Mets’ Steve Cohen influencing MLB’s financial future – Sports Business Journal

Steve Cohen will pay more in taxes next season than seven teams are paying for their entire payrollFrank Becerra Jr/USA TODAY NETWORK

Mets owner Steve Cohen “officially became the most influential owner” in MLB when he agreed to sign Carlos Correa to a 12-year, $315M contract, as he is “playing by his own financial rules,” according to Tom Verducci of SI. The Mets’ payroll for 2023 is slated to be $384.3M, which “incurs a luxury tax hit” of $111.6M. That means Cohen will “pay more in taxes next season than seven teams are paying in payroll.” He also will “pay more in 2023 taxes than what every club except the Yankees and Dodgers has spent in the 25-year history of the tax.” Cohen effectively is “writing a $2.31 million check to two dozen of his competitors: $55.5 million in his tax money going to 24 teams.” He has “given baseball its greatest financial Goliath yet” (SI, 12/22).

DIFFERENT FROM OTHER OWNERS: In N.Y., Jon Heyman wrote Correa gives the Mets a “star-laden roster rarely seen in this sport,” but it is clear that Cohen is “biggest star of this team.” Cohen has “stepped out financially like no one before, and like almost no one ever imagined.” Cohen is performing his new role “far differently than anyone has before.” The money is a “consideration but only a fleeting one,” and the losses for him “are noticed, but mostly disregarded.” The losses “have to be massive as revenues are believed to be” around $500M, if that, and Cohen’s player outlay alone including taxes will “likely be north of that figure once he’s done” (N.Y. POST, 12/21). In L.A., Bill Shaikin wrote it is “not just sheer dollars” that makes Cohen an “outlier among baseball owners.” Shaikin: “It is, interestingly enough, a guy who made his fortune in hedge funds deciding that spending and winning are greater priorities than risk management” (L.A. TIMES, 12/21).

MONEY IS NO OBJECT: YAHOO SPORTS’ Hannah Keyser wrote Cohen has “turned out to be different from anything MLB has seen before.” A 2021-22 offseason spending spree “generated significant interest in the new New York Mets.” Nine months later, it looks like the largess of last winter was Cohen “merely testing the waters.” This time around, he “smelled blood and acted accordingly.” Keyser: “We’re not even to the new year, but it’s already eminently clear that no matter how you approach it, the story of this offseason again starts and ends in New York” (YAHOO SPORTS, 12/21). On Long Island, David Lennon wrote it is clear that Cohen “won’t let anything stand in his way of winning a championship with the Mets.” Lennon: “We’ve never encountered a baseball owner — yes, George Steinbrenner included — that treated money as an infinitely renewable resource” (NEWSDAY, 12/21).

OPPONENTS’S WORST FEARS REALIZED: SI’s Stephanie Apstein wrote Cohen’s actions this winter is what other team owners “feared when they reluctantly allowed Cohen to buy the Mets in 2020: He’s embarrassing them.” Apstein: “And it’s great for the game.” Cohen is one of three MLB owners – the Phillies’ John Middleton and the Padres’ Peter Seidler the others — who “seem to understand the equation that underpins sports: Money buys good players, and good players produce wins.” This is “what it’s supposed to look like” for the Mets (SI, 12/21).

THE NEW EVIL EMPIRE? In N.Y., Mike Vaccaro wrote Cohen has “no shortage of enemies,” and whatever ties the Mets had to their “goofy-but-fun-loving past have now officially been severed by Cohen’s checkbook.” Vaccaro: “If you are a Mets fan, you ask yourself this morning: do you care about that? Even a little?” After decades of ownership that “behaved like Mets games should be datelined ‘Des Moines?'” After no less than 30 years of leadership that “willingly and willfully allowed the Yankees to dominate the city — on the field, in the newspaper, on the radio, at the merchandise shack?” Vaccaro: “Find me a Mets fan who doesn’t prefer this better” (N.Y. POST, 12/21).

BEATING YANKEES AT THEIR OWN GAME: In N.Y., David Waldstein notes the Yankees “historically spend lavishly on players,” but under Cohen’s leadership, the Mets have “emerged as the financial bully in all of Major League Baseball, making the rivalry between the two New York clubs even more intriguing.” Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said, “Having two great New York sports teams is phenomenal. It’s phenomenal for this city, it’s phenomenal for the rivalry and I’m all for it. I just hope we will be the last two standing” (N.Y. TIMES, 12/21). NEWSDAY’s Owen O’Brien wrote the dynamic has “seemingly shifted in New York” since Cohen bought the Mets from the Wilpon family. Cohen has the Mets’ opening day payroll at a projected $388M, while the Yankees’ current payroll “ranks second” at a projected $271M (NEWSDAY, 12/21). WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Jason Gay wrote the Mets have “shown the Yankees — and the rest of baseball — that there’s a new wallet in town” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/21).

PLAYING INTO BORAS’ HAND: In N.Y., Bill Madden wrote Cohen has become the “new go-to owner delight” for Scott Boras, who reps Correa. When the 13-year, $350M deal for Correa with the Giants “threatened to fall apart over an issue with the physical,” Boras knew he had a panting Cohen “still at the ready to make this happen for the Mets” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 12/21).