There has been a lot of talk about what the New York Mets might or might not do this offseason, but one thing we know is that Steve Cohen is going to be in the bidding for superstar Shohei Ohtani, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. I mentioned on our most recent podcast that despite all of the re-tooling, rebuilding, or repurposing, the Mets would be in the bidding for Ohtani. It doesn’t make any sense for the richest owner in baseball to sit on the sidelines with the best player in the sport available.

“If anyone thinks Cohen is going to pass on an opportunity to pursue the greatest player of our generation and maybe greatest of all time, they haven’t been paying attention,” Rosenthal said.

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Rosenthal’s main focus for the article is to note that the Mets are certainly going to look at signing younger players following the trades of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. The 29-year-old Ohtani fits that bill, as does Japan’s best pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The 24-year-old Yamamoto is the perfect fit for a team like the Mets looking for a top-flight starter that happens to have prime years still ahead. Yamamoto has won the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young Award and the MVP Award each of the last two seasons.

It’s been noted that Steve Cohen was in Japan to watch a WBC game –he said he was on a business trip for Point72– and that Mets GM Billy Eppler traveled to Japan this season to watch Yamamoto. Of course, Eppler played a key role in getting Ohtani to sign with the Angels back in 2017.

Ohtani is having a season for the record books with 40 home runs, 9.0 WAR, and a 3.17 ERA in 22 starts this year. He leads Major League Baseball at limiting hits with his 5.9 H/9 and has been MLB’s best overall offensive season with a 187 OPS+.

Rosenthal, on the notion that the Mets would not reload for the 2024 season, “People in Mets uniforms aren’t buying it. People in the industry aren’t buying it. None of us should buy it, considering Steve Cohen’s willingness to spend like no owner in major-league history.”