NY Mets: Profiling the modus operandi of Steve Cohen during his time as owner

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Steve Cohen isn’t spending billions of dollars to build a winning baseball club. It’s not a practical thing for him to do. The owner of the New York Mets needs to operate in a different sort of way.

If you watch enough true crime series or detective shows, you’ll be familiar with the term modus operandi. Often abbreviated as “M.O.”, it’s a description of how one operates. There’s a theme and some predictability.

Cohen has a few things about him as the owner of the Mets that fall into his modus operandi. Let’s put on our goofy Sherlock Holmes hats and investigate.

1) NY Mets owner Steve Cohen likes to grab headlines

Cohen definitely likes the flashy signings. This comes as no surprise. It was the expectation the moment we found out the Wilpons were kicking themselves to the curb. Cohen is a larger than life figure in the financial world. He’s that way in baseball.

The biggest headlines he has grabbed as owner have been the signings of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander almost exactly a year apart. They were the biggest moves he could possibly make. They’re ones Mets fans will remember forever.

Who doesn’t remember where they were when Cohen changed the game and signed Scherzer? When Verlander joined him, we will forever recall what we ate for lunch that day. These were the kind of headline-grabbing additions that years from now, even after an apocalypse, would be found in the form of cave drawings on the walls of the home locker room of Citi Field.

One other notable headline grab by Cohen was the record-breaking extension for Edwin Diaz. Cohen’s money isn’t getting thrown around like crazy. What it’s doing is landing on the back pages for the best of reasons.

2) NY Mets owner Steve Cohen doesn’t prefer long-term deals

The Mets haven’t been ridiculous about handing out long-term deals. Only Francisco Lindor received the kind of contract we know will eventually run out by the end. It’s a part of being a baseball executive. You need to spend a little extra now and pay for it later when the player declines. The Mets also had to go that extra mile to retain Brandon Nimmo. His eight year contract is pretty lengthy.

Aside from those extensions, which were pretty necessary, the team has been careful about paying players to stick around for too long. This could remain a constant theme for the Mets in free agency. The only place this could be acceptable to them is with extensions. Lindor was already a member of the Mets when he got his. So was Diaz. Nimmo was brought back as well.

Pete Alonso is the logical choice to expect as the next major Mets player to get locked up for an extra year or two longer than we’d want. He’s someone we should all picture Cohen wanting to retire in blue and orange. That short list of Ed Kranepool, David Wright, and Ed Hearn needs to grow eventually. Nimmo is on track for it. Alonso should join him.

What we don’t know from Cohen’s modus operandi is whether or not this is him or his general managers deciding on the length of deals. He’s a baseball fan. It doesn’t mean he makes many of the decisions. He could just be entrusting others to use their knowledge of the game to make the right calls.

How many more contracts will the Mets sign that has us saying "...for how long?" It doesn't seem to be in the M.O. for Cohen to load up on the years, but maybe it does change.

3) NY Mets owner Steve Cohen is reactionary in the best way

Vengeful is one way to put it. When the Mets had Steven Matz changing his mind and choosing the St. Louis Cardinals instead of reuniting with them, Cohen went on a Twitter rant of epic proportions about professionalism. He called out Matz’s agent. Days later, his ball club signed Scherzer.

This part of Cohen’s M.O. repeated in December 2022. Jacob deGrom going to the Texas Rangers had Cohen looking for a replacement. It turned out to be Verlander.

Being reactionary has its benefits. Proactivity is personally preferred. In some cases you need to react instead.

The fans become the beneficiary of this personality trait. Cohen has twice now reacted almost immediately to losing by going out and doing something bigger. Is Verlander better than deGrom? It’s debatable because they are two very different pitchers at this point of their career with retirement much closer for one. We can also ponder if the recent signing of Nimmo and David Robertson within minutes of each other was Cohen reacting to deGrom's introduction in Texas. It seems like too big of a coincidence to ignore.

What we can agree on is that Cohen greenlit a move we’ll remember forever. It may have never happened if not for his reactionary nature.

Cohen does seem to have the mind of a planner. When those plans hit the fan, he has his executives get aggressive and attack. Mets fans may still feel the sting of losing deGrom. Knowing Cohen has everyone’s back and is willing to make a massive payment will help fans rest easy.

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Profiling the modus operandi of Mets owner Steve Cohen

1) NY Mets owner Steve Cohen likes to grab headlines

2) NY Mets owner Steve Cohen doesn’t prefer long-term deals

3) NY Mets owner Steve Cohen is reactionary in the best way

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