BLOW UP THE CRATERING METS? OWNER STEVE COHEN SAYS NAH!
By Jerry Wein
After snapping a seven-game losing streak on Saturday, the Met dropped a 2-1 loss to the Pirates Sunday.
New York’s record is 31-35, putting them in fourth place in the NL East and 9 1/2 games behind the first-place Braves.
The crowded NL standings mean that the Mets are only 3 1/2 games back of a wild card berth, yet obviously the Mets didn’t expect to find themselves in such a middling position after winning 101 games in 2022 and then augmenting their roster with a blockbuster offseason.
Since owner Steve Cohen has been so aggressive in his spending to make the Mets into a World Series contender, there has been a lot of speculation over whether or not Cohen’s desire to win could now manifest itself in managerial or front office changes in response to the Mets’ slow start. However, as Cohen indicated to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, such changes don’t appear to be in the works, nor is he planning to “blow up” just to express public frustration.
“The reality is it’s not going to solve our problems,” Cohen said. “And I think in some ways it can be demotivating….I think that’s the worst thing you can do is to be overly reactionary. General fan reaction, it’s usually, ’I can’t believe Steve’s not going nuts, fire somebody.’ My answer to that is, ’OK, let’s say I went nuts. Let’s say I fired somebody. Then what?’ What does that accomplish? Who are you gonna replace them with? This is the middle of the season. And then if you actually ask people [who are the replacements], they have no answers, other than they’re just angry, and I get that. I’m frustrated too.”
“What is the odds this group of pitchers will pitch this way the entire season. Probably unlikely,” Cohen said. “That is why there is reason for optimism in a moment where it looks like the wheels have just come off….These are people who have performed in the past, and you’ve got to believe that it’s fixable. I keep coming back to that: The best indicator of future performance is how they performed in the past. And they have performed consistently well in the past. That gives me optimism for the future.”
