After Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets in 2020, the team that was always considered secondary to the Yankees became not only the strongest team in the city, but also one of the leading candidates to win the championship.
Cohen, whose assets are valued at approximately $17 billion, is the richest owner in the MLB league by a considerable margin, and the way he does business clearly shows this.
In the 2021 offseason, the Mets signed pitcher Max Scherer to a contract worth $130 million for 3 years, making him the highest-earning player in history.
Also, during that period, the team added All-Star Francisco Lindor to its ranks.
In the current offseason, the Mets signed outstanding pitcher Justin Verlander and equaled Scherzer's record, while taking the pitcher off the free market.
In order to troll the city rival, and in the hope of signing their senior player Aron Judge, photos were uploaded to the network in which the far right positions, aka the favorite target area for Judge's home run hits, were promoted in what was described as "improving the fan experience".
Finally, the pitcher signed a new contract worth 360 million dollars for a period of 9 years in the ranks of the Yankees, and the threat was removed.
Cohen.
invests a lot of money,
Despite all the moves of the last few weeks, the Mets show no signs of stopping.
On the same day that the star Carlos Correa was scheduled to be introduced in San Francisco, and after the team expressed dissatisfaction with a medical examination, the player signed a contract of 315 million dollars for a period of 12 years with the club.
The deal, by the way, was closed by Cohen during his vacation in Hawaii.
The entire move is another question mark in light of the rise of suspicions in the medical tests conducted in New York alongside ethical and even legal issues, since it is not customary to announce this type of signing before the tests are successful.
245 million for salaries
The owner of the Yankees, Hal Steinbrenner (whose assets are worth about 3.8 billion dollars), was not enthusiastic about the Mets' cash outpouring and argued that an inspection by the league was necessary, after they spent about 800 million dollars on signings during the offseason.
He added that "no fan should start the season knowing that his team has no chance of qualifying for the playoffs", but claimed that strengthening the city's second team is a great thing, hoping to produce a final between the teams for the first time since 2000 (in which the Yankees won).
Steinbrenner.
not excited,
Steinbrenner's claims are warranted, given the huge disparity between the teams' spending in the offseason and in general (for evidence, the Mets will pay more than $245 million in salaries this season while the Baltimore Orioles will pay $18.6 million), but he is not the right figure to flood them.
The Yankees themselves were known for years as the team that tended to turn less wealthy teams into their own "subsidiary teams" where players were groomed and signed at bargain prices as needed, as shown in the book "Moneyball".
It can be assumed that the owner is mostly frustrated by his inability to make the same moves and bring about the expected improvement of his team.
The Yankees celebrate another victory.
A fascinating break, photo: AFP
New York is unquestionably the baseball capital of the world.
The pressure to play and succeed in it is greater, and the long history of both teams requires the players to function accordingly.
It is not unreasonable to assume that this is the year of the city in MLB, the year in which both teams set themselves a realistic goal of achieving the championship.
In the absence of an expectation that the league will create significant financial barriers to stopping the arms war, fans in the Big Apple can only enjoy the show, and hope that their team will officially become the top team in the Big Apple.
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