Even if he never wins a World Series or a pennant or even a single staring contest with a free agent, Steve Cohen’s stewardship of the New York Mets will likely go down as one of the more consequential tenures in baseball simply for how he continues to break the brains of his billionaire counterparts.
You see, baseball teams are immensely profitable, but you’re not really supposed to focus on that. The point is that those profits for years and years and years have gone back into the pockets of owners. They are not spent on acquiring more players who would happily accept it in exchange for their market value.
Cohen has no need for that type of guidance. He was mega-rich before purchasing the Mets and he’ll probably be worth even more if/when he decides to sell them.
This offseason that’s meant he doesn’t blink when spending nearly half a billion dollars on free agents and the luxury tax accompanying those contracts (which was designed to discourage people like Cohen from doing exactly this). But you can’t really legislate fear of taxes into a collective bargaining agreement.
It all boils down to owners holding each other accountable to ensure none of them spend too much. In other words: collusion.
It’s inherent to the equation. If you spend too much, there will be consequences from your peers. But no one would be dumb enough to come right out and say that. At least not with their name attached to such a quote.
“I think it’s going to have consequences for him down the road,” an official with another major league team who was not authorized to speak publicly told The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. “There’s no collusion. But … there was a reason nobody for years ever went past $300 million. You still have partners, and there’s a system.”
But wait, there’s oh so much more:
“Our sport feels broken now,” a different rival executive said Wednesday. “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.”
Ok, one more for good measure:
“If he would have went up to the Cohen tax, a little over, I think he would have been fine,” the club official said of Cohen. “But the fact that he blew past it, it kind of like embarrassed Rob and a lot of people. He went so far beyond it, it rendered the whole CBA — made them look stupid on the CBA negotiation. He flaunted it in their face.”
Watching billionaires whine about having to spend their own money because someone else gave up the game is a sport in itself.
This whole debacle is likely to start another round of execs and owners screaming for a salary cap despite the fact a salary floor encouraging teams to spend money would make the sport more attractive to both players and fans.
The current local TV broadcast models are falling apart right now, but as the shift to steaming begins, the potential for an even larger international market exists
Winning could attract an even larger international fanbase
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) December 22, 2022
Earlier this offseason MLB completed its sale of BAMTech to Disney for $900 million that was evenly divided up so each franchise received $30 million. And yet an entire third of the league has spent less than $30 million on free agents this offseason, per Spotrac. There is no excuse for that type of inactivity aside from plain old greed.
It’s also important to remember two things here:
- The vast majority of the money that is spent going to a small group of elite players. This isn’t a trickle-down scenario where mid-tier players are still earning a massive payday.
- This is what collusion looks like.
Maybe it’s not enough to pursue another lawsuit against the owners—side note: you know a sport’s ruling class has a problem with collusion when the topic has it’s own wikipedia page with multiple(!) entries and examples—but the more Steve Cohen opens his wallet, the more he’s going to anger his fellow owners and the more they’re going to slip up and say something they regret.
Hopefully next time there’s a name attached to the quote.
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