Steve Cohen responds to talk of potential Mets firings

Sep 11, 2021; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets majority owner Steve Cohen and his wife Alexandra Cohen at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Mets entered the season with high expectations, but concern is growing after the team’s seventh consecutive defeat on Friday. The team’s performance has been bad enough that there has been some speculation about the job security of manager Buck Showalter.

Mets owner Steve Cohen insists, however, that he does not intend to make such changes at this time. While Cohen conceded that he is frustrated, he added that he did not see the point of making “reactionary” changes, even though he understands why fans might be angry.

“You have to take a look at your process. Work hard. Try to fix what you can fix. And not be reactionary,” Cohen told Joel Sherman of the New York Post. “I think that’s the worst thing you can do is to be overly reactionary. General fan reaction, it’s usually, ‘I can’t believe Steve’s not going nuts, fire somebody.’ My answer to that is, ‘OK, let’s say I went nuts. Let’s say I fired somebody. Then what?’ What does that accomplish? Who are you gonna replace them with? This is the middle of the season. And then if you actually ask people [who are the replacements], they have no answers, other than they’re just angry, and I get that.

“I’m frustrated too. The players are frustrated. The front office is frustrated. We are frustrated. No one expected this. This is really surprising. It doesn’t mean that things won’t get better. If we can find ways to fix our weaknesses, we’ll try.”

In other words, Cohen does not see the point of ousting someone like Showalter unless he is getting a clear upgrade. It does not exactly suggest Showalter’s position is untouchable, but it’s pretty obvious that Cohen does not want to pull a knee-jerk reaction.

The Mets’ big problem is that their starting pitching has not performed to expectations, though they have had injury issues as well. Whatever the excuse, they are just 30-34 and 9.5 games out in the NL East. Things have to turn around soon or they risk missing the playoffs entirely.