PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets possess not only the highest-paid player in the game but the two highest; the team’s co-aces are also co-leaders on the MLB money board. On their way to Cooperstown, Max Scherzer and birthday boy Justin Verlander (who turned 40 Monday) are making $43.33 million a year, which stands as the baseball record until Shohei Ohtani signs a deal that reflects his true value.
The star-infused Mets roster also contains NL RBI leader and two-time Home Run Derby champion Pete Alonso, NL batting champion Jeff McNeil and one of the game’s great shortstops, “Mr. Smile” Francisco Lindor, not to mention the latest Japanese sensation, Kodai Senga, whose ghost pitch was identified by some here Sunday.
No matter, there’s no doubt who the star of the Mets is now. That would be one Steven A. Cohen from Greenwich, Conn., by way of Great Neck. The Mets owner is known as “Uncle Steve” to some close friends, and these days that includes just about any fan of the orange and blue. Some of them showed up at spring training wearing a shirt with Cohen’s likeness, plus a crown that adorned his noggin.
Cohen noted with a smile that he’s lost a bit of weight since that picture was shot. But eventually he deflected the love he’s receiving here at 31 Piazza Drive.
“It’s not me, it’s the Mets,” he said.
No, Uncle Steve, it’s you.
The Mets have been around 60-plus years, and no one recalls a shirt being worn to honor Joan Payson, M. Donald Grant or the Wilpons, previous owners who all tried to balance their books, as most do. When it comes to how he runs the team, Cohen has thrown away the book.
He’s accepting what league sources say is unprecedented red ink. But those same sources get that it’s a pittance compared to his net worth, which was conservatively estimated to be $17 billion by Forbes before he bucked an almost all-time awful 2022 equity market and badly beat it with a reported 10 percent increase (it was actually more than that, sources say).
One rival owner at the recent owners’ meetings in Palm Beach referred to Cohen’s losses as “loose change” for him, as if one can dig a couple hundred million out of couch cushions. In relative terms, though, you don’t have to be a Wharton grad to understand the estimated $200 million-plus in red ink (also via sources) really isn’t much to him — it’s about 1 percent of his total worth.
“I have another business. So far, I’m doing pretty well,” Cohen said about Wall Street and his lack of worry.
He’s not doing nearly as well financially in baseball, but for today there’s no doubt who reigns as the current King of Queens. Cohen declined to affirm the $200 million-plus figure but also didn’t disagree when that number was stipulated in a question I posed to him.
While Cohen joked that he pays the fans to wear those Cohen shirts, the truth is they love him for now, and for good reason. He’s run the Mets’ payroll to a record $364 million, and would have pushed it to about $390 million had the $315 million, 12-year deal for Carlos Correa gone through.
Even with Correa with the Twins, the winter was a thrilling time for the Mets, as they brought back cornerstone players Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo, added Verlander, Senga and Jose Quintana for the rotation and Omar Narvaez to catch them, and extended McNeil. Cohen suggested he has no choice but to spend big to “bridge” the time before his organization rebuilds a farm system short on productivity, especially when it comes to defensive players. Cohen said they are trying to avoid developing “half players” in the future.
He certainly isn’t approaching his relatively new gig in a halfway manner. He called his record spending “part of the gig,” and something that causes him no discomfort (I can confirm he acts quite contented). But he didn’t say whether it would continue indefinitely.
“I can’t predict the future,” he said, ignoring the obvious that he’s better at it than the rest of us, as evidenced by his perennial equity gains.
All his spending, according to sources, is upsetting some owners, who hoped that the 90 percent fourth-tier tax — appropriately dubbed the “Steve Cohen tax” — would discourage him from running his budget 30 percent past the next highest team, which happens to be the Yankees, whose revenues are higher by at least a couple hundred million dollars. Cohen continues to smile through all the red ink that would upset 29 other owners. He noted that he didn’t expect free-agent prices to rise by “20 to 30 percent,” but it obviously didn’t discourage him.
Cohen suggested he didn’t believe MLB’s newly formed economic reform committee is designed to target him. He also said he isn’t hurt not to have been chosen for it, though he does seem to know a thing or two more about the economy than the average person, or even the average billionaire.
There’s only one constituency that concerns him.
“I made a commitment to the fans,” Cohen said. And at least for today, they appreciate it to the point of adoration.
