Mets owner Steve Cohen discusses trade deadline, meeting with players

One day following the MLB trade deadline, Mets owner Steve Cohen dropped by the visitors clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium to talk to some of the players on his new-look team.

Of course, missing were some of the players that Cohen and the Mets’ front office signed to big contracts during the last few offseasons in hopes of competing for a World Series title. However, there are players still on the roster that survived the mass overhaul that expect to be on the team for the foreseeable future.

Here’s what Cohen told them:

“I just spoke to some individual players, just went around the clubhouse. You know, they’re people, just wanted to check in and see how they’re feeling and everyone assured me they’re gonna play hard and give it their best and that’s all you can ask for.”

After checking in with his players, Cohen went to the dugout where reporters waited patiently to ask him questions about the trade deadline and the future -- short- and long-term -- of the team.

He seemed perplexed about the overall shock around the league of what transpired in New York, bringing up his news conference he had in late June where he said that he said that this could happen.

“I’m surprised you’d be surprised because I said I wanted sustainability, (that) if we were in the same position I wasn’t going to add,” Cohen said. “When you look at the probabilities, where were we like 15 percent? And other teams were getting better so you have to take the odds down from that and so if you’re gonna have a 12 percent chance of just getting into the playoffs, those are pretty crummy odds. I wouldn’t want to be betting any money on that. I said before, hope is not a strategy.”

While it’s true that the Mets’ playoff hopes were waning by the day, selling off both of their big-time free agent additions in Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander surprised many due to the implications for the 2024 season and beyond.

Without either of their two Hall of Fame aces atop the rotation for next season, it appeared, at least at face level, that New York was potentially punting away the 2024 season and rebuilding for the years that followed.

Cohen disagrees, to an extent.

“I think the expectations were really high this year and my guess is next year they’ll be a lot lower, but I can’t speak to what’s going to happen in the offseason,” he said. “I’m opportunistic. I don’t want to roll a team out there that we’re gonna be embarrassed by. But we also know that spending a fortune … doesn’t guarantee you a trip to the playoffs.”

He added: “When I looked at the farm system, it still wasn’t where I wanted it to be and I saw an opportunity to improve the farm system and still create the sustainability that I’m looking for over the long run. And it doesn’t preclude us from being very competitive next year. I’m competitive, OK? I’m opportunistic. So we’ll see what happens over the winter.”

That sounds like a far cry from completely giving up or tanking in 2024, which should console even the most inconsolable Mets fans. But the question remains: whom will the Mets bring in and at what cost?

One player that New York has on its current roster but who comes with speculation as to whether he’s part of the long-term future of the team is Pete Alonso, who will become a free agent after the 2024 season if he and the Mets don’t agree on a contract extension before then.

“We love Pete as a Met, he’s an integral part of the Mets,” Cohen said. “He’s still with us for another year. Listen, we hope we work things out. I mean, even with Brandon (Nimmo), we worked things out in free agency so hopefully we’ll get a few shots at the apple and try to figure it out.”

Regardless of what happened during the trade deadline and what might or might not happen during the offseason, Cohen’s attitude and commitment towards winning and building a championship contending team has not changed.

“Making the playoffs is not good enough,” he said. “That’s not a high enough goal. OK, maybe I set high goals and I don’t reach them. But if you don’t set high goals, you’re never gonna get there. And the idea is to be in the playoffs a lot, so you have a shot at winning a World Series.”

Nor has his attitude and commitment changed towards manager Buck Showalter and GM Billy Eppler, at least for now.

“As you witnessed at the trade deadline, I think Billy did a phenomenal job,” Cohen said. “Buck’s working hard, I got a three-year contract with Buck.”