The 2023 New York Mets will definitely go down as arguably the biggest flop in MLB history as the team with baseball’s biggest payroll was well under the .500 mark by the All-Star Break.
Instead of hoping for a miracle, owner Steve Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler shipped off some key pieces to the core in order to replenish the bottom tier prospect pool the Mets had in order to sustain future championship runs.
This past weekend, Steve Cohen sent season ticket holders and fans alike a letter addressing the current state of the team and the direction they have towards building a championship team.
“When we purchased the team in 2020, we said that we were doing it for the fans, our community,” said Cohen. “It was true then, and it remains true today. When our players arrived in Port St. Lucie for spring training, you had high expectations for the club and so did we. We added several key pieces to our team, but things have not turned out how we planned. You are rightfully disappointed and so are we.”
Prized free agent acquisitions Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Mark Cahna, Dominic Leone, Tommy Pham, and Eduardo Escobar were all traded away before the MLB Trade Deadline for a haul of prospects that the Mets are hoping will pan out.
“Our front office was able to acquire young, exciting athletes who excel in multiple facets of the game,” said Cohen. “These include top prospects, infielders Luisangel Acuña, Marco Vargas, Jeremy Rodríguez, Jeremiah Jackson, outfielders Drew Gilbert, Ryan Clifford, catcher Ronald Hernandez and right-handed pitchers Justin Jarvis, Coleman Crow and Landon Marceaux. It’s going to be fun watching them rise through our system as they develop and learn to win together.”
Acuña and Gilbert are two of the more exciting prospects as they are both currently in the MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects who are expected to make it to the show by 2025-2026. The two newcomers join infielder Jett Williams, infielder Rony Marucio, and catcher Kevin Parada as the Mets prospects currently ranked in the top 100.
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| New York Mets owner Steve Cohen Point72.com |
“We promise you, we will work hard to field a competitive team in 2024,” said Cohen. “Our core group of experienced players including Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil and Edwin Díaz, plus supplementation in the free agent market, will allow us to put together a formidable team next season.”
Despite all this talk about the future, the Mets still have the rest of this season to play and watch some of their young core develop.
“For the rest of the 2023 season, we look forward to watching the continued development of Kodai Senga, Brett Baty and Mark Vientos as well as Francisco Alvarez, who was just named the National League Rookie of the Month.” Cohen added, “You’ll see exciting baseball being played by the longtime Mets you have grown to love, along with the new kids.”
Mets fans should feel some sense of safety as this isn’t the Wilpons team anymore, this is Steve Cohen's team and he’s doing whatever it takes to bring a World Series back to Queens.
Despite learning the hard way that you can’t necessarily buy a championship, Cohen seems ready to spend again ahead of the 2023-24 offseason in order to get the team back on track in 2024.
“In a very short period of time, we have infused an unprecedented amount of top-tier prospects into our system that would otherwise have taken years to accumulate,” said Cohen. “Our goal is to be a consistent contender. The only way to do this in a sustainable way is to build a pipeline of high caliber talent in our farm system that will fuel our major league team for years to come.”
The Mets currently sit in fourth place in the NL East and they have not won a game since the MLB Trade Deadline. Despite the poor performance, it appears the future is bright in Queens.