'Annoyed' by inconsistency, Mets owner focused on building perennial contender
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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Entering his sixth full season of Mets ownership, Steve Cohen is growing frustrated.
“Listen, we haven’t won,” Cohen said Monday after arriving at Mets camp. “And I really want to win. Each year that goes by, I get more annoyed.”
Upon buying the franchise in Nov. 2020, Cohen stated that his goal was to win a World Series within 3-5 years. That period came and went without a title and with merely two playoff appearances, in 2022 and ’24, despite Cohen’s Mets racking up several of the largest payrolls in Major League history.
“Yeah, I’m annoyed,” Cohen said. “I’m absolutely annoyed. Every year it goes by, I get frustrated. I’m really committed to this team. I know how much the fans care. I know we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of 1986, and that’s just too long. There’s a lot of great teams out there. No matter what you do, it doesn't mean you’re necessarily going to win the World Series. But I just want to put myself in position every year in the playoffs where we have a chance with a really good team.”
Asked specifically about what would make 2026 a successful season, Cohen pointed to the randomness of baseball, saying it’s difficult to presume a title in any given year.
Still, he has expectations.
“Table stakes is making the playoffs -- you’ve got to make the playoffs,” Cohen said. “I missed the playoffs last year. Missing two years in a row, that’s not good.
“I think the idea is, keep putting yourself in that position year in, year out, which we haven’t done. It’s been off and on. And so we’ve got to do better. Those are the goals I’m seeking.”
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The Mets’ best year under Cohen occurred in 2024, when they qualified for the playoffs on the final day of the regular season, then rode that wave to within two wins of the World Series. Their finest regular season came in ’22, when they won 101 games but lost to the Padres in the Wild Card round. In their three other seasons under Cohen, the Mets have averaged 78 wins per year, missing the playoffs each time.
When Cohen purchased the team, the Mets’ payroll was under $200 million. It climbed steadily from there and has been well over $300 million every year since 2023, resulting in Cohen paying hundreds of millions of dollars in Competitive Balance Taxes.
While Cohen chalked up last year’s failure to make the playoffs mostly to randomness, he also signed off on wholesale roster changes over the winter, including the departures of Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Díaz and Jeff McNeil. In their place, the Mets acquired a slew of new players, highlighted by Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, Luis Robert Jr. and Freddy Peralta. The idea is that even if the Mets’ old guard wasn’t their problem, sometimes there’s value in change for the sake of change.
“It’s hard to know when to make those changes, and sometimes they happen in a way that you don’t fully anticipate or expect,” Cohen said. “But the other side is we have a really sharp management, baseball management, and these guys were prepared and had alternatives. Saying goodbye is always tough, but saying hello is kind of fun.”