For the New York Mets, this offseason has been very different from previous ones.
In the past, they most likely would have been the ones to act like the Los Angeles Dodgers, slinging large sums of cash at the best available free players.
Perhaps they could have signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, as the Dodgers were able to.
However, owner Steve Cohen and new president of baseball operations David Stearns have adopted a different mindset this summer, realizing they won’t be genuine contenders in 2024.
However, it appeared like Yamamoto was the only player the Mets were prepared to invest money on. Following two meetings between Cohen and the mayor, New York made the regrettable choice.
Cohen doesn’t regret the way the Mets performed, even though they didn’t win the sweepstakes.
“I think the whole organization tried our hardest, and someone was going to win and someone was going to lose and that is the way it goes. I feel good about our efforts and I left it all on the field. Life goes on,” he said to The New York Post’s Mike Puma.
Since Cohen assumed leadership, New York has hardly lost bidding wars.
Over the last three offseasons, they signed Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer to massive deals, but they didn’t get much in return for their outlay of cash.
Nevertheless, they made Yamamoto an enormous offer, purportedly the same as the one he signed with the Dodgers.
“The Mets’ offer for Yamamoto was for the same amount and length of contract as the Dodgers … Cohen declined to provide specifics about the negotiations, but an industry source said the Mets’ offer was among the first received by Yamamoto’s camp and the team was never offered an opportunity to increase the bid,” Puma reports.