Steve Cohen’s spending spree has been a delight for Mets fans, but some have only grown angry with the over a billion dollars (AUD) the team’s owner has handed out.
In total Cohen has spent over $AU1.2 billion on free agents since the start of November.
That includes the shock $AU471 million poaching of Carlos Correa on a 12-year contract, a deal made hours before he was set to be revealed as a San Francisco Giant, and the richest yearly salary in the sport’s history for Justin Verlander (two years, $AU129.6 million).
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The Mets owner has blown past the highest threshold tax the MLB implements for payroll, nicknamed the “Steve Cohen tax” this winter, with some MLB officials up in arms over whether or not the Mets’ payroll is “fair” or “good for baseball.”
“I think it’s going to have consequences for him down the road,” a club official told The Athletic. “There’s no collusion. But … there was a reason nobody for years ever went past $US300 million. You still have partners, and there’s a system.”
In 2022, the Mets were taxed 80 percent on the $US10 million over the $US290 million threshold they went. This coming season, they’ll face a 90 percent fee on every dollar over $US293 million — and they’ve blown past it by nearly $US80 million so far.
“Our sport feels broken now,” another rival executive told The Athletic. “We’ve got somebody with three times the median payroll and has no care whatsoever for the long-term of any of these contracts, in terms of the risk associated with any of them. How exactly does this work? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it.”
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner is among those who don’t seem to have an issue with Cohen’s offseason splurge, though other MLB execs hinted that, while they won’t be “colluding” against the Mets owner, they won’t exactly be looking to help him, either.
“This game is based on partnership and relationships, and these small markets are going to be really pissed at him,” the first club official said. “They’re going to try and gin up sh-t and cause Rob (Manfred) to f–king get pissed at him. It’s not that they can do anything to him, but everybody needs help in this game. I don’t think he’s going to get any help.”
Most MLB teams could match Cohen’s input into their teams — 24 of the 30 MLB owners are billionaires and 13 of them are worth $US3.5 billion or more.
On top of that, every MLB team will be making at least $US100 million in TV money at the start of the 2023 MLB season, a value that around half the league doesn’t invest in its teams each year.
MLB has better competitive balance than the NFL or NBA, despite those leagues having salary caps – with no repeat champion since 2000, claims that big-spending teams ruin baseball are simply preposterous.
Many owners have been accused of hiding behind their ‘small market’ while they choose not to spend extra money on their team – money they clearly have and can easily afford.
The San Diego Padres expose the lie that many owners hide behind; they are spending well over $US200 million next season on payroll despite being the fourth-smallest city in the US to host an MLB team.
