Just because new Texas Rangers’ ace Max Scherzer tried to reveal the New York Mets and Steve Cohen’s best laid plans for the future, doesn’t mean we should just blindly believe those will be the organization’s only future trajectory.
Not according to The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal, who has spoken to sources in baseball that don’t buy the notion that the Mets won’t be reloading for 2024. Better yet, Rosenthal writes that New York will once again be players in free agency this winter.
"“The Mets are going to sign free agents. They never said they wouldn’t. What they are not going to do is sign future Hall of Fame pitchers in their late 30s or early 40s, seeing as how that didn’t work out so well.”"
Steve Cohen won’t let Max Scherzer spoil his grand New York Mets plan
If you recall, Scherzer was traded from the New York Mets to the Texas Rangers at the MLB trade deadline for highly touted prospect Luisangel Acuna in a rather shocking manuever. And in his introductory Rangers press conference, the 39-year-old pitcher said Mets GM Billy Eppler detailed the team’s future plans, which included a “transitory” year for the club in 2024.
But think about it: would Steve Cohen really allow his entire strategy to be publicly disclosed? For a savvy and shrewd businessman such as himself, every move is calculated. And as Rosenthal suggests, there has to be more than meets the eye when it comes to this alleged “retool” happening in Queens.
For what it’s worth, Cohen has amplified this retool narrative to the media, saying that his team will be “competitive” in 2024, but that the Mets will really be equipped to make noise by 2025 or 2026. Of course he’s playing along, though, because what kind of hedge fund manager would this multi-billionaire be if he gave away all his trade secrets? After all, as Rosenthal writes again…
"“We know Cohen has the money. We know he’s going to spend it. “"
To this point, the Mets are expected by many in the industry to still make a run at Shohei Ohtani this winter, in addition to rising Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whom New York has already scouted. There’s no one would who realistically believe that Cohen doesn’t at least have peripheral interest in these players, contrary to what Max Scherzer would have you believe.
But who the Mets end up signing isn’t as important as what we mentioned earlier: Steve Cohen won’t let Scherzer get the best of him or his team.