Mike's Mets - Changing Perceptions

 

By Mike Steffanos

Steve Cohen and the Mets have dramatically reversed last fall's negative coverage and the perception around baseball that the Mets were an organization in trouble.

As the New York Mets continue their preparations for the 2022 season, it's startling to see how the perception of the team has changed since last fall. Unfortunately, as has become all too common in recent years, the Mets were again spectators in October while other teams vied for a championship. Steve Cohen's first year as owner of the Mets was a disappointment — not only to fans, but I'm sure to the man himself. Mistakes and missteps were definitely made, but the local and national media were engaging in a frenzy of negativity in their coverage of the team. Much of that negativity was overblown and unfair.

Back in November 2020, Sandy Alderson and Steve Cohen got off to a rough start searching for a President of Baseball Operations. They were surprised by how many of their candidates declined to interview or were denied permission by their clubs. They had to pivot to finding a lesser name to be GM. The initial reaction was quite positive when they selected Jared Porter for the job. Then old allegations of serious sexual harassment came out, and the Mets were forced to fire Porter only a month after hiring him. The Mets were rightfully criticized for failing to properly vet their new GM. Still, it's important to note that the harassment happened when Porter worked for the Cubs. He was subsequently hired by the Diamondbacks as a Senior Vice President and Assistant GM, and they also failed to unearth the incidents with Chicago.

After the Porter debacle, stories came out about Mickey Callaway, whom Sandy Alderson had hired to manage the team in his time as Mets GM. Callaway had a track record as a serial harasser of women going back to his time as Cleveland's pitching coach. Of course, Calloway had come and gone before Steve Cohen bought the Mets, but the Alderson connection was the hook for the media to lump Callaway's antics in with the Jared Porter story. More things came out about the Mets organization's shameful history dealing with women during the Wilpon years. Despite the problems in other organizations, this all became primarily a Mets story rather than a baseball story. Porter's history with the Cubs and Callaway's in Cleveland and Anaheim were all but ignored.

The Mets could have at least made strides in changing the perception of the organization with a successful season on the field, but injuries and underachievement led to an awful August and September. For the 13th time since the turn of the 21st Century, the Mets would finish under .500, out of the playoffs for the 18th time. For the icing on the cake, September also featured acting GM Zack Scott being charged with DUI and being suspended by the team. In Cohen's first year, almost nothing had been accomplished to rewrite the "same old Mets" storyline.

After the season ended, the team began a new search for a PBO. The names being bandied about by the media — Theo Epstein, Billy Beane, David Stearns again — were all extreme long shots to take the position. Yet when none did, it was trumpeted in the media as another failure. Then some lesser names declined to interview or were again denied permission to speak with the Mets. Stories were written blaming Steve Cohen's tweets and stated desire to win a title for the failure to land a dream candidate.

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