Mets owner blasts Matz's camp after SP signs with Cardinals

New York Mets baseball team owner Steve Cohen Anthony Behar

Mets owner Steven Cohen blasts Steven Matz's camp after SP signs with Cardinals

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated 11/24/21

It was reported late Tuesday night that left-handed free-agent starting pitcher Steven Matz had agreed to a four-year, $44 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.

On Wednesday morning, New York Mets owner Steven Cohen voiced his displeasure with the decision.

I’m not happy this morning . I’ve never seen such unprofessional behavior exhibited by a player’s agent.I guess words and promises don’t matter.
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) November 24, 2021

Prior to his 2021 campaign with the Toronto Blue Jays, Matz was selected in the second round of the 2009 MLB June Amateur draft by the Mets and spent the first six seasons of his career with the organization from 2015 through 2020. The 30-year-old is coming off arguably his best season, as he posted a career-high 14 wins against seven losses, adding a 3.82 ERA and 1.33 WHIP while striking out 144 batters across 150.7 innings pitched in 29 games.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic added some perspective to the situation Wednesday morning on Twitter.

Without knowing exactly what happened, I’ll say this: Cohen is not the first baseball executive to be frustrated by the end game of a free-agent process. But such is the nature of free agency. Even the wealthiest owner cannot control the decision-making of a player and his agent. https://t.co/y5eapVSESZ
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 24, 2021

MLB Network's Jon Heyman reported on Wednesday that New York was "upset about the Matz situation and his last minute call to Cardinals".

"They had the impression he was going to come back to them for a final chance," Heyman tweeted. "Sources say Mets would have gone to that level ($44M, 4 years)."

Heyman had plenty of more details on how the Matz situation unfolded.

Mets also had the impression the Long Island native Matz wanted to come back home until the very end. Ultimately, that wasn’t the case. Matz agent Rob Martin suggested Matz changed his mind. https://t.co/z9vlJN9dNR
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 24, 2021

More must-reads: