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Jorge Castillo
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — New York Mets owner Steve Cohen said he had a payroll budget in mind when the offseason began, but he had “blown through” that number by the time players reported for spring training.
“Because I want a winning team,” Cohen said Tuesday at Clover Park, the Mets’ spring training home. “And I want to get the best team I can on the field.”
The Mets’ current projected payroll is approximately $325 million — second in baseball to the Los Angeles Dodgers — after an offseason that included giving star Juan Soto the richest contract in professional sports history. That is well over the highest competitive balance tax threshold of $301 million, which comes with a 60% surcharge on every dollar spent over that mark widely referred to as “The Cohen Tax” in honor of the Mets’ owner.
“I would like to get below ‘The Cohen Tax,'” Cohen said. “We sure it’s about me? There’s a lot of Cohens out there.”
Cohen estimated the Mets’ payroll will likely increase to around $340 million over the season with other expenditures, including in-season player acquisitions. The hedge fund billionaire — Forbes estimates he’s worth more than $21 billion — can afford the investment. He just doesn’t believe having payrolls that large will lead to sustained success.
“I can finance it,” said Cohen, who joked that his spending is nothing compared to the Dodgers. “But is that the most optimal way to run a team? Probably not.”
Instead, Cohen said he wants to build the infrastructure to create a farm system to churn out young, cheap and controllable talent under president of baseball operations David Stearns and avoid dabbling in free agency to upgrade the roster as often.
“I’ve always wanted to be more measured in payroll growth,” Cohen said. “I never get there. It’s never quite there. I have the ability to spend if I have to. And I want to win and I want to put the best team I can on the field. But free agency’s expensive. It’s just the way it is, and it’s always more expensive than you can imagine.”
No player has ever been more expensive than Soto, who signed a 15-year, $765 million deal in early December and will count $51 million against the Mets’ CBT payroll. New York bookended the addition by re-signing first baseman Pete Alonso to a two-year, $54 million deal earlier this month after prolonged negotiations.
The deal, which pays Alonso $30 million this season, includes an opt-out after 2025 that Alonso could exercise to test free agency again next winter and leave a hole at first base for the Mets. One option could be All-Star Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is expected to reach free agency next offseason after not agreeing to a contract extension with the Toronto Blue Jays by his self-imposed deadline Monday.
Cohen called Guerrero a “great ballplayer.” He also signaled that competing for Guerrero’s services may not be in the Mets’ best interests.
“I mean, you really can’t have too many long-term contracts, because then you lose your roster flexibility, so you gotta be really careful,” Cohen said. “But I’ll let my baseball people make that decision.”
For now, the Mets have a team that is expected to compete for the National League pennant after rebounding from a dreadful start to go on a remarkable run last summer before falling two wins short of the World Series.
“I don’t know if I ever felt anything of that type of emotion that was almost on a daily basis,” Cohen said. “So, when you get that feeling, you want more of that. So that’s really what you’re playing for, the opportunity to get in a World Series. … I mean, [playoff baseball] just rises to another level. They’re all playing hard during the year, but everyone takes it up a notch and that’s a lot of fun.”
Cohen expects momentum from last season’s success and the addition of Soto to produce better attendance numbers at Citi Field after the Mets ranked 18th last season, which Cohen said he “didn’t like.”
“I can’t speak for why that it is,” Cohen said. “I think it has a lot to do with generally attendance lags performance. And I think there’s always been a little skepticism with the Mets and believing that we’re going to be sustainable winners and sustainably in the playoffs.
“… One of my goals is to break that negativity and have them believe we’re going to be a sustainable winner year in and year out and they come to the ballpark and enjoy it.”
The goal, he told Soto and echoed Tuesday, is to win two to four World Series titles over the next decade and end a championship drought that goes back to 1986.
“You always want to set high standards and high goals,” Cohen said. “There’s no guaranteeing anything. It’s really hard to win a World Series, but the thought is we’re putting together a team not just a team built for one year, but we want to create sustainable success.
“If we keep making the playoffs, why can’t we get to the ultimate goal? So, why not set out a high goal and try and make it.”