When Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets in 2020, he made a bold promise and set a clear timeline for delivering a championship to Queens. At his introductory press conference, Cohen set this goal. “Well, you know, only one team wins the World Series every year, right? So that’s a pretty high bar,” Cohen mentioned. “But if I don’t win a World Series in the next three to five years.. I’d like to make it sooner, then obviously, I would consider that slightly disappointing.” Five years have now passed, and after another season ended in heartbreak, “slightly disappointing” feels like the understatement for fans in Queens.

This season’s ending was particularly brutal as Steve Cohen and the New York Mets spent $341,116,623 on payroll and even signed Juan Soto to a historical $765 M, 15-year contract.  And what do they get? They entered the final day of the season, yet couldn’t get a Wild Card spot as the Reds, the team that ranked 28th in team valuation, held the tiebreaker with the same record.

And now, as the 2025 collapse officially marks the end of Cohen’s initial five-year window, a viral tweet from SleeperMets perfectly captured the frustration. “In 2020, Steve Cohen promised Mets fans a World Series in 3-5 years. 2021: Missed playoffs, 2022: Wild Card exit, 2023: Missed playoffs, 2024: Lost in NLCS, 2025: Missed playoffs. Has the Cohen era been a failure so far⁉️” And we can’t argue…

Remember the failures?

In 2021, Cohen’s first season after his agreement was signed in September 2020, the team held first place for 103 days but ended with a 77-85 finish after Jacob deGrom’s injury. The 2022 season was even more heartbreaking when the Mets won 101 games and even held a 10.5-game lead in the division by the end of May. But they were swept by the Atlanta Braves in the final week and lost the division on a tiebreaker. The demoralized team then returned to New York after the Wild Card round.

Then came 2023, the most expensive failure in baseball history. The Mets were World Series favorites. Result? They finished 75-87, a 26-win drop from the previous season. Star closer Edwin Díaz suffered a season-ending injury before the first game, and underperformance from the aging aces, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, forced Cohen to approve a mid-season fire sale.

After that, they hired David Stearns and new manager Carlos Mendoza. And after a sloppy start, things changed, and they ultimately qualified for October, where they defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card Series and then even stopped their heavily favored division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies, in the Division Series.  But the magical “Grimace” run finally ended in the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And this season? They held the best record in the major leagues at 45-24 by June 12, but after a complete collapse in rotation and bullpen, their season ended with an 83-79 record on the final day in Miami.

But judging Cohen’s tenure only by these on-field collapses will overshadow a complete and total revolution happening behind the scenes.

The Cohen effect: More than a promise for the Mets

The biggest change has been financial, and Cohen completely changed the team’s old reputation for being cheap. The Mets’ payroll has consistently ranked in the top three every year in Cohen’s ownership. The 2023 payroll was the first to ever cross the $300 million mark, and the league even created a new luxury tax penalty nicknamed the “Cohen Tax.”

But the tax didn’t stop him as he paid over $100 million in luxury taxes in 2022 alone.

In his tenure, Cohen authorized some of the biggest contracts ever made in baseball history. A 10-year, $341 million extension for superstar Francisco Lindor to Max Scherzer to a deal with the highest average annual salary in history, everywhere Cohen made his mark. He made Edwin Díaz the highest-paid reliever ever. And, of course,  Juan Soto’s record-breaking $765 million contract was his biggest statement to the league.

It was a night-and-day difference from the previous Wilpon ownership. And when the money flowed, Cohen also cleaned the front office.

Cohen’s first few years were chaotic. His first GM, Jared Porter, was fired after a month for misconduct. And the next GM, Zack Scott, was fired after a DUI arrest. And that streak ended in 2023 when he hired David Stearns, the architect of the successful Milwaukee Brewers. Plus, due to his long-term vision, the single greatest success of the Cohen era was the total rebuild of the farm system that ESPN ranked as the #1 best in all of baseball.

So, is the Cohen era a complete failure to date? Look only at the promise of a World Series trophy, yes! But if we look deeper, the answer might change. Cohen has successfully transformed the Mets from a dysfunctional club into a powerhouse.