After turning the New York Mets into baseball’s biggest spender, owner Steve Cohen would like to see his team build more economically through its farm system

"I've always wanted to be a little more measured in payroll growth, and then we get there and it's never quite there,” Cohen said Tuesday.

Mets owner Steve Cohen once again revealed that he’d eventually like to see his team stay below the “Cohen Tax” at Clover Park on Tuesday. The competitive balance tax (CBT) negotiated in the 2022 collective bargaining agreement was intended to curb spending for teams like the Mets,

They say that New York City loves to hate on Los Angeles, while Los Angeles doesn’t even think about New York City. The Los Angeles Dodgers are living rent free in the heads of the New York baseball teams right now for good reason.

Among the areas Steve Cohen badly wants the Mets to improve in 2025: fans showing up. The Mets ranked 18th in the majors in attendance last season with an average of 28,757 people per game. That was worse than the Brewers and Diamondbacks and just ahead of the Orioles and Guardians.

Cohen acknowledged that a winter involving a record-setting Juan Soto contract and retaining Sean Manaea and Pete Alonso pushed spending beyond his initial expectations.

Steve Cohen looked around Citi Field last season and didn’t like what he saw. The empty seats in August and September were shocking to the Mets owner and CEO. The team was in the midst of a heated battle for a playoff spot with their division rivals in Atlanta and the reigning NL champs in Arizona.