New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, as promised, spoke candidly Wednesday about his playoff-hopeful team that enters Wednesday's slate with a 36-43 record on the season, making them one of the biggest disappointments in the majors this year.
The question on everyone's mind was the job statuses of manager Buck Showalter and general manager Billy Eppler. Eppler on Tuesday gave Showalter a vote of confidence, and Cohen reinforced that pledge during Wednesday's presser by saying both Showalter and Eppler would "absolutely" finish out the 2023 season, at the very least. Cohen emphasized that he wanted to stay away from any capricious or reactionary decision-making because top-down stability in an organization is essential to attracting and keeping quality employees. This should, at least until the offseason, put an end to speculation about Showalter's and Eppler's job security.
That said, the duo may have a new boss at some point. Cohen during the presser emphasized that he's still looking to hire a president of baseball operations (in addition to a team president/CEO) and that "at some point we will fill that position." Under the front office structure that prevails these days, the president of baseball operations is the lead baseball decision-maker and operates above the general manager. Cohen emphasized that the working relationship would be collaborative with Eppler, but he also confirmed that the president of baseball ops would be Eppler's superior.
Cohen also addressed the team's current straits insofar as the August trade deadline is concerned. New York is stationed in fourth place, some 16 games back of the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves. If the playoffs were to begin today, the Mets would miss out on the postseason by a shocking 8 1/2 games. SportsLine's forecast has their postseason odds down to 22%. (Other projection systems have them even lower than that, suggesting the odds are very much no longer in their favor.)
"If we don't get better," Cohen said on Wednesday, "we have decisions to make at the deadline."
Those decisions could entail selling off what they can or holding steady rather than assuming buyer status, which has been the working assumption for the Mets' deadline approach under Cohen. The problem is that Mets don't have much to sell that's all that appealing. One way to change that is to assume much of the remaining salary obligations on any outgoing players, as they did with Eduardo Escobar, and Cohen implied a willingness to do that in the event of a hypothetical deadline sell.
All of this, to put it lightly, is not what anyone expected from this Mets team. After all, a few winters of heavy spending have positioned the Mets with the majors' highest payroll, at $344 million, according to Spotrac. Only one other club, the San Diego Padres, is within $100 million. Nevertheless, the Mets have had an abysmal June that has seen them win just seven of their first 23 contests. Or, as Cohen said at one point on Wednesday, "All is not lost yet, but it's getting late."
