Mets: A trio of bold predictions for Steve Cohen’s first offseason

Incoming New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has the opportunity this offseason to leave a personal stamp on a new era of Mets baseball with the following three moves.

Our New York Mets owner in waiting Steve Cohen is already making executive decisions at the top despite not being officially voted into the owner position quite yet. We are all expecting Cohen to be voted in and named as the Mets official owner sometime soon after the World Series.

Some of the decisions that Cohen has made thus far include bringing back former General Manager Sandy Alderson as Team President, as well as making it his top priority to invest and expand the Mets baseball analytics department. Yet, some of the biggest decisions still await this winter between deciding the future of current General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen, current Manager Luis Rojas, and opening up his checkbook in free agency.

There is a real strong sense of optimism among all Mets fans around the nation heading into the winter offseason, a sense of optimism that many of us surely can’t remember having in a very long time. That optimism is centered around the organization at long last having an owner committed to winning. It’s hard not to argue that point after viewing his first two moves he has made to this point in his pre-ownership phase.

The Mets will have an advantage that many other teams do not have this offseason and that is cash (that’s still weird to say I know). With many owners and Major League baseball facing budgeting issues due to the pandemic the Mets will be one of the only, if not the only team that has an influx of cash to spend this winter.

With that being said, I expect owner Steve Cohen to make some bold moves this offseason to improve the club as well as keep the camaraderie where it has been working. This is also an important offseason in the sense that Cohen will begin to put his stamp on the organization with the Wilpons out of the picture. Without further ado let’s take a look at three bold moves that Steve Cohen will make this winter to begin a new era of Mets baseball.

1) The Mets make Trevor Bauer the highest-paid pitcher In baseball

It is no secret around baseball that impending free-agent starting pitcher Trevor Bauer will be the most coveted arm on the market this winter. When it comes down to it I believe the Mets will make Bauer an offer he can’t refuse and make him the highest-paid pitcher in the game with the average annual value he will receive. The 29-year old Bauer has sent a wide variety of mixed messages via Twitter and individual interviews of how he will conduct his free agency courting from being only open to one-year deals to wanting to sign with a club that will let him pitch every fourth day.

In the long run money talks and the Mets have plenty of it to go around this offseason. The Mets have potentially three holes in the rotation that need to be filled before the start of the season, and it’s not a secret that incoming Mets president Sandy Alderson loved building his Mets ballclubs around dominant starting pitching which makes this a natural fit.

I do believe that the front office will view Bauer as a better fit in terms of money and for the current needs of the ballclub than impending free-agent catcher J.T. Realmuto. I strongly envision a scenario where the organization will take a longer glance at other options at catcher, and use the big money this offseason to fortify the rotation behind ace Jacob deGrom, which is what cost the Mets a shot at the playoffs this season.

Jacob deGrom will carry a $36 million salary number next season which is also tied with Bauer’s arch-rival Gerrit Cole, as the two highest-paid pitchers in baseball. Bauer will certainly want to eclipse that number coming off a Cy Young caliber season. I forecast the Mets opening up the checkbook and offering Bauer a two-year deal worth $40 million per season with a third-year player option to solidify the Mets rotation with the best one-two punch in the game.

Plus is there anybody else in baseball better than Bauer to handle the New York media?

2) The Mets Trade for Cleveland Indians Shortstop Francisco Lindor

The Cleveland Indians are going to face enormous pressure this offseason to figure out a way to unload Francisco Lindor for something of value before he walks at the end of the 2021 season. With each passing day that no deal is made, the gravity of the situation will increase. Luckily for the Mets, there is no better potential marriage in baseball this offseason than Lindor opening the new Steve Cohen era in Flushing as the new cornerstone of the Mets middle infield for the next decade.

The 26-year old shortstop is going to want to cash in at the end of next season as the highest-paid shortstop in the game, and rightfully so. The Mets will be one of the few teams in the league currently that can afford to pay Lindor his value. Putting this move in perspective, not only does the switch-hitting Lindor improve the Mets already deep lineup, but his Gold Glove defense and his infectious leadership is something that will be a welcome addition to the clubhouse.

It’s not going to be cheap to acquire Lindor, but the Mets will be investing in a player who has his best baseball still ahead of him and is the best at his position. The Mets haven’t added a player of Lindor’s caliber to the organization since acquiring Yoenis Cespedes back in 2015, and we all saw how that trade regenerated the entire organization as well as the fanbase and led to a World Series birth.

I predict Steve Cohen is going to greenlight a couple of big splashes this offseason with Francisco Lindor being one of his big prizes this offseason as we usher in a new era at 41 Seaver Way.