White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was concerned about Steve Cohen purchasing the Mets due to his spending habitsKamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports
Mets owner Steve Cohen's "limitless wallet was seen as the main reason" why White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was the lone no vote against Cohen's purchase of the team, and Reinsdorf’s concerns "were prescient,” according to Paul Sullivan of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The price of winning in MLB “keeps going higher,” and all it has taken “is one owner to upend the salary structure." Cohen’s spending habits “will force the rest of the owners to get on board” and “shell out” more money for star players or to just “to compete against teams such as the Mets that have no qualms about going over the luxury tax to field a virtual All-Star team.” Cohen’s spending spree “won’t be what kills baseball,” but his “benevolence will help player salaries escalate and might force some owners to think long and hard about cashing in their chips.” Then some “new owners will emerge and try to outspend their peers” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 12/22).
NUDGING TOWARDS CHANGE: In Pittsburgh, Jason Mackey noted what has happened with the Mets “speaks to MLB’s unbalanced financial landscape and the growing-more-every-day need for a cap-and-floor system.” In what other sport “could you see one team (the Pirates) with a projected 40-man roster payroll” of $77M that “is roughly 20% of the top-spending outfit?” What is happening in MLB “writ large is worrisome.” Cohen’s spending spree comes “less than a year” after a new CBA was reached, meaning it could “be a long time before meaningful change occurs.” And “smoothing out the financial landscape” remains a “hugely difficult problem to solve.” The best thing that Cohen’s recent spending can do is “force upset owners into action, nudging MLB further toward the cap-and-floor system that should’ve existed all along” (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 12/22).
NL EAST SPENDING WAR: In Philadelphia, David Murphy writes by signing Carlos Correa and pushing the Mets’ 2023 payroll “well past” $300M, Cohen both improved his roster and “sent a message to the Phillies. ‘You sure you want to play this game?’” Murphy said the signing “was a power move” and the only choice Phillies owner John Middleton has “is to answer.” The “only answer is to spend more money.” The Phillies “can’t ignore” what the Mets have done. Murphy: “Once your payroll reaches a certain point, you are mostly paying to give yourself escape routes when things start to go wrong. Middleton has done a commendable job of putting his bank account where his heart is.” In the meantime, fans “should at least appreciate the spectacle that is unfolding.” The Phillies and Mets are in a “hot war” again (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 12/23).
