This may well turn out to be a franchise-altering moment for the Mets, the night they signed Juan Soto. But beyond that it is almost certainly destined to be remembered as the night Steve Cohen delivered on all the hopes and dreams the fans in Queens had when he bought the team.
Digging deep and locking up Soto to a 15-year, $765 million contract was quite a statement in itself – proof he would stop at nothing to reel in the 26-year-old superstar one way or another.
But outbidding the Yankees for their own player added a whole different element to the equation. It was not just a monster flex of financial muscle by Cohen but the ultimate gift for the Queens faithful who are forever frustrated at the Mets being seen as the little brother between the two New York clubs.
So while it’s not as if he hadn’t already spent big in recent years, this was different. This was the move that left no doubt that, to quote a famous line, Cohen is exactly who everyone thought he was.
That said, it guarantees nothing in terms of the hard part, which is winning championships.
There are huge expectations on the Mets in 2025 and beyond that already make the feel-good nature of the ’24 season, which was defined by everything from OMG to the “My Girl” sing-alongs at Citi Field to the late-inning heroics in the post-season, feel like ancient history.
It’s championship-or-bust now and while that’s heady stuff in Queens, it also adds a certain weight to a ballclub that can make winning more difficult.
Still, that should come with the territory in New York, so Mets fans have every right to be giddy. Not just because of what signing Soto away from the Yankees does for the perception of the franchise but for what it should do toward winning that first World Series since 1986.
Cohen has already made necessary and impactful changes in the organization that set the Mets up for sustained success, from overhauling several aspects of the drafting/developing side to hiring David Stearns as president of baseball operations and by extension hiring Carlos Mendoza as manager.
So the Mets seem to have the right people in place at the right time to make the most of what Soto can add as a transformational offensive talent.
There is plenty more work to be done, especially on the pitching side, but you have to think that getting Soto will make them more likely to continue spending, not less likely.
After all, there’s no point in spending that kind of money on Soto if you’re not going all-in to win a championship. Whether they’ll bring Pete Alonso back remains to be seen, but they should have plenty of offense one way or the other, even if it means moving Mark Vientos to first and plugging in Ronny Mauricio or someone else at third.
Indeed, having Francisco Lindor, Soto, and Vientos as the likely 1-2-3 hitters gives the Mets a Dodgers-like feel to the top of the lineup, and everyone saw what type of effect their superstar trio had in helping win it all last season.
Of more immediate concern should be the pitching.
You’d think now, with Soto on board, the Mets will be a little more willing to spend on front-of-the-rotation starters.
Stearns has let people know he’s opposed to long-term deals that it will take to get Corbin Burnes or Max Fried, and that’s fine, but re-signing Sean Manaea now should be an even bigger priority.
Put it this way: would they really go to this length for Soto and then balk at giving Manaea a fourth year in a contract to bring him back? It wouldn’t make sense.
Add Manaea and either Walker Buehler or Nate Eovaldi on short-term deals to what Stearns has already done with Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes, and suddenly the Mets have a starting rotation that has plenty of depth and the potential for dominance.
Whatever Stearns does, it will be difficult to replicate the chemistry and the good vibes around the ’24 team that seemed to be such a significant part of the success.
But that’s where Soto should have his own huge impact, not just as one of the best hitters in baseball but as a player who clearly loves the spotlight and thrives on the big stage.
At 20 years old he was hitting monster home runs off Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander to help the Washington Nationals win the 2019 World Series over the Houston Astros. He hit five home runs in that 2019 postseason and four more this past October with the Yanks.
For that matter, in 191 career postseason plate appearances, Soto has 11 home runs, a .538 slugging percentage and a .927 OPS. I’ve talked to plenty of baseball people in recent years who don’t think it’s any sort of fluke.
“There’s nobody I’d want up in a big spot more than Soto,” a long-time scout told me Sunday night. “The guy never flinches. In the biggest at-bats, he’s as disciplined as always, and when he gets his pitch he usually doesn’t miss.
“That matters because he’s going to face a different type of pressure now, without (Aaron) Judge hitting behind him. He’s The Guy now and I think he wants that. It looks like the Yankees tried hard to keep him and Soto could easily have gone back there. Everything I’ve seen with him says he’ll embrace the pressure of the contract the way he has raised his game in the postseason.”
Maybe Cohen heard those same types of things from his own baseball people, and that convinced him Soto was worth signing at any price.
Or maybe he just wanted to make it as clear as possible: with Cohen as the owner, the Mets are nobody’s little brother anymore.