“No stop signs
Speed limit
Nobody’s gonna slow me down.”
“Highway to Hell,” – AC/DC
PORT ST. LUCIE – Steve Cohen used the word “careful” to describe how his baseball team is currently navigating its payroll.
But considering where the Mets are monetarily, it was an odd choice of word, like suggesting being careful once you already are swimming in the deep part of the ocean surrounded by great white sharks.
After all, the Mets owner currently has amassed the largest payroll in team history and the third highest in major league history. And it is not exactly pointing south – or even neutral. Cohen expects to clear $290 million and that is loaded with as much symbolism as “Lord of the Flies” – a reference, for these purposes, filled with even more symbolism.
Cohen’s fellow owners established a new, fourth luxury tax threshold at $290 million specifically designed to try to put a harness on Cohen, which is like trying to contain a tidal wave.
For Cohen, in addressing reporters Sunday morning at Clover Park, revealed he has yet to tell his baseball operations department to avoid a player based on cost and remains open to whatever is brought to him.
“I’m OK with it,” Cohen said of a threshold thrust directly at him. “And I’m willing to live with it, and we’ll leave it at that.”
Of course, Cohen is not leaving anything at that. The addition of Chris Bassitt on Saturday and Adam Ottavino on Sunday added roughly $13 million more in payroll. That jumps the Mets to around a $286 million payroll for luxury tax purposes. They can redirect a J.D. Davis and/or Jeff McNeil and/or Dom Smith, but that likely is going to be offset (and more) by adds of a lefty reliever, backup outfielder and a few more items to deepen the roster.
Consider that the highest the Wilpons ever reached with a luxury tax payroll was $193 million in 2020. They were trying to parlay a Hail Mary last shot at winning it all while simultaneously sprucing up roster sex appeal for a sale. This is why the other owners loved the Wilpons. Even when they were going to spend like never before, the other owners were going to be just fine with its limits. They were never going to upset the Commissioners Office with a payroll more befitting a mega-team in New York. This also worked for the Wilpons – pre-Madoff debacle and certainly after – because their comfort zone was pinching a penny rather than spending it.
And the Wilpons are fading in the rearview mirror with each dollar invested. Cohen, if anything, is inhabiting George Steinbrenner 2.0. Cohen has bristled at comparisons to the former Yankees owner. But the luxury tax was conceived nearly a quarter of a century ago with restraining Steinbrenner payrolls front and center. And any reporter who has covered spring training with Steinbrenner could not avoid the similarities with how Cohen is now being viewed.
There are all the questions about when he might be coming, will he be talking and then the Pied Piper-like procession to follow him wherever he might go in a spring training complex once he does arrive because who knows what he is going to say?
Cohen was tame, especially about being the target of his fellow owners. He acknowledged the never before fourth tax level with high penalties is the “Cohen Tax” and said it “is better than a bridge being named after you or something like that.”
He did not place championship-or-bust expectations on his roster, saying, “Listen, you know it all looks good on paper. It’s hard to know what’s gonna happen in real life. Right. So, you know, I’m looking forward to a great season. I think we’re gonna be really competitive. And we’ll see what happens.”
That answer provided a primer more on Cohen’s speech pattern than his club. He often begins thoughts with “Listen” and detours to “Right” to emphasize his point. There are a bunch of “You know” and not in the previous quote, but littered through his conversation are a bunch of “OK.”
Most important to Met fans, especially after a parsimonious past, was the absence of the word “stop.” Cohen’s wallet and imagination have both remained open. Money buys happiness among the fans when teams spend it. But a high payroll does not guarantee even the playoffs much less a championship.
So while the New Boss scores top grades so far in his willingness to invest in payroll while simultaneously bedeviling his rival owners, the longer-term question about where this lead remains captivating – stairway to heaven or highway to hell?