The richest owner of the major leagues showed unwavering trust in the front desk and the head of the team.
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen said at a press conference at Citi Field on the 29th (Korean time), “I’m a patient person. Everyone wants headlines. They say, ‘Fire this guy, fire that guy.’ “But I don’t run the club that way.”
It was an answer to the question of whether general manager Billy Eppler or manager Buck Showalter should be held accountable for the team’s performance far below expectations in the first half.
MLB.com said, ‘When Cohen bought the Mets three years ago, he said it would be a big disappointment if he didn’t win the World Series within three to five years. He now regrets saying that.” Not only does he think it’s not his true self, but it’s an image that needs to be softened while acknowledging reality.”
The Mets lost 2-5 to the Milwaukee Brewers on the day. In the last 10 games, it has been sluggish with 3 wins and 7 losses, and it has become 36 wins and 44 losses. Even until the last two days, the win rate exceeded 50% with 30 wins and 27 losses. It was only 3.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves, the leader of the NL East, and was second in the wild card rankings.
However, now it has fallen to 4th place in the district, and is 17 games behind the leader Atlanta and 9 games behind the wild card 3rd place San Francisco Giants (45-35). Getting into the playoffs is virtually impossible. Fangraphs put the Mets’ playoff odds at 11.1%.
“If you’re trying to attract attractive people to the club, that’s the worst option and you’re only going to make headlines,” Cohen said. “I know the psychology of the fans. They want something to happen. I understand. But sometimes you have long-term goals and you shouldn’t.”
But Cohen had a different nuance at his first press conference in April. At the time, he referred to the press conference as an “opportunity to be honest with me” on Twitter, saying, “If the Mets don’t improve, there will be changes in the future.” This meant that personnel actions could be taken if grades were poor.
MLB.com commented, “The Mets are currently much closer to the bottom of the NL than first,” and “there’s no doubt that his investment in the Mets is performing far worse than his stake in the S&P 500.”
Cohen owns the most assets of any major league owner. Cohen ranked first with $17.5 billion (about 23 trillion won) in the ranking of net worth of major league owners announced by Forbes, an economic magazine, in April.
Cohen, who founded ‘Point 72 Asset Management’ as a hedge fund manager, acquired the Mets club for $2.4 billion in September 2020 and became the owner.
After that, he continued to make big investments in the FA market. Looking at free agents bought by the Mets over the past two years, Max Scherzer (3 years, $130 million), Starling Marte (4 years, $78 million), Mark Kanha (2 years, $26.5 million), Edwin Diaz (5 years, $102 million) $10,000), Justin Verlander ($86.66 million over 2 years), Jose Quintana ($26 million over 2 years), and Senda Godai ($75 million over 5 years).
In January 2021, he signed shortstop Francisco Lindor from the Cleveland Indians and signed a 10-year, $341 million long-term contract.안전놀이터
As a result, the Mets’ opening payroll this season was $353.54 million, becoming the first team in the history of the major leagues to break the $300 million mark. That means they spend more than $70 million on labor costs compared to the second-place New York Yankees ($276.99 million).
However, in the third season after becoming the owner, he is taking a step back. The Mets won 101 games last year. The biggest reason is the injury and sluggishness of Scherzer and Verlander, who have gathered expectations with the strongest one-two punch. The two players are tied for first place in this category with an annual salary of $43.33 million this year, and the Mets’ team ERA is 4.59, 25th overall.