Steve Cohen Puts Mets on New Path
Four years ago today, MLB owners approved the sale of the Mets to Steve and Alex Cohen for about $2.4 billion. The team has had its ups and downs since, but appears to be on the right track after one of its most memorable years and exciting playoff runs.
The Mets are expected to be big players in free agency this winter, they have a manager and a president of baseball operations in place who exceeded expectations in their first years with the club and a core group of players coming back ready to contend with the best in baseball.
The team has come a long way from the Wilpon era, an 18-year run that left a frustrated fan base weary from what seemed like never-ending drama on and off the field. The Mets missed the playoffs in 15 of the years that the Wilpons had sole ownership of the club. There were memorable runs in 2006 and 2015, but the Wilpons’ investment in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme cast a shadow over the club’s finances and hampered the Mets’ ability to sign top free agents.
In the four-year Cohen era, the Mets have made the playoffs twice, the fan base heads into the offseason with optimism and last week when asked by reporters about free agency this winter David Stearns said that “pretty much the entirety of the player universe is potentially accessible to us.”
Time will tell if the Cohens can help deliver the Mets their first championship since 1986, but the team is in good hands. Forbes magazine listed Steve Cohen as the richest owner in baseball last year with a net worth of $19.8 billion.
“I’m essentially doing it for the fans,” Cohen said at an introductory press conference in 2020. “When I really thought about this, I can make millions of people happy. What an incredible opportunity that is.”