Cohen’s credibility more. If they decide Pete Alonso isn’t worth extending and trade him away, it might be erased entirely.
The Mets have spent the last few days setting new goals for themselves, ones more within immediate reach. Exhausted of comparisons to the worst team money can buy, they pivoted to trying for the best farm system money can buy. Cohen is set to visit the team in Kansas City this week. Maybe he’ll try to reset the clock on that goal of winning a championship.
(Photo of Steve Cohen: Rich Storry / USA Today)