Steve Cohen discusses Mets’ offseason moves

n”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:”https://twitter.com”,”type”:”rich”,”width”:550},”type”:”oembed”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content”:”In his expanded role, Cohen has begun spending an extra day per week in the Citi Field office suite. He was intimately involved in the club’s nine-figure pursuits of Justin Verlander, Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Díaz and Carlos Correa this winter and expects to remain a key voice in baseball operations for the foreseeable future.nnSo far, that has meant greenlighting an expenditure of $498.1 million on 10 free agents to increase New York’s payroll to roughly $370 million — by far the largest in MLB history, which Cohen chalked up in part to inflation affecting the free-agent market. He also defended his spending spree by saying he is operating within league regulations set forth in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that was ratified a year ago. That includes paying a projected Competitive Balance Tax bill of close to $100 million on top of the team’s payroll.nn“At the Owners’ Meetings, I had owners coming up and they go, ‘You’re 100% right. You are following the rules.’ Which I am,” Cohen said. “They laid down the rules, and I’m following them.”nnWith such a large expense sheet, Cohen acknowledged he is losing money on the team to keep it competitive in the short-term, which he says he is willing to do to satisfy what he calls his “commitment to the fans.””,”type”:”markdown”},{“__typename”:”Video”,”contentDate”:”2023-02-20T20:34:41.923Z”,”description”:”Buck Showalter goes into detail on the progress the Mets have made during Spring Training, where the team is headed and more”,”displayAsVideoGif”:false,”duration”:”00:01:58″,”mp4AvcPlayback”:”https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-02/20/2af32c2f-8b70ba8a-9dd8cbce-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4″,”slug”:”mets-spring-training-progress”,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”Tag”,”slug”:”teamid-121″,”title”:”New York Mets”},{“__typename”:”Tag”,”slug”:”mlb”,”title”:”MLB”},{“__typename”:”Tag”,”slug”:”spring-training”,”title”:”Spring Training”},{“__typename”:”Tag”,”slug”:”interview”,”title”:”interview”},{“__typename”:”Tag”,”slug”:”press-conference”,”title”:”press conference”}],”templateUrl”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/{formatInstructions}/mlb/pgb6auel4usmkhbjdr95″,”title”:”Mets’ Spring Training…