Five Years of Steve Cohen

[metirish]

November 6th 2020 Steve Cohen completes takeover of the NY Mets ( some say the 6th , others say the 8th is the official date )

How would you rate his ownership?

[Gwreck]

Key positives:

-Massive infusion of resources for on-field talent. This is the #1 responsibility of an owner (willingness/ability to spend money to make team competitive) and ownership is best-in-class on this point.

-Stadium upgrades. Fixing the scoreboard was the single most important change that could have been made to Citi Field and it is outstanding.

-Improvements in scouting, player development, and analytics. Doesn’t get as much attention but these have all been built out, expanded, and/or upgraded over the last few years.

-Reputation and impression of organization. Players want to come to NY, the organization is viewed as a favorable place to work, etc. Major PR gaffes/debacles have been significantly reduced.

Key negatives:

-Field manager turnover. In fairness, Rojas was inherited, but the Buck Showalter experiment and dismissal was messy.

-Waiting for Stearns to become available left the GM/baseball operations leadership in flux for a couple years.

Mixed:

-Games won/time in first place in the standings has improved significantly…but final position and playoff outcomes have underwhelmed.

Too soon to tell:

-Revamping player development, scouting, drafting, etc. is a long-term process and we won’t know how successful it’s been for years down the road.

-Stearns. Obviously way too soon to fully know how effective he will be as POBO. Some positives but also coming up short in 2025 was problematic.

[metirish]

Great response, I guess I would add the team is competitive and really that's what I want, he's a fan and obviously wants to win, his three to five year window is passing, let's see

[The Hot Corner]

I voted 4 stars. I would have gone 4.5 stars had it been an option. As Gwreck pointed out in his analysis of Cohen's ownership the Mets, the overall result has been positive. Cohen has improved the team, the stadium and the Mets "brand" during his tenure. I doubt anyone would want to go back to the Wilpon era.

The results haven't been quite what the fan base had hoped for, particularly this season, but he has given the Mets the resources to be successful. It is up the players to then provide the results.

[kcmets]

I took 4 too. 5 would require a championship for me. Not that

the June swoon and the dismal end of the season had a grass-

hoppers tallywacker to do with Uncle Steve.

[Frayed Knot]

The biggest downside to me was his early term impetuousness, seemingly concerned more with making a splash -- Scherzer, Verlander, Baez/PC-A, plus his ill-fated

flirtation with Carlos Correa -- than with the long term ramifications of his actions. To his credit, once those moves proved not on the right path, he pivoted quickly

and in a way that partially restored the farm system even though some residual damage via the salary cap/future picks lived on.

Any other complaints are minor in scope. I could do without the smoke, dancers, and just overall noise/distraction level but, unfortunately, assaults on the senses

are the way of modern sports these days and Steve probably didn't want to be known as the last kid on his block without some kind of mascot race.

But, overall, certainly a lot more good than bad and the eventual hiring of a PoBO helped set a more clearly cohesive mindset going forward.

[MFS62]

I voted 4 but could have been convinced to make it a 3.5.

He has money and spent it. But when he went after names to make a splash, as FK noted, I'm not sure he spent his money as wisely as he might have.

And the mascot races are too much small town carny instead of major league class for my taste.

But the plusses are he put the fannies back in the seats, and the team was winning again.

Later

[ashie62]

I gave him a 5 in that no dollar was spared

I'm overlooking waiting for Stearns. But I'm not sold on Stearns anyway so it's a convoluted wash

[smg58]

I went three stars. Obviously money will never be an obstacle under his watch. But the Dodgers never seem to have to sweat out the last week of the season. Cohen has yet to demonstrate that he knows how to hire the people who'll make the most of his resources.

[metirish]

[TWEET]

[/TWEET]

 

Hopefully not a harbinger of things to come

As an aside this is obscene, the **** are you doing with a gold toilet?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Trump will probably buy it with taxpayer dollars.

[Lefty Specialist]

I went with a 4 as well. Of course, things are better than the Wilpon days. I'd like to think that the money spent behind the scenes will pay off with better outcomes as the pipeline improves.

Stearns hasn't produced a 'complete' team in his first two tries. Things are a little top-heavy money and talent-wise, but there are too many gaps, and trying to fill those gaps at the deadline last year blew up in his face (Cedric Mullins et al).

They need to figure out what to do with 4 people for the 2b/3b positions. They need to find a real CF who can cover the position and hit at least a little bit. They need a real bullpen. And they need to decide what the starting rotation is going to look like. Plus, they need to resolve the Alonso/Diaz situation. That's an awful lot.

Unlimited money is certainly nice. But they've yet to prove that they can make the best use of it. They need to do better than 83 win seasons with the kind of resources they have. I know they'll be competeitive every year, so that gets them a 4. But it's a huge gap between a 4 and a 5.