Mets: How Steve Cohen can score a hat trick with Mets fans this offseason

Potential new New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has a chance to make a trio of moves this offseason that could begin to shape the future of the organization.

It’s no secret around baseball that the New York Mets are almost at the finish line when it comes to having billionaire and lifelong Mets fan Steve Cohen take control of the team as majority owner. Reports are the deal is expected to be finalized as early as November, pending the approval from Major League Baseball owners, and once the transaction is finalized the possibilities this upcoming offseason become endless in the minds of many Mets fans.

With new ownership in tow, this upcoming offseason will resemble the dawn of a new era and a breath of fresh air for a long-suffering fan base that has been awaiting a leadership change at the top for a countless number of years. With that being said there several moves many Mets fans want new owner Steve Cohen to make within the first hour that he steps into Mets headquarters.

There is a trio of moves that I believe our new owner should consider making as he begins his journey as the new leader of our beloved ballclub. The Mets aren’t as far off as many people think from being a team that can contend for division titles, as they currently possess the best starting pitcher in baseball, along with the best offense in baseball.

It will be interesting to see which direction Cohen will move forward with in regards to this entire organization and shaping it’s future. A sense of stability and accountability from leadership positions is certainly needed, as well as maximizing the remaining prime years of ace Jacob deGrom. Cohen can easily score a hat trick among Mets fans with the three following moves and provide a further sense of optimism heading into next spring.

1) Fire General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen and hire a new General Manager

Usually, when new ownership comes into an unstable organization many changes are made at the top, and I don’t see this scenario being any different. I could envision Cohen wanting to rebuild the front office from scratch with his own personnel and bring in a new manager as well, as Luis Rojas is currently tied to Van Wagenen and he wasn’t even his first choice.

While not all moves have been bad with Van Wagenen as the General Manager as he acquired J.D. Davis, brought Pete Alonso with the big club on Opening Day last season, and has had some really solid drafts the last couple of seasons, several moves have not sat well with Mets fans.

Unfortunately, the move that forever will be tied to Van Wagenen is the Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz trade two offseasons ago. The trade hasn’t exactly panned out in our favor to this point and the Mets lost one of the most highly regarded prospects in all of baseball in outfielder Jarred Kelenic. Also, I would hate to even bring up the Jed Lowrie robbery of a contract so we’ll move past that one.

Another black eye on Van Wagenen’s resume has been the amount of pitching depth in the Minor Leagues that have been depleted. In a season where the Mets have been starved for pitching and looking for hope in the minors aside from David Peterson, the Mets have traded away pitchers Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay, Kevin Smith, Jordan Humphreys, Simeon Woods-Richardson, and Blake Taylor all within the last two seasons. While the Mets do have highly regarded prospect Matthew Allan in the minors he is at least two to three seasons away from any kind of impact at the Major League level.

There is also the experience factor as Van Wagenen is a highly regarded baseball agent and sorely lacks front office experience compared to his peers. I believe Cohen will want to bring in somebody with a stronger background in regards to front office experience as well as baseball operations experience in general.

2) Extend Outfielder Michael Conforto

One glaring issue that will be staring the Mets in the face this upcoming offseason is star outfielder Michael Conforto will be heading into spring training under the final year of his contract. It can be argued that there may be no bigger signing this offseason for the Mets than locking up their homegrown star for future seasons to come.

The 27-year old Conforto seems to be hitting his prime with his career year at the plate this season and losing Conforto after next season would no doubt set the Mets back, as well as question the intentions of new owners who can spend big.

Whoever the Mets General Manager is this offseason would have it in their best interests to lock up Conforto before Spring Training, and you can imagine Steve Cohen will have a big part in that negotiation process. The goal for the Mets is to keep as much of this successful nucleus together while still having Jacob deGrom in his prime. Conforto is one of those key pieces the Mets can ill afford to lose moving forward.

While we don’t know what Conforto’s asking price may be, you can imagine he will want to be paid among the top outfielders in baseball. A realistic asking price from Conforto’s agent could be between $22-$25 million which would put Conforto among the top five paid outfielders in baseball.

Since Conforto’s debut with the Mets back in 2015, many around the game of baseball have always been high on his potential as being one of the best outfielders in baseball, and it seems everything has finally come together for him. Conforto’s well-deserved extension could be Cohen’s first big deep pocket move as the Mets owner this offseason.