The Day the Mets became the Evil Empire
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I can’t avoid it. I am Mets fan and must write about it. Or think I do. We’ve had three days to digest the signing of Juan Soto to the largest contract in North American major professional sports history. Lionel Messi’s contract dwarfs that of Soto but soccer in North America is not one of the top four pro sports — yet. Messi’s total package with Inter Miami over his two-and-a-half-year contract is valued at $150 million, which includes equity in the club upon his retirement. His contract runs through the end of the 2025 season with an option for 2026. Scott Boras knew enough to not ask for Soto to have equity in the New York Mets. You’d think that’d be a red line for Steve Cohen — “The Mets are mine”.
The new east coast ‘Evil Empire’
Soto is a Met. For likely the next 15 years. He’ll be 41 years old at the end of the contract in 2040. The Mets are now what the Yankees have been for more than 20 years and beyond since George Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973. The official ‘Evil Empire’ moniker after the 2002 season when they signed Jose Contreras and Hideki Matsui. Contreras’ deal took New York’s already massive payroll to $158 million, which was easily the highest in baseball and far above the luxury tax threshold of $117 million. In case you were wondering Contreras’ agent was Scott Boras. But the Yankees were kind of the Evil Empire even before that. And the Mets were the little brother.
Given that the ownership and leadership of the Mets before Steve Cohen bought the team was more known for its penurious nature (think M. Donald Grant, Nelson Doubleday and later Doubleday and the Wilpons), having a wealthy owner willing to spend ‘whatever it takes’ money is foreign territory! Carlos Beltran was a big signing as was the contract given to Mike Piazza after he arrived via trade. Bobby Bonilla’s never-ending contract is the meme that keeps on delivering year after year. I will do my best to not ask former Met GM Steve Phillips about it when he appears on our podcast next week. It’s a tired story and should be re-tired! But signing Juan Soto is unchartered territory for the Mets and their fans.
Messaging MLB
The signing of Juan Soto sends a message to every other MLB team, (well except the west coast version of the Evil Empire — the Dodgers), and that message is, if you don’t want to pay your star, Steve Cohen will! Every free agent should thank Scott Boras and Juan Soto because the bar has been raised and it’s only going higher. And BTW I was not one of the people that thought Boras was finished after last winter’s free agent season. Boras is bigger and better than ever when it comes to getting max value for his clients.
When the Mets signed Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer to huge contracts in 2021 and 2022 it was a signal that there was a new big-money sheriff in town. Steve Cohen’s fellow owners could not have been very happy then nor are they today.
Yankees were in the game and their fans should be ok not getting Soto
One ownership group that can’t be happy is the Yankees. They were formerly the team that could and would pay the most for free agent players. If your team was competing with Steinbrenner’s Yankees for a player, your team was going to lose. I felt that the Yankees were going to hang on to Soto. Hitting behind or in front of Aaron Judge for the next 10 plus years was surely an enticing proposition. If all things were considered equal with the money, then the Yankees would keep Soto. It turns out the Yankees came close, but no cigar. The Mets offered five million more over one less year (15) bringing the average annual value to $51 million as opposed to the Yankees $47M. We’re also hearing that Steve Cohen included a CitiField luxury suite which the Yankees would not do fearing that Aaron Judge would take offense since he did not get one when he signed his own ginormous contract last year.
Scott Boras’ clients are prone to fully explore the free agent market. So, it may have been a foregone conclusion that this process had to play out the way that it did. Yet I wonder, if the Yankees offered $760M for 16 years during the season would Boras and Soto taken it? Soto was the guy to turn down $440M back in 2022. It’s not as if he’s lacking confidence in his ability to perform. Or would offering Soto $760M during the season simply raised the overall market? (Cut to Scott Boras licking his chops). We will never know but if the Yankees were willing to go above and beyond at the last minute, they may have missed their best opportunity to do that before or during the 2024 season.
It will be Francisco Lindor who will bolster and benefit from batting in front of Soto. The Mets top four does not yet include the re-signing of Pete Alonso, but a lineup of Lindor, Soto, Vientos, and Alonso is a formidable first four. Still not quite Dodger-like but closer than before which is why Soto is now a Met.
About the Classic Committee Hall of Fame Results
I can’t not offer my congratulations to the family of Dick Allen and to Dave Parker on being elected (finally!) to the Hall-of-Fame. Since I’ve been around for more than a few years I got to see both amazing players play in their primes. It was harder for me to follow Dick Allen since he left the Phillies after the 1969 season and games he played in St. Louis, L.A., Chicago and Oakland were rarely aired.
Dave Parker, on the other hand, was a player I watched from the time he was a Pirates rookie through his time in Cincinnati and beyond. The thing about Parker was that I always thought that he was Hall-of-Fame material. His career stats are very good but didn’t make him a HOFer when the BBWA writers voted, but watching him play, this man was a Hall-of-Famer. I am very glad that Parker who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, will have the opportunity to be there in person this coming July, unlike Dick Allen who passed in 2020.
About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and Substack.com.
