NEW YORK — By bringing in Derek Jeter for the occasion of naming Aaron Judge as their 16th team captain, the Yankees Wednesday did their best to blunt the hysteria reigning over in Queens with Steve Cohen’s stunning 3 a.m., $315 million pilfering of Carlos Correa from the Giants.
But make no mistake, this latest aggressive foray into free agency by the Mets owner, which catapulted his payroll to a staggering $384 million, sent shockwaves throughout baseball that are going to be felt for years to come. Back in October 2020, 26 of the 30 owners voted to approve Cohen as Mets owner. I would suspect most all of them now regret that. Prior to Wednesday, Cohen could defend his previous $500 million expenditures on Edwin Diaz, Brandon Nimmo, Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, et al., as being simply a matter of reinforcing the Mets in the face of the potential loss of eight key free agents, including Diaz, Nimmo, Jacob deGrom and Chris Bassitt.
But now comes the Correa signing — a player Cohen really didn’t need, with a very capable third baseman in Eduardo Escobar, and their top prospect Brett Baty next up on the depth chart — and the only way you can look at it is just plain reckless. At least that’s the way the rest of baseball is looking at it. Or as one high-level baseball executive put it to me Wednesday: “Since when did Carlos Correa become a $300 million player? What has he ever done? He’s been an All-Star twice. What kind of a difference did he make last year in Minnesota?”
