Mets: The positive noise surrounding Steve Cohen continues to attract baseball’s prized talent. Following McCann, next up is Trevor Bauer.
The full impact of Steve Cohen, the newly installed owner of the New York Mets, has yet to be realized. But the initial returns, if measured in terms of free-agent talent signing with the team, are correct; the best is yet to come.
When you pursue a team like Steve Cohen has for more than a decade, reluctantly purchasing an insignificant portion of the Mets, along the way, patiently hiding the disappointment of a failed attempt to buy the team a year ago, when it happens, it’s gold and a new lease on life.
Steve Cohen has made his 14,000 million dollars in an arena far removed from baseball. It belongs exclusively to him, and no one can take it away from him.
For a lifelong fan of the Mets, who attended games at the Polo Grounds, his status is finally real, and he is not about to screw it up.
When he takes it upon himself to show up in the Mets parking lot to casually meet with fans on a Saturday afternoon with no advance “prompt” to the media, people notice.
The Steve Cohen Effect In Action
And most significantly, players around the league are feeling the buzz.
Marcus Stroman was the first up to declare the “I want to be here” spirit when he accepted the Mets qualifying offer to pitch this season at Citi Field, instead of what might have been a more lucrative scenario with another team as a free agent.
Similarly, reliever Trevor May, signed to a two-year deal by the Mets, expressed the same thoughts when choosing the next phase of his career in the major leagues.
But far and away is the decision made by catcher James McCann, recently signed by the Mets to a four-year deal.
Indicating his decision to sign with the Mets was a forgone conclusion, at least in his mind, McCann gushed about the opportunity to join an up-and-coming team that it jettisoned by the wherewithal and enthusiasm of Steve Cohen.
Steve Cohen And The Bandwagon
And so it goes as Mets fans gradually put the two decades of horror, lies, and dysfunction of the Wilpon years behind them.
This is still the offseason, and the record for all teams read 0-0.
However, jettisoned are the Mets and Steve Cohen to add another nail or two in their opponents’ coffins in the NL East and beyond.
A number two behind Jacob deGrom and a true major league centerfielder loom on the horizon as the remaining holes to be filled for a Mets team that is already defined as competitive in any division.
Mets: Bauer And Springer On The Loose
In two words, it’s now all about Trevor Bauer and George Springer and the Mets’ ability to bring them into the burgeoning happy family.
Springer may be the harder of the two to lure since he has tasted the thrill of victory with the Houston Astros.
But it should also be clear to him the Astros have had their time, their players are aging, and it’s time to move on to a new venture.
Trevor Bauer remains an unknown. Thrust into the spotlight as this year’s version of Gerrit Cole, this is all new to him, but without the progressive build-up to sign with a team (Yankees) he had rooted for as a kid.
Still, this is an intelligent young man who is decidedly devoted to his craft as a major league pitcher.
Teamed with deGrom, who is of the same mold, has to be enticing and the opportunity to pitch to James McCann, who is noted for his devotion to aiding his battery-mate.
Mets: The Buzz Cannot Be Denied
In an offseason where the perennially active Yankees are seemingly folding their tent in the pursuit of free-agent talent available in this year’s marketplace, the Mets appear to have the field to themselves.
But as we are seeing, it’s not a question of money attracting players to the Mets. The money is essentially equal, though perhaps divided differently.
Instead, it’s about players “working” in a venue where their career has a definite upside.
World Series Titles may or may not come, but at least they become part of a Mets organization fully dedicated and invested in achieving what has been lacking for so long.
In the current phase of austerity in baseball, the shining light for players and fans is the New York Mets and the driving enthusiasm of Steve Cohen.
If it’s not this year, it’ll be next year when a wealth of expensive but franchise-changing talent enters the marketplace, and the Mets with Steve Cohen’s backing will be there to engage competitively.
The world has changed for Mets fans, and it’s about time because the Wilpons are no more, and a beacon of light is finally shining over the destination players and fans have long been seeking.
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
