There is no doubt that Steve Cohen loves the New York Mets, and wants to see the team succeed. His frustration over the Mets miserable 2026 season was on display in a very open and honest interview with the New York Post's Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman.
However as honest as Cohen tried to be, and as careful as he tried to be at the same time in what he could say, it felt like a 40-minute diatribe where Cohen consistently contradicted himself, and even backed himself into a corner by endorsing embattled President of Baseball Operations, David Stearns.
"David is a thoughtful man, he's incredibly thorough," Cohen said. " There aren't answers where I walk away and say I don't agree with that. He knows what's he's talking about. Does he get any credit for 2024? Does that not count, we almost made it to the World Series. It's a mixed record. I won't say it's going great, but it's too early to make evaluations.
"If we burn and churn, next time, nobody will want to go. I have a five year contract, and we are going to live that out. "
When pressed by Sherman again on Stearns and his five year deal, Cohen stumbled back saying there were no guarantees in anything. "I will evaluate this as we go along. He knows it hasn't worked out the way he thought it would. He would be the first to admit mistakes. When things are going great it's easy. When they are not, are you reflective and adaptable. And David is."
"I am a hands off guy," Cohen claimed, then admitted that he is doing a "deeper dive" to find out what went wrong with the Mets this season, and admitted that last off-season he stepped in on the Edwin Diaz negotiation.
"I stepped in on Diaz and it didn't work out. Each situation was (different). If you asked me at the beginning of the off-eason that Alonso, Nimmo, Diaz and McNeil would be gone, I would say at least one would be back. They were great Mets. We got to look forward. These are decisions a President of Baseball Ops makes and I allow him to make them. It's too early to evaluate it."
What made matters more curious is Cohen admitting that he is "worried" about the future of the franchise and the farm system, saying there is "regression in the farm system," even though he has been told things are "linear."
If that is the case, wouldn't that be an admission by Cohen that Stearns has failed?
At one moment he said that Stearns deserved credit for 2024, and that it's too early to evaluate, and the next he admits Stearns hasn't done a good enough job.
It's a curious case of word salad by Cohen, who tried his best to not show his cards.
Cohen also admitted that the outlook for 2027 does not look good, with a budget that could hit around $300 million depending on opt outs and opt ins.
"I look to my front office to be creative," Cohen said on 2027 and beyond. Add the ambiguity over the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and one got the sense that Cohen's moves could be out of his hands, at least for now.
He might be forced to keep Stearns another year in what might be a shortened season with dramatic changes to the schematics of the game. Bringing in a new POBO and a GM with so much uncertainty would put a new administration off to a rough start.
That leads to his comments on the manager. Cohen described his decision on Carlos Mendoza as a "mercy shot," and stressed that current interim manager Andy Green will return to the front office after the season. But, one has to ask what managerial candidate will want to come here if there is uncertainty surrounding the general manager?
"We'll do a search. There won't be a shortage of people who will want this job."
Does stressing that Stearns will fill out the length of his contract offer a semblance of continuity to prospective managerial candidates when in reality it may not exist? And wouldn't Stearns' seat be even hotter next year if his moves next winter don't pan out whenever baseball does play in 2027?
That's why I have to wonder if there is some flexibility on the Andy Green front as well. The Mets are saying he'll return to the F.O., but with so many questions for next year, it might be smart to keep him as skipper in '27.
Cohen said he expects that changes to the salary cap won't truly affect the game til 2028, which again adds intrigue to his decision making moving forward.
"If you buy your hose you can do what you want. When you buy in the community, you got rules to follow" Cohen added when describing his thoughts on the new CBA.
In other words the Mets are in a waiting pattern til proven otherwise.
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