PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Even New York Mets owner Steve Cohen didn’t expect his club’s payroll to remain this high for 2025.
Cohen said he had an idea of where he wanted team payroll to be this season and that the Mets “blew through it” over a winter that included a $765 million contract for slugger Juan Soto — the largest in sports history.
“I’ve always wanted to be a little more measured in payroll growth, and then we get there and it’s never quite there,” Cohen said Tuesday at Clover Park. “Free agency is a lot more expensive than even you plan for that year.”
New York’s luxury-tax payroll currently sits around $330 million — or close to $90 million above the initial luxury-tax threshold. As such, the Mets are once again positioned to pay significant luxury-tax fees; right now they project to be close to $75 million.
“I’d like to get below the Cohen Tax,” Cohen said, using the moniker for the fourth surcharge threshold added to the luxury tax in the last collective-bargaining agreement. Spending more than $60 million above the initial luxury-tax threshold triggers a tax of 110 percent for repeat offenders like the Mets. “Nobody wants to pay tax. Those are expensive taxes.”
As he has in recent years, Cohen again stressed the importance of building a better talent pipeline for the Mets through the minor leagues, so more of their roster is under cost control. New York has more than $280 million committed to guaranteed contracts this season.
Cohen did joke, “I’m a piker now compared to the Dodgers.”
Los Angeles’ luxury-tax payroll is about $60 million higher than that of the Mets; the Dodgers project to pay more than $140 million in fees alone.
“They’ve built a great business over there with revenues that are significantly above almost any other team, and that gives them the ability to do things that perhaps other teams can’t do,” Cohen said of L.A. “So kudos to them.”
Cohen and the Athletics’ John Fisher were recently added to the league’s eight-person executive council, replacing Philadelphia’s John Middleton and Kansas City’s John Sherman. Cohen deferred any conversation about the next collective-bargaining agreement, which will be negotiated ahead of the 2027 season.
“I’m focused on 2025. A lot can happen between now and then,” he said. “As I get up to speed, I’ll know more.”
Asked if he’d be OK with a salary cap restricting his spending, he said, “I’ll compete under any circumstances.”
There could be another opportunity for Cohen and the Mets to spend big on a young slugger next winter. Asked if the club could go for Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in free agency, Cohen said, “He’s a great ballplayer. Once again, I’ll worry about that next year. You can’t have too many long-term contracts because then you lose your roster flexibility. So you’ve got to be really careful. But I’ll let my baseball people make that decision.”
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(Photo: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
