Steve Cohen went on the New York Post Sports Podcast. As we mentioned in our earlier article, Steve Cohen has thrown his full support behind president of baseball operations David Stearns and confirmed he will get to finish out his five year contract. Steve mentioned Stearns success in 2024 and discussed how David Stearns is able to adapt.
He broke down his views of the organization, hopes fans see he cares, and broke down both concerns he has, as well as reasons to be optimistic.
On the Mets Poor Season
On the Mets poor season Cohen said he would have never expected the team’s poor performance based on the moves they have made. He mentioned that losing Soto and Lindor had a big impact on the Mets’ ability to have success. He mentioned younger players that have underperformed. And most of all he brought up the Mets inability to performing in one run games or in late innings. Cohen also mentioned that he has seen players need an adjustment period to life and playing in New York, and said that maybe the Mets did not factor that heavily enough.
Cohen stated that he still watched every game with his family and gets ripped by his father-in-law plenty around the dinner table. He said he wanted to do something great for New York and feels he is failing the fan base.
On David Stearns
Cohen described Stearns as incredibly thorough and that he knows what he is talking about. He said he does not leave conversations disagreeing with Stearns line of thought and that halfway through the contract he feels recency bias has been too heavily viewed. He brought up the 2024 NLCS run and said that while the last three years have been a mixed bag, there has been plenty of good.
Cohen also said that you cannot make rash decisions on small sample sizes and continually “churn and burn” or no one will want to come to the organization. “It’s a five year contract and we are going to live that contract out”. He did later go on to say he will always continue to evaluate things year to year but is moving forward with Stearns at the head of the organization.
Cohen also stated that important qualities to him are that the person running his club are adaptable and reflective and said that Stearns has those qualities. Cohen said he wants to be as hands off as he can as an owner but is working with Stearns to evaluate what mistakes they feel they made, what underperformance was from that, what was from variance, and what changes need to be made.
He continued on to say that if they get into year five of the contract and things have still not turned around things can change, but he has faith in Stearns and his plan, as well as his ability to make adjustments.
On Carlos Mendoza
The decision to retain Carlos Mendoza came down to “are we going to extend Carlos Mendoza’s contract?” He said both he and Stearns agreed they would not and it was a joint decision it was the right time to move on. He also said that where the team was, and what Mendoza had to go through each night after each loss, firing him was a “mercy shot” knowing they did not plan to retain him for the 2027 season. Cohen said the clubs performance also influenced this with the six errors in one game followed by two the next game.
On Any Regrets
Cohen said he stepped in on trying to push to bring back Edwin Diaz though Diaz in the end choose he would rather be a Dodger. He said at the beginning of the offseason he probably would not have expected the Mets to retain one of Edwin Diaz, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil but there were reasons for each of them to not be here anymore. He said they were great Mets and he still roots for them and the team needs to look forward. He also says that it is too early to evaluate those moves. Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo still have four years left on their contracts.
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
On the Mets Future
Steve Cohen said he is “extremely worried” about the trend lines in the major league level performance and some of the minor league regressions. He did mention that development is not linear and that some players have turned things around.
On the positive side, the Mets have graduated three very good prospects into strong major leaguers in Nolan McLean, Carson Benge, and A.J. Ewing. Cohen said he is glad to see they have a set outfield with two homegrown players as well as a strong bullpen.
Cohen mentioned that depending on who opts out or not could affect their flexibility for 2027 and they do not yet know who will be replaced from the farm vs outside player acquisition. He also said that will be a lot clearer in a few months. But the not knowing is always concerning to Cohen and the moves forward will be an opportunity for the front office to show how creative they are.
In 2023 the Mets sold, and each offseason Cohen has been willing to spend. When asking about going into the trade deadline whether or not the Mets will sell Cohen asked “what are the playoff odds?” He said this season reminds him of 2023 and while selling is not his preference he is willing to sell if it is clear they do not have a path to the playoffs. As for the offseason Cohen said he has no issue losing money on the Mets and that financially he will be ok.
As for how the next CBA, he said he does not know if any constraints will be put on him but he will look to maximize as much as he can within the rules. Cohen described himself as a “league first guy” and that he will allow the labor committee to do their thing and any changes made will be enacted post 2027 and should not affect short term plans. Cohen mentioned that there is still quite some time until the CBA expires and said that he won’t even assume there is a lockout and that both sides can’t agree before then.
Cohen has not hired anyone external to evaluate the Mets decision making progress and just wants to know where he can add value. He mentioned that every team has its own philosophy and that means at times you will not sign players other teams are willing to give more term to and other times you will determine a player is worth that risk. Overall he said he supports the teams processes but also wants to continue to be adaptable.
Cohen wants to be more involved going forward, asking more questions, drilling down into why certain outcomes happened, and asking “how did this happen” and “what decisions led to this”.
He said that good process can lead to unpredictable outcomes all the time and it is important to determine whether the process is flawed, or if the results happened due to variance. If they trust the process they do not want to radically change due to outlier outcomes but it is Cohen’s view that his job is to hold the organization accountable. He does not yet know what he will find or what he will want to see change.
Cohen mentioned that there are plenty of reasons for optimism for the future. He mentioned what his organization viewpoint was in 2023 and then the Mets made the NLCS the next season. He mentioned how players regularly have positive regression to the mean and bounce back, how teams have had terrible seasons and won the world series the next year and how prospects can pop up in a season that weren’t previously on your radar for that time period. He also said that they have a lot of roster and payroll flexibility after 2027.
On Soto and Lindor
Cohen stated he does not expect to consider trading Soto or Lindor. “I don’t see them going anywhere”.
Cohen did confirm the New York Post reporting by Mike Puma in the offseason that there was friction between Soto and Lindor during the 2025 season. This is not uncommon with two stars on a baseball team – Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez did not get along and won a world series together. He said their relationship is stronger and any issues have been resolved.
On the Next Manager
Steve Cohen confirmed Andy Green will be going back to the front office and said that is Green’s choice. He said he is taking him at his face value when he says that is what he wants.
Cohen does not expect there to be a shortage of candidates for the manager position and will let that process help them determine the best candidate.
On Cohen’s Recent Twitter Posts
Cohen was very unhappy that almost immediately after he began tweeting he was hurled with antisemitic comments. He specifically said “that’s a problem”.
On the fan who removed for being belligerent at the game, Sherman asked what Cohen is ok with in terms of fans voicing their displeasure. Cohen confirmed that the fan was not removed because of what they wrote on the sign, but because the security received multiple complaints from other fans in attendance. Per what Cohen was told, the fan was asked by security to sit down during innings and to stop what he was doing earlier in the game but continued leading to his removal. It should be noted that per fans in attendance who posted pictures of their signs, this was not the only fan with a ‘fire Stearns’ sign at the game but was the only one removed.
Cohen described twitter as place that has become “a lot less fun and a terrible place to communicate” and that he wants to find new ways to communicate with fans.
On the Coaching Staff
Heyman mentioned how Brett Baty, Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio have not developed as you may hope and asked if the coaching staff is part of that. Cohen said that it is possible the huge coach turnover could have an impact in this, but also relationships take time to develop and it could be too early to really evaluate the coaches.
