Meet the Mets’ new teammates

By BRUCE LOWITT

The New York Mets, frustrated by what team owner Steven A. Cohen called “our signing only some of the best players,” announced Saturday the purchase of the rest of the National League East Division for a reported $16.9-billion.

“We considered buying the entire league,” Cohen said, “but decided the $35-billion price tag for 14 other teams just to guarantee us a World Series berth each year was a bit exorbitant, but that buying the Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia and Miami franchises to gain automatic entry into the postseason is very doable.”

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Cohen’s “scheme goes against the very fabric of the game and I will veto it.” But a spokesman for the former owners of the Braves, Nationals, Phillies and Marlins, each of whom admitted being overpaid by at least $1-billion, said Manfred’s objections “would be shot down by most of the remaining National League owners who could benefit from Cohen’s idea in the future.”

Cohen’s, whose personal net worth is listed at $17-billion, said that with the merged ownership of five franchises, he could envision players being assigned by one club to another at various times during the season, rather than having to go through the process of being traded.

The Major League Baseball Players Association, which initially expressed doubts that Cohen’s idea could work, gave its approval when the Mets added to the plan “at least a dozen homes of a minimum 5,000 square feet and five bedrooms in each franchise city” for the use of players who move more than once during the season.

Cohen said he could remember a couple of generations ago when players routinely spent their entire career with one team, whether they wanted to or not, because of the reserve clause. But with the arrival of free agency, players started moving from team to team.

“The old guard said it would destroy the game because fans would no longer have the same kind of team loyalty,” Cohen said. “Well, guess what? Baseball’s popularity boomed.

“The logical next step? Say we’ve got a right-handed slugger, a pure pull hitter, on the Phillies, but they won’t be playing in Boston until August,” Cohen said. “Meanwhile, the Mets are going to Fenway in May. So that guy on the Phils switches with one of New York’s lefty-swinging singles hitters and can take aim at the Green Monster for three or four games. Hell, he can do the same with Atlanta, Miami and Washington as well as with his Phillies when they’re in Beantown.”

A club executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Cohen, who purchased the Mets for $2.4-billion in 2020, has floated the idea of trading teams for players in the future.

“For example,” the executive said, “if Aaron Judge can’t repeat his 2022 performance over the next couple of seasons but Steve thinks he’s still capable of still approaching those numbers again, the Yankees might be willing to part with him for, say, the Washington Nationals. This way, New York would get Keibert Ruiz to fill its need at catcher plus a fistful of promising outfielders.”

Cohen said that MLBPA executive director Tony Clark’s insistence that Scott Boras replace Manfred “is premature” but would be on the Mets’ agenda at the owners’ meeting when the commissioner’s term expires at the end of the 2024 season.