The Mets lost to the Dodgers, again!

The Mets were left on the outside looking in for Kyle Tucker - so is the Steve Cohen dream dead?

What’s up with the Mets? 🍎

• The Mets lost out on free agent OF Kyle Tucker - he will join the Dodgers on a four-year, $240 million contract. He gets opt-outs after years two and three, a $64 million signing bonus with $30 million deferred (ESPN)

• The Mets offered Tucker four years, $220 million with a $75 million signing bonus and zero deferrals (Athletic)

• The Mets signed number two international prospect SS Wandy Asigen for $3.9 million (Official)

• The team signed LHP Trey McGough to a two-year minor league deal (Athletic)

• The Mets traded LHP Franklin Gomez to Cleveland in exchange for international signing pool space to help cover Asigen’s bonus

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Rumor Mill 💨

• Both the Yankees and Mets have checked in on the availability of Freddy Peralta with the Brewers (NY Post)

• The Yankees are reportedly willing to include opt-outs in any contract with free agent Cody Bellinger (NY Post)

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What I’m Reading 📰

• With OF Kyle Tucker off the board where do the Mets go from here? (The Athletic | LoHud)

• The Mets are now left trying to save an off-season of their own doing (SNY)

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Is the Steve Cohen dream dead? ✍️

AP Photo

When Steve Cohen bought the Mets from the Wilpons, Mets fans everywhere rejoiced. He became the wealthiest owner in the sport, and it seemed that the team was finally free from the cheap shackles of the previous owners.

As a lifelong fan, he said all the right things and promised a World Series within the first five years of him owning the team.

It is now 2026, and no World Series has materialized.

They certainly came close in 2024, but at this point, that’s a team that merely looks like it backed its way into the playoffs and had a nice run. The dream of having a rich owner who can outbid other teams for the stars in the league has also not materialized, at least not to the degree one might’ve hoped.

In fact, they have more often been used for leverage to get more money from the Dodgers than they have used their own might to get their man.

They were supposedly blindsided when Edwin Díaz left for Los Angeles without checking back in with them. They’d presumably like to have that one back - it’s clear they simply botched that negotiation and allowed the Dodgers to come right through the door and take their prize. And now Kyle Tucker got a better deal (4/240) after being offered a monster deal by the Mets (4/220) after lurking in the shadows of his free agency, waiting to swoop in and take another prize from them.

Nobody can blame them for missing out on Tucker after the offer they put forth, but what they can be blamed for is not creating an attractive destination for free agents and not being prepared to absorb losing this race. The Mets have turned over their front office several times under Cohen’s watch, turned over their dugout staff the same number of times, and now turned over most of their roster under David Stearns in just two short years. On top of that, the Mets have had two playoff teams sandwiched in between two seasons in which they completely fell apart (2021 and 2023), and another that was fool’s gold, having held onto first place into the second half only to end up losing more games than they won (2021).

That hasn’t and doesn’t happen with the Dodgers. The winning still hasn’t materialized like it has for the Dodgers, so any free agent in pursuit of an easy ring is going to go there. They can easily leverage the Mets and leave for the place where they can go win a championship. Joining Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto should be enough to attract free agents, but the dismal 2025 season tanked any prestige they might have otherwise had.

Now the current CBA is set to expire after the 2026 season, and fans are louder than ever calling for a salary cap, and the owners will be only too happy to oblige. If Rob Manfred and the small-to-mid market owners get their way, that will truly be the day that the dream of Steve Cohen’s money attracting free agents will truly die.

The team will instead need to rely on a front office with a high baseball IQ and a talented prospect pool, which they do have right now. The future of the team isn’t necessarily bleak if a salary cap is implemented, but that beautiful dream of finally getting an owner who will spend, after years and years in the doldrums, will be over.

And so it goes for Mets fans.

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Around the League 🚩

• According to Jeff Passan, Tucker’s 4-year, $240 million deal includes opt-outs after years two and three and $30 million in deferred money (ESPN)

• A three-way trade between the Angels, Reds, and Rays sent OF Josh Lowe to the Angels, LHP Brock Burke to Cincinnati, and INF Gavin Lux and RHP Chris Clark got sent to Tampa (MLB.com)

• Retired LHP Clayton Kershaw will pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic (ESPN)

• The Rockies signed utilityman Willi Castro to a two-year deal worth $12.8 million (ESPN)