Billy Eppler

Major League Baseball fans are growing impatient with the cat and mouse game going on between super-agent Scott Boras and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, involving the contract of Carlos Correa. The issue at hand? Correa's lower leg injury, that appears significant enough that the San Francisco Giants pulled away a $350 million deal and now the Mets are keeping the All Star infielder at a little less than arms-length for the same reason. Rumors came out on Thursday night that Correa's agent has reached out to other clubs. That may be true but Correa will end up a Met and this is why.

Steve Cohen, in an overnight move in the early hours of Wednesday morning, appears to have snatched the highest priced free agent left on the market from the San Francisco Giants. Even weirder, it appears this may have all begun as the Giants were getting ready to introduce Carlos Correa as their new shortstop.

The New York Yankees and Mets spent about half a billion dollars this week on free agents. Aaron Judge, the best player on the market, never received an offer from one of the richest owners in sports, Steve Cohen, from across town. The Major League Baseball Players Union can call it collusion. Most call it doing business in New York. Two successful baseball teams in the Big Apple create a summer craze of headlines and packed ballparks. Now the Mets are in competition to sign a free agent pitcher from Japan and the Yankees may benefit from the star landing in Queens.

Some may say that dishing out a record contract to your closer days after the conclusion of the World Series isn't playing your hand slowly. As New York Mets general manager Billy Eppler heads into his second off-season at the helm of Steve Cohen's team, he is well aware that one has to move fast at times and be patient at others to be successful. Eppler made some key acquisitions last winter, like right fielder Starling Marte, left fielder Mark Cahna and third baseman Eduardo Escobar. Those three moves, along with Eppler's hire of Manager of the Year, Buck Showalter, changed the culture of the Mets. Now it's time to continue the improvement. That is what Cohen expects.

If the New York Mets want to be a perennial playoff team, then they have to make decisions with their head and not their heart. Faced with the prospect of paying their free-agent, ace right-hander, Jake deGrom for the next 3 or 4 years, at $40 plus million per, Amazin's general manager Billy Eppler had better think long and hard about the investments that he makes over the next year, as Mets president-in-waiting David Stearns bides his time, collecting checks from the Milwaukee Brewers and making notes on his future employees.

New York Mets' owner Steve Cohen isn't afraid to throw money around, and ahead of the 2022 MLB Trade Deadline, these ten players could be on the move to Queens.