Mets owner Steve Cohen excited about what he's seeing but trying to stay disciplined

LOS ANGELES — Steve Cohen sees what everybody else sees: the Mets generally wrecking the opposition, running away with the NL East and outperforming what before the season could reasonably be posited as a best-case scenario — all despite Jacob deGrom’s season-long absence and Max Scherzer’s recent absence.

But he has seen starts to seasons like this before — as an owner last year and as a fan in the decades before that — so he does not want to get ahead of himself. Instead, he is trying to balance enjoying the moment while saving the true anticipation for later. 

“Forget even the 9 1/2-game lead [in the division]. It’s how they’re playing the game,” the Mets’ multibillionaire owner said Friday night. “We had a big lead last year, but it was different. This is different. It’s still early. I’m not going to get excited. We know things can change. I’ll get excited in August.

“I’m enjoying this. I can’t not enjoy it. Because when it’s not going well, it’s frustrating. So when it’s going well, you gotta let yourself enjoy it. But it’s still early in the season. I’m not getting excited. I’m trying to stay disciplined, measured, allow it to occur. We’ll see where it goes. The goal is to get into the playoffs. Then we get into the playoffs. Then we’ll see what happens.”

Cohen’s comments came during an impromptu media session on the field at Dodger Stadium, about an hour before first pitch. He is in town for the weekend to watch his club (and see a couple of his kids), which on Friday meant a 4:30 a.m. local time wakeup to work his “day job,” as he calls it, running his hedge fund.

And then it was time to watch baseball. The most enjoyable part of doing that this year, he said, has been the Mets’ habit of late comebacks.

“How much fun is that? You’re never out of it,” Cohen said. “The real problem is I can’t turn the TV off because I gotta stay up and watch. Before you could turn the TV off and say, ‘They’re not going to come back.’ Now I leave the TV on.”

Cohen made efforts to stay away from any potential headline-making questions, such as whether he anticipates a big splash at the Aug. 2 trade deadline (“too early to tell), whether the Mets or the Yankees are better (“I’m excited for New York), and whether he is willing to push the Mets’ payroll above $300 million.

“I’m not going to answer that question,” he said. “It’s only a number.”

But he was willing to heap praise on the men he and team president Sandy Alderson hired to run the Mets: general manager Billy Eppler and manager Buck Showalter.

“He's done a phenomenal job,” Cohen said of Eppler. “I get along with him great, I speak to him every day. Another workhorse, detailed guy on top of everything. Really informative. Gets me answers when I need them. I can't be happier as far as really doing the job. Buck and him are getting along great, so I really think it's a step up.”

Cohen said of Showalter: “He's incredibly detailed and a total professional. You can tell the players want to play for him. It's a totally different mindset. This is a veteran team, and I think it fits. Veterans want to play for a guy like that. He's a seasoned guy, he knows baseball in and out, great personality, perfect for New York.”

It is the people — those decision-makers, plus the players added in the offseason — that have made the difference for the Mets, Cohen said.

“I'm surrounded by, I think, quality people today, which is really helpful. They make me look really good,” he said. “Surrounding myself with the right people goes a long way. We've made significant progress as far as rebuilding the franchise.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.