Cohen is going to try to buy a Championship with a team full of mercenaries.

Few things are more predictable than Mike Lupica's moral relativity:

"The most interesting sports person in town this year, Steve Cohen, didn’t officially get the Mets until six weeks ago. It seems he’s been around longer, because of all the drama of the sale, including the drama king and queen of that story, meaning Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, who ultimately had as much of a chance against going up against Cohen as you or me."

Alex Rodriguez.

Don't sell yourself short, Mr. Lupica.

The most interesting "sports person in town" ... whatever that even means ... is you.

 "But as soon as Cohen’s inevitable purchase of the team got locked down solid, at a price tag of $2.4 billion, something else became official, and pretty quickly. It was the stated position of most Mets fans I know on the subject of Steven Cohen, if not all of them

It went something like this:

He might be one of those Wall Street, 'Billions'-type robber barons but, by God, he’s our robber baron."

I don't think any Mets fans knew much about Steve Cohen until he bought the Mets.

"And were generally unbothered, or just forgetful, about the inside-trading charges once leveled against Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LP, for which Cohen paid $1.8 billion — 1.8 billion with a b, enough to buy most baseball teams — in penalties. Part of the settlement for Cohen (at that time), a hedge fund legend of the first rank, was that he was only allowed to manage his own money. It must also be noted that he was never criminally charged. It frankly wouldn’t have bothered Mets fans if he had, no matter what kind of bad boy he’d been back in the day."

He sure has a lot of money, doesn't he? 

"In all ways in sports, especially if someone gives your team a better chance to win, any indiscretions in the past, or billion-dollar penalties in Cohen’s case, are simply viewed as the cost of doing business."

With whom are you arguing, MOTO?

"Seriously? Do you think a majority of Yankee fans were ever truly bothered that George M. Steinbrenner, the most famous owner in the history of the city, was kicked out of baseball twice, even though that is a world’s record that may stand for all of time?"

No.

I don't think a majority of Yankee fans were ever truly bothered that George M. Steinbrenner was kicked out of baseball twice.

You are among the few who criticized Steinbrenner, incessantly, about everything.

"You know what Mr. Steinbrenner is now? The biggest plaque in Monument Park. He was the owner when the Yankees got back on top, and he was still the owner when they became as great a dynasty as we’ve had in Yankee history, between 1996 and 2000, four World Series titles in five years and nearly five in six."

Well, I did some fact-checking, and it turns out Lupica is right about this one.

The Yankees won four World Series in five years between 1996 and 2000.

Who knew?

Is this going anywhere?

"The Mets haven’t played a game that counts yet. Long way from that. This is an old song lyric turned on its head: Will Mets fans love Steve Cohen in May as they do in December? We’ll find out. But for now there is one thing completely official about the official new owner of the Mets:

The guy who feels like the biggest player in town these days isn’t even a player."

I have no idea what you're even talking about.

There is a difference between stopping a column and ending a column, and this column just stops.

Steve Cohen is the owner of the Mets ... and George Steinbrenner used to be the owner of the Yankees, I guess, is the point.

Also, a reference to a song lyric I don't recognize. Which is fine. It would be embarrassing to the reader if they understood your outdated pop culture references.

Mets: good.

Yankees: bad.

 

 

Cohen isn't stupid.

Some Mets fans think Cohen is going to spend all of his money on the Mets. 

Sign Bauer, Springer, Arenado, LeMahieu, and that catcher from Philly.

Overpay for all of them if you have to.

Make a splash.

Set the market.

Like, he should waste money because he has a lot of it.

Well, how do you think he got a lot of money?

By being stupid?

Most of the people on Earth were not alive in 1961.

"You know what Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were going to be, in addition to being the biggest bookends the Yankees had ever had: They were going to be Mantle and Maris 2.0 or even more in a home run world."

Meh.

 

"It was in 1961 that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs and Mickey hit 54. After that it would be nearly 60 years until the Yankees would enter a season with two guys who had 50-plus home run seasons on their resumes. "

Actually, in 1962 the Yankees entered the season with two guys who had 50-plus home run seasons on their resumes.

Those two guys were Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

So the Yankees had to wait one season.

Then the same can be said of every subsequent year until 1967.

Right?

Yeah, I know that's not what you meant, but it's what you said.

 

I got another one, genius: 2011.

Alex Rodriguez and Andruw Jones.

Again, I know this is not what you meant. You meant power hitters in their prime where the expectation was, quite possibly, 100 HRs between them.

But that's not what you said, professional writer.

"That was 2018. Judge was coming off a 52-homer season. Stanton was coming off a 59-homer season in Miami. So that was 111 home runs between them, at different ends of the East Coast, four fewer than Mickey and Roger hit in ’61."

Damn, man.

1961, 1986, 2004.

Even 2004 is ancient history and now you want to talk about a team from 1961.

I know all about the1961 Yankees. Johnny Blanchard with 21 home runs off the bench.

What does it have to do with anything?

 

"The big guys who combined for 111 home runs in the baseball season of 2017 have combined to hit 108 in their three seasons together in the Bronx."

I mean ... we know.

It's not easy to hit home runs when you're not playing.

 

"Three years later the most intense pressure on them isn’t to hit home runs, it is to stay on the field. I hear all the time that the various injuries they’ve suffered happen all the time to guys their size. Really? How come they didn’t happen to a power forward named David Winfield? You know how many games Winfield missed in his first eight seasons with the Yankees? 89. Judge beat that in 2018 and ’19 alone. Stanton over the last two years has missed 181."

I don't know why Dave Winfield was relatively healthy when compared to Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge.

Neither do you.

I can find lots of baseball players of all sizes who stayed healthy, and I can find lots of baseball players of all sizes who were unable to stay healthy.

 

"It is why the idea that they are going to play together for a long time, and hit all the home runs we thought they were going to hit, seems less and less sustainable."

Ha ha. No kidding. 

 

"Maybe the Yankees win a World Series or two before a walk year for Aaron Judge. But if they don’t, and Judge is still here, we would be looking at three players — Judge, Stanton, Cole — taking up $100 million of payroll. How is that sustainable going forward, especially since all three of them would be past 30 by then?"

It's sustainable because the Yankees have a current net worth of $5 billion. 

You know this.

What is going on here?

"It seems impossible that the Yankees could find a taker for Stanton no matter how much of his contract they were willing to pick up, not after we’ve seen Stanton play a grand total of 41 regular-season games out of the 222 the Yankees played over the past two seasons, which basically means one-fifth."

Not at all.

If the Yankees pick up, say, ninety percent of his salary, then every team in baseball would want Giancarlo Stanton.

Think A.J. Burnett. 

"And Judge? After hitting those 52 home runs and becoming the face of the Yankees and one of the fresh faces of baseball in 2017, he has hit 63 since. He missed 50 games one season and 60 games the next and would have missed 100 at least if there had been a full 162 in 2020, not a 60-game season that saw Judge play less than half of those games."

Right.

Stanton and Judge are injury-prone.

Which is why they haven't combined for as many home runs as Mantle and Maris hit 59 years ago.

Got it. 

 

"The Yankees are stuck with that contract. For a designated hitter. Cashman said the other day that because they have Stanton locked up until the 12th of Never, they had no room for Kyle Schwarber, who would have been a dream — and left-handed hitting — DH at the new Yankee Stadium, an old-fashioned lefty hitter with home run pop on a team that is righty heavy."

Staggering logic.

An injury-prone left-handed hitter who hit .188 last year and is a career .230 batting average is a dream.

It totally sounds like a dream come true for Schwarber to play half his games at Yankees Stadium. In exchange for 5 additional home runs, you'll get 200 strike outs and 300 into-the-shift ground balls. The Giambi/Teixeira Highway to Hell.

Besides, the lefty/righty thing is outdated in the era of the Super Ball.

Most of Judge's home runs go to center field or right field. Stanton pretty much the same, I think.

 

"If Stanton even had a slightly manageable deal, which he sure doesn’t, maybe you could move him. He doesn’t have that kind of deal. It would be like moving the Stadium itself.

No one would have thought this possible a few years ago, but maybe one of these days — and soon — the Yankees decide that Judge is the one who has to go."

It's looking too far into the future.

Maybe Stanton is about to win back-to-back MVPs and Judge is going to win back-to-back World Series MVPs. If so, they're not going anywhere.

I don't know if Stanton and Judge can stay healthy. I am confident they will be productive on the field if they're healthy.

I know two things for sure:

1. Judge is very popular with the fans. If this continues, the Yankees will sign him.
2. The Yankees can afford to pay Stanton, Cole, and Judge at the same time. 

Just like the Ellsbury contract didn't matter and the ARod contract didn't matter, the Stanton contract doesn't matter.

 

 

Again with Voit.

LeMahieu is acknowledged as team's best player.

A lot of this value comes from his versatility in the field, sure, but also his excellence at playing third base and second base.

First base, not so much.

Some stats suggest Voit is a bad fielder at first. He seems pretty good to me when he's healthy. Surely good enough for the guy who led the majors in home runs, no?

So keep Urshela at third, move Torres to second, move LeMahieu to first, and put Unnamed Free Agent Signing / Voit Trade Result at shortstop.

So now you've got a gold glove second baseman playing first and a bad shortstop playing second.

Who knows who's playing short, but he'd better be Ozzie Smith.

One of my personal favorite players, but ...

 ... he just isn't a great pitcher anymore.

His well-earned reputation as a playoff stud took a hit this year, though I felt he was a little unlucky in the playoffs.

If the Yankees can get LeMahieu for $60 million, that would be great.

"In 50 games this year, LeMahieu led the majors with a career-high batting average of .364. He also won the National League title while with the Rockies in 2016, hitting .348.

Now, with his ability to play first, second and third having been demonstrated, LeMahieu’s versatility and having proven he can hit outside the hitter-friendly confines of Colorado’s Coors Field, the 32-year-old is going to get about $20 million a year for at least three years, two American League executives and two agents agreed. 

And LeMahieu has many more suitors than when the Yankees took advantage of his down market in 2018.

With the Yankees having made clear that they wanted to get under the $210 million luxury tax threshold even before managing partner Hal Steinbrenner publicly claimed the team lost the most money in baseball with the coronavirus pandemic-abbreviated season, that doesn’t give the Bombers much payroll flexibility to work with."

We all agree he's the best player on the Yankees.

We all agree he's in demand.

Now compare 3/$60 to the other players on the Yankees. 

Compare 3/$60 to similar players throughout baseball.

Something in the logic is not synching up.

I wouldn't trade Zach Wheeler for dead players or retired players.

A weird solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

The Yankee infield: Urshela, Torres, LeMahieu (cross your fingers), and Voit. It's a great infield.

Voit led the majors in HRs and played through an injured foot.

You move LeMahieu to first base and you lose one of his best skills -- his ability to play spectacular defense at an important defensive position.

Yeah, I guess Voit's trade value is high; maybe he's just good.

When players are good, your keep them on your team, because a good team is composed of good players.

Trade everybody who's good for bullpen pitchers. 

Move Torres back to second base because ... why? 

All the genius armchair GMs have the some dopey solution.

You don't know what you don't know.

I laughed out loud when I saw David Ortiz on this list.

This really isn't a useful list. It lists a bunch of great baseball players you already knew were great.

Did any of them take steroids? Probably.

Did all of them take steroids? Maybe.

Mets fix their bullpen again.