When Steve Cohen bought the Mets in November 2020, he made his expectations clear.
“One team wins the World Series every year, so that’s a pretty high bar,” Cohen said during his introductory press conference. “But if I don’t win a World Series in the next three to five years — I would like to make it sooner — then obviously I would consider that slightly disappointing. … I’m not in this to be mediocre. I want something great.”
Cohen is now entering his third year as the team’s owner and the Mets have made significant progress throughout the organization, including 101 wins and a playoff appearance last season.
“We haven’t won it yet and we’re two years in, so time’s running out,” Cohen said with a laugh Wednesday on the “Mets’d Up” podcast with Howie Rose.
But Cohen is not making any “World Series or bust” mandates heading into 2023.
“You’ve got to set high goals in life,’’ Cohen said. “If you don’t set goals that seem hard to accomplish, you’re not gonna accomplish anything. We’re gonna do our best to accomplish them.”
Though the Mets finished with the second-most regular-season wins in franchise history and made the postseason, they lost in the wild-card round to the Padres.
“What I learned is to win a World Series, you’ve got to put yourself in position every year and then you get a little luck and sometimes it falls your way,’’ Cohen said. “Only one team wins [it all]. Twenty-nine teams lose. There are a lot of good teams out there trying to do the same thing I try to do.”
Cohen made further investments in the roster this offseason, spending to add Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana to the rotation, keeping Edwin Diaz as the closer and Brandon Nimmo in the outfield. His team missed out, however, on Carlos Correa, who ended up back in Minnesota after potential deals with the Mets and Giants both were scuttled by concerns about the infielder’s ankle.
Those moves, Cohen hopes, will get the Mets back to the playoffs. After that, there are no guarantees.
“I think the way to get there is to increase your probability to get in the playoffs on a consistent basis with a team that can go deep into playoffs,’’ Cohen said. “Once you get to the playoffs, anything can happen. You’ve got to keep putting yourself there. If we keep putting ourselves there, things are gonna fall our way at some point or another.”
In the meantime, Cohen believes the experience of reaching the playoffs last season in Buck Showalter’s first year as manager will pay dividends.
“Things don’t happen overnight,’’ Cohen said. “You’ve got to measure progress along the way.”
