Mets owner Steve Cohen: 'Nobody wants to start zero-and-four, but you know, it's early'
Mets owners Steve and Alexandra Cohen wait for the team's baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
Is the Mets’ 0-4 start causing panic in the Citi? Not if you’re team owner Steve Cohen.
“It's only four games into the season, right?" Cohen asked CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin during an interview Wednesday on "Squawk Box". "Nobody wants to start zero-and-four, but you know, it's early. During the season, you're going to have losing streaks. We just happen to have one at the beginning."
Cohen said before the team’s opener last Friday that he would be disappointed if the Mets didn’t make the playoffs.
On Wednesday, Cohen said he considered ownership of the Mets almost a philanthropic endeavor (although he wasn’t asked if he feels the same way about the casino he hopes to build next to Citi Field).
“I don't care about the cost side," Cohen said about the Mets and their MLB-high $341 million payroll. "I said in my original [news] conference, ‘If I can make millions of people happy, how cool is that?’ So I actually view it as a civic responsibility."
Still, Cohen said, "Nobody wants to lose money forever and spend money and not have success. To me, I think success is not only winning the World Series, getting in the playoffs and winning the World Series, it's also developing a deep farm system that creates talent over the years, and over and over again."
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
