Steve Cohen on Mets’ early struggles: ‘It’s foolish to make conclusions in such a short period...’

Steve Cohen has a message for the fans who are worried about the Mets after the first seven games of the season: It’s too early to panic. The club’s owner held court in the Mets’ dugout Friday morning ahead of the 2023 home opener. He touched on a number of subjects regarding the club and its future.

While some owners are content to stay out of sight and out of the line of fire from the fans, Cohen still likes to think of himself as one of them. After all, the Mets were his favorite childhood team. He sat with the 7 Line Army in Miami during the Amazin’s Opening Day win and he interacts with them on Twitter.

Cohen is listening to the fans, and while he thinks the concerns over the 4-4 start to the season are valid, they’re a bit premature.

“I see it the same way like in my own business and a hedge fund business,” Cohen said. “I’ll have a bad week. That doesn’t define my year, it doesn’t define my month. And so it’s kind of the same thing. It’s a really small sample, so it’s foolish to make conclusions in such a short period of time.”

It’s easy for Cohen to say that as the only fan with the means to do something about the team he loves. As maddening as it can be, sports fans have little control over the product on the field. But as the owner of the team, Cohen can go into the baseball operations office and ask Billy Eppler to do something about a listless offense or a pitcher who can’t throw strikes.

But Cohen wants to leave those decisions to the baseball operations department, choosing instead to focus on the business operations and ballpark improvements. Cohen comes to Queens once a week to take meetings with the staff and enjoys being involved in several aspects of the organization.

Here are some key takeaways from Cohen’s dugout session with reporters.

ROSTER UPGRADES

Cohen might be staying out of Eppler’s way but ultimately, he gets the final say on deals of a certain magnitude. Parting with top organizational talent was not something the Mets wanted to do last season. The trade deadline yielded DH Darin Ruf, who was recently designated for assignment after disappointing results in New York last season and in Florida during spring training.

So, what happens this year? The Mets and Cohen are excited about top prospects Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Alvarez and they feel that some, if not all of them, will play important roles for the team in the future. There is talent beyond them in the system as well, but it’s unclear how much the Mets would be willing to give up in order to improve this season.

“That’s TBD,” Cohen said. “We’ll see what’s available. You want to make good deals that are good for the long term, as opposed to just the short term. I’m committed to my farm system. I think that’s, frankly, the only way that over the long term, the payroll is going to come down. That’s what the goal is, eventually.”

This isn’t the first time Cohen has talked about bringing down the payroll, but it’s not happening anytime soon. The Mets are continuing to make further investments in the farm system in the hopes it will pay off in the future.

“One of the ways I’m going to measure my success is, how well have we developed? How well we drafted?” Cohen said. “It’s not just about free agency.”

JERSEY PATCHES

Cohen expressed pride in the new partnership with New York Presbyterian Hospital, a multi-year deal aimed at promoting health and wellness. However, many fans were feeling unwell after seeing that the partnership would include a patch on the team’s jerseys.

Ad space on uniforms has long been the norm in Europe, where most soccer teams have the logos of airlines, insurance companies and cars. The NBA and NHL have allowed ad space to be sold on jerseys and helmets in recent years but it hasn’t been well received. It’s just as unpopular in baseball, where change often has to be forced upon fans and the uniforms are considered iconic.

The patches on the Mets’ uniforms aren’t garish or overstated, but they are prominent. They’re placed on the sleeves so they can be seen by viewers from the center field cameras. Switch hitters even get two jerseys, one for each side of the plate.

However, Cohen plans to have the red and white hospital logo redesigned.

“I had an email exchange with the CEO, Steve Corwin and we agreed to change the patch already because they’re Phillies colors,” Cohen said. “He agreed and I agreed that it should be more Mets-appropriate.”

CITI FIELD UPGRADES

In addition to the massive scoreboard — which is the largest in the league — the Mets made a number of changes to Citi Field over the winter to enhance the fan experience and provide unique experiences for VIPs. Cohen has plans for many more upgrades and improvements, but they have to be cohesive. He plans on bringing in experts to get their ideas and how to best go about executing them.

“What I want to do is create a master plan,” he said. “I don’t want to create a renovation of a stadium where everything doesn’t really tie together. We tested out some ideas this year, but going forward, we’ll create a master plan and then do something.”