The Wilpons were never much for lifting up the veil of secrecy they constructed as the sole owners of the Mets, so there’s little chance anyone will ever find out what they think about Steve Cohen’s stewardship.
But still, it’d be fun to offer up a penny — or 240 billion pennies — for their true thoughts as Cohen’s fourth season as the Mets’ owner unfolds like so many of the 18 seasons overseen by the Wilpons, except in an environment where the pursuit of abject mediocrity is more defensible than it ever was from 2003-2020.
“We’ll see what it looks like four to six weeks from now but I still feel this team has got a good run in them,” Cohen said in London prior to Sunday’s game against the Phillies.
Of course, the last four to six weeks have been nothing short of disastrous for the Mets, who have gone an NL-worst 15-24 since April 28 — six weeks and three days ago — to fall to 29-37 overall, which is the third-worst record in the NL following Wednesday’s 10-4 win over the NL-worst Marlins.
Yet the race for the NL’s third wild card is such an eyesore that the Mets are just 3 1/2 games behind the Giants, albeit with six teams in between. So Cohen isn’t wrong, technically, even if he’s guilty of donning the type of rose-colored glasses that got the Wilpons mocked and scorned for most of their ownership.
Much of the Wilpons’ public silence stemmed from Fred Wilpon’s words during spring training in 2004 — that the Mets “play meaningful games in September” — becoming an easy punchline and epitaph-like summation for their era.
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The Mets reached September with a winning record just seven times under the Wilpons and were in a playoff spot as the month began just four times. They won the NL East in 2006 and 2015 but missed the postseason entirely following epic collapses in 2007 and 2008.
That desire to at least appear relevant as summer turned into fall led to the Mets’ most ill-advised trades this century on July 30, 2004, when they acquired Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano in separate deals despite being 49-52 and 7 1/2 games out of the lone NL wild card spot.
“We’re still in the hunt, we’re still in the mix, let’s go for it,” then-Mets general manager Jim Duquette said.
“We just have to start getting a few ‘Ws’ under our belt,” then-Mets manager Art Howe said. “If we can put one little stretch together, we’ll be right back in it.”
But the Mets went 22-39 following the trades, the latter of which cost them Scott Kazmir, who is one of only three pitchers drafted and signed by the Mets to win at least 100 big league games since 1980. (The other two: Dwight Gooden and A.J. Burnett)
The Mets haven’t done anything that awful in the last 20 years — and surely won’t under the more-measured Cohen and David Stearns — but Cohen’s words in London made him sound as delusional as the Wilpon-era employees tasked to speak on behalf of their misguided bosses.
“It’s exciting now because I think September is going to mean something,” then-Mets manager Terry Collins said Aug. 12, 2014, when the Mets were 57-62 and six games out of the second NL wild card spot. They went 22-21 the rest of the way and missed the playoffs by nine games.
“This is a year that hasn’t gone as smoothly as we would’ve liked and we have a lot of bunching up from teams in the National League, particularly in division,” then-general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said Aug. 31, 2020, when the Mets were 15-19 and 1 1/2 games out of the eighth NL playoff spot during the COVID season before acquiring Todd Frazier, Robinson Chirinos and Miguel Castro in two deadline deals. “We’ve got to play better baseball but we think these three pieces can help us do that.”
The Mets went 11-15 the rest of the way and tied the Nationals for last in the NL East, three games out of the final playoff spot. Cohen completed his purchase of the team five weeks later in a transaction that was supposed to usher in a long-awaited successful era for the Mets. But they are on pace for a third losing season it the last four years after posting a losing record in three of their final four years under the Wilpons.
The playoffs being expanded to six teams per league — and boy, what we wouldn’t give for the Wilpons’ thoughts on THAT luxury — indeed buys the Mets a little more time, as does their ability this year to have their June swoon in May.
“Obviously, nine games to get to .500 — what are we, four games out of the wild card? We shouldn’t be proud of that, right?” Cohen said. “We’re still nine games under .500. It gives you the opportunity to make the season a success. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”
Still, even given the calendar, Cohen’s stated patience and optimism stands in marked contrast to his words during his state-of-the-Mets press conference last June 28.
“Fourth place is not the goal,” Cohen said then of the Mets, who were 36-43, 8 1/2 games out of the final wild card spot and ahead of just three teams in the NL. “Anytime you end up in fourth place, to sit and do nothing is not a great place to be.”
The Mets went 15-12 between June 28 and the Aug. 1 trade deadline to creep within six games of the last wild card spot. But by that point, six veterans — including Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander — were traded, which ensured no playoff push for a team not even one year removed from a 101-win season and made it awfully easy to sweep aside Buck Showalter in order to give Stearns, who was hired the day after the season ended, a clean slate and the opportunity to shape the organization in his vision.
Whether he intended to or not, Cohen’s comments in London buy Stearns some time in the midst of what has been an uninspiring first season. While noting he didn’t want to focus on the trade deadline yet. Cohen said “…you don’t know what you’re going to get back. You don’t know. What if the return that you got is kind of marginal?”
When Stearns focused on short-term signings over the winter — of the 10 free agents he signed prior to Opening Day, only Sean Manaea has an option for 2025 — the unspoken idea was he could hasten the rebuilding project by trading some of those players at the deadline if the Mets weren’t in the race.
But four of those free agents, as well as April addition Julio Teheran, have been traded or released. Among the remaining imports, only Luis Severino — a former two-time All-Star with the Yankees who is 4-2 with a 3.25 ERA in 12 starts after posting a 6.65 ERA last year — is performing like someone who could net a high-end prospect. The remaining off-season signees — Manaea, Harrison Bader, Adam Ottavino, Jake Diekman and J.D. Martinez — have combined for 1.5 in WAR, per Baseball-Reference, and look more like depth players unlikely to fetch much at the deadline.
The Mets’ biggest potential trade chip is impending free agent Pete Alonso. But getting proper value back for Alonso — a newly minted Scott Boras client who is a mostly one-dimensional power hitter as well as the franchise’s most popular homegrown player since David Wright — will be almost impossible for Stearns.
The task for Stearns and Cohen is complicated by the fact the big prospects acquired in last summer’s selloff — Luisangel Acuna, Ryan Clifford and Drew Gilbert — are either struggling or coming back from injuries in the minor leagues.
And so the Mets are in a familiar no man’s land, enduing a sustained period of mediocre play with no guarantee sustainable help is on the horizon. In that position, Cohen is doing what his predecessors did so well: Hoping a well-timed hot streak serves as baseball’s version of the get out of jail free card.
“You certainly want to have high standards,” Cohen said in London. “If you got into the playoffs and you are four games under .500, it’s nice to make the playoffs and anything can happen, you know that. But still we would say ‘Wow that was not optimal.’ Probably not the way you would envision it.”
And yet, once again, it’s the scenario the Mets are relying upon.
