Juan Soto signing shows how far Mets have come under Steve Cohen

NEW YORK — Steve Cohen had lofty goals for the Mets when he bought the team from the Wilpon family late in 2020. Slowly, he’s delivering on those goals.

While the top goal is winning multiple World Series championships, Cohen also wanted to turn the Mets into a global brand and a premier destination for MLB’s most elite players, coaches and executives. Juan Soto choosing the Mets over a pool of big spending clubs, including the Yankees, shows just how the perception of the team has changed.

On a phone call with Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, Cohen had a moment of realization that the Mets were no longer what they were when he took over his childhood team.

“I think we should talk about the Cohen effect on Cohen,” Boras said earlier this month after the Mets introduced Soto at Citi Field. “The next day after [Soto signed], Steve called me and goes, ‘I had no idea — this is an international event.’ I think it brought itself to that.”

Fans of the Mets and Yankees alike have been arguing for a week over which team truly represents New York. The Yankees have always had global appeal, with rappers, actors and even Ohio-born LeBron James having donned the classic hat in paparazzi photos over the years. The team has long had a multitude of stars that became household names, from Babe Ruth to Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter.

Yankee Stadium is both a tourist destination and a place for business meetings.

The Mets have always appealed to a more working-class Queens community. It’s the team of Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Hank Azaria and well, Grimace.

Citi Field always felt like the antithesis of Yankee Stadium, but never more so than during Game 3 of the NLDS when Grimace came out holding Pete Alonso’s lucky playoff pumpkin and all of the wacky mascots from the 2024 season showed up as well: Glizzy Iggy the dog, the “Rally Pimp” and even 97-year-old Seymour Weiner, who recorded a video message for the fans. It felt like a baseball version of “Avengers: Endgame.”

Still, the Mets lagged behind the Yankees in attendance last season. But Soto seems to be driving ticket sales already, with Cohen recently saying sales have “exploded” in a post on X.

This is exactly what Cohen wanted when he approached Stearns about pursuing Soto in free agency, and it’s why he had no problem including so many perks for Soto’s family in his record, 15-year, $765 million contract.

“One thing I’ve learned a long time ago, if you want something that’s amazing, it’s going to be uncomfortable,” Cohen said. “It’s never going to be comfortable. And so I always stretch a little bit, you know, because I know that’s what it takes to get it done.”

It’s almost hard to remember how difficult it was for the Mets to attract a general manager in 2022.

Francisco Lindor helped the Mets take a big first step toward these goals when he signed a 10-year, $341 million extension just hours before Opening Day in 2021. Buck Showalter helped them take another step with a 101-win season in 2022. A clubhouse culture was established and so were certain standards.

Meanwhile, Cohen and his wife, Alex, worked behind the scenes to transform the club. Alex renovated the family room and took over the Amazin’ Mets Foundation. Steve infused the club with cash to help bring player development up to speed and improve the team’s technology. The Mets now have an enviable analytics department, more support staff at just about every level of the minor leagues and, finally, a pitching lab in Port St. Lucie, Fla., something just about every other team has had for years.

“We were a place — and are a place — that players want to play,” president of baseball operations David Stearns. “That we have a culture where everyone [from] players, coaches [and] staff enjoy coming to the ballpark every day and enjoy each other, I think that was part of it.”

Stearns himself helped the Mets take another impactful step. He was exactly the type of savvy executive Cohen had been looking for.

Soto got everything he wanted with the Mets, showing just how far the team has come.

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