As the New York Mets continue to spiral in the month of June, falling further and further out of the NL East race, rumors have swirled regarding how owner Steve Cohen would do to address his struggling — and very, very expensive — team. We may be getting an answer to that question very soon: Cohen announced on Twitter Tuesday that he intends to hold a press conference prior to Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, telling fans that they’ll “get it from me straight.”
I will be doing a press conference tomorrow before the game. You will get it from me straight.
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) June 27, 2023
Whether Cohen will take that opportunity to announce personnel changes or just face the media remains to be seen. What’s very much clear, though, is that New York has been among baseball’s biggest disappointments this year — Monday’s come-from-ahead loss to in their series opener against Milwaukee dropped the Mets to 35-43, 16 games back of the Atlanta Braves in the East and a whopping 8.5 games out of even the final NL Wild Card spot.
It’s not what anyone expected from them entering the season, and it’s definitely not what Cohen expected after footing the bill for a $344 million payroll — not only the highest in the Majors, but more than $100 million more than every other team save for the San Diego Padres. Cohen is among the richest men in America, so he certainly has the money, but this is also a man who assumed majority ownership of the team in 2020 talking a very big game about the Mets’ place both league-wide and in New York specifically.
He’s backed up that talk with his wallet in the years since, inking Francisco Lindor to a $341 million deal in the spring of 2021 followed by Max Scherzer and Starling Marte the following offseason. The acquisition of Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana and more this winter seemed to signal a changing of the guard among the game’s elite at a time when other owners were blanching at the league’s stiffened penalties for going over the luxury tax threshold. Verlander, Scherzer and Quintana have battled both injury and ineffectiveness, while Marte and Lindor are just two of the many disappointing seasons New York is going through at the plate. Whether Cohen will take that out on Showalter on Wednesday remains to be seen, but it’s clear that things are about to change.
