Mets owner Steve Cohen was open and honest with The Post’s Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman on Wednesday about the state of the franchise.
Cohen explained that while Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, he has been paying close attention to prospect development as well as on-the-field results, and he isn’t happy.
“I’m extremely worried,” Cohen said when asked about the future of his team. “Good teams develop players and have a pipeline of players. When we looked at last year we were generally feeling pretty good about our farm system. We’ve had regression in our farm system. Now I’m told that ‘development isn’t linear.’ It isn’t like some straight line where everything goes up. That doesn’t mean that some of these players will over time improve where they are today. When you’re looking at things objectively and you’re saying, ‘How are we going to get better?’”
Cohen added that he’s looking at his front office to be creative going forward, as their roster is handicapped by big contracts that could opt in for the 2027 season, including infielder Bo Bichette, outfielder Luis Robert Jr. and starting pitcher Clay Holmes.
“Between signings where we couldn’t get the players on the field and some lack of performance from some of our younger players, it set us back. When you think about, OK, where is the help going to come from, it’s really concerning to me. But development isn’t linear,” Cohen said. “We’ll have to figure it out. (In) ‘27 looks tougher. Our budget is – depending on who opts in and who opts out, we could be close to $300 million already. It doesn’t allow us a lot of flexibility. Do we see other players coming from the farm system to sort of buttress what we already have? Maybe, maybe not.”
Sherman added that the Mets are in a tough spot, as he’s written about for The Post on multiple occasions, because they have a big financial commitment made to an underachieving team, and they don’t know the rules next year, as the CBA expires after this season with many expecting a work stoppage.
“I don’t know what the rules are going to be going forward in the new CBA. I may be restrained. In that case, I always say, ‘Tell me the rules, and I’ll operate under any construct,’” Cohen said.
Heyman asked Cohen whether he intends to continue to spending big money to get them out of the hole, assuming there’s no salary cap, and Cohen answered with a chuckle.
“Listen, I make a good living. OK?” Cohen responded to Heyman.
The Mets currently have at least $229 million in projected payroll for next season, with a big chunk of that being Juan Soto, Bichette and Francisco Lindor.
Cohen did not speculate whether he would be bringing in someone to take a look at the Mets processes as his worries continue to grow.