Cohen: 'There will never be a team captain' as long as he owns Mets
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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- The Mets have not had a captain since David Wright played his final game eight years ago. They’re not going to have another one anytime soon.
In a surprise comment Monday from Clover Park, Steve Cohen addressed the issue thusly: “As long as I’m owning the team, there will never be a team captain.”
“That was my decision,” Cohen continued. “My view is the locker room is unique, and let the locker room sort it out year in, year out.”
In recent seasons, Spring Training talk frequently revolved around the idea of a captain, particularly because Francisco Lindor seemed to fit all the unspoken qualifications: a star player with strong leadership qualities under a guaranteed contract for many years. But Cohen never had any intention of naming Lindor or anyone else captain, adding: “I’ve felt that way all along.”
“It’s just my own views on how I want a locker room to be,” Cohen said. “My view is every year, the team’s different, and let the team kind of figure it out in the locker room rather than having a designation. Having a captain in baseball doesn’t happen often. It’s actually unusual. Whatever previous ownership did, that was their way of doing things. I look at things differently.”
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Wright served as Mets captain from 2013 until his retirement following the 2018 season. The Mets have had three other captains in their history: Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter and John Franco.
Only two of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams currently have captains: Aaron Judge for the Yankees and Salvador Perez for the Royals. That stands in contrast to other major team sports like football and hockey, in which most teams have one or multiple captains.