Mets’ Steve Cohen shuts down panic concerns after brutal start to 2024 season

The New York Mets have gotten off to about as bad of a start as you could have drawn up in the 2024 season, but sitting at 0-4 on the season, owner Steve Cohen made it clear that he is not worried after the struggles in the first week of the season.

“It’s only four games into the season right?” Steve Cohen said, according to Jeff Cox of CNBC. “Nobody wants to start zero and four, but you know, it’s early. During the season, you’re going to have losing streaks. We just happen to have one at the beginning.”

The Mets were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in the opening series of the season over the weekend at Citi Field, and lost 5-0 to the Detroit Tigers on Monday at home as well. Tuesday’s game was rained out, and so was Wednesday’s. The Mets are scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Tigers on Thursday at Citi Field to make up for the two rainouts. Hopefully, New York can pick up its first win on the season in one of those games.

Expectations were not crazy high for the Mets in 2024, but it was supposed to be better than what they have showed so far. Some believed they could be in wild card contention this season, setting them up to spend next offseason and augment the roster. That still seems to be the plan, but there might be more work to be done than anticipated.

Steve Cohen’s approach with the Mets has not changed

Cohen did make some comments that will have Mets fans wondering what his plan is for the long-term.

“I don’t care about the cost side,” Cohen said, according to Cox. “I said in my original press conference, if I can make millions of people happy, how cool is that? So I actually view it as a civic responsibility.”

This type of comment is what has led to Mets fans believing that Cohen will spend on pretty much every star available. Judging by his actions as an owner so far, that is not the case. He has passed or missed on players like JT Realmuto, George Springer, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and other top free agents at holes that were present on the Mets’ roster. Cohen’s further comments indicate that he wants to build something sustainable, which includes building up the farm system.

“Nobody wants to lose money forever and spend money and not not have success,” Cohen said, according to Cox. “To me, I think success is not only winning the World Series, getting in the playoffs and winning the World Series. It’s also developing like a deep farm system that creates talent over the years, and over and over again.”

Cohen clearly wants to build a team that contends every year, like the Los Angeles Dodgers have done. No matter how much he spends, it will require developing talent from within, and that might take a while.

Hopefully for the Mets, they can turn things around soon and have some positives to take from this season.