Mets Owner Steve Cohen Goes Off On “Player Agent” in Angry Tweet
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is certainly not shy about using the social media platform Twitter. Just four days after telling reporters that he would tone down his presence…
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 10: Mets owner Steve Cohen at the opening of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination site at Citi Field on February 10, 2021 in the Queens borough of New York City. The inoculation site will focus on providing vaccinations to Queens residents, food service workers, and taxi drivers. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is certainly not shy about using the social media platform Twitter.
Just four days after telling reporters that he would tone down his presence on the site, the Mets owner exploded in a rant decrying what turned out to be the player rep for former Mets hurler Steven Matz, who just recently signed a four-year, $44 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.
According to New York Post reporter Joel Sherman, he contacted Cohen by phone, and Cohen relayed to him why he was so upset on the eve before Thanksgiving. The Tweets by Sherman are an incredible form of journalism in of itself.
Matz's agent did get in touch with Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and left a very stern message for Cohen's Tweeting theatrics.
Matz hadn't pitched for the Mets since 2020. When he was a member of the Amazin's, Matz was mostly mediocre, pitching to a 4.35 ERA over six seasons, and was four games under .500. Last season he was dealt to Toronto and had the best year of his career, pitching to a 3.52 ERA and a record of 14-7. As a free agent this winter, many projected the Mets would be a player for Matz's services, since the team is in dire need of starting pitching.
According to the Post, sources confirmed that Cohen and newly minted General Manager Billy Eppler thought they would get a chance to match whatever offer Matz would receive. They never got that call --- not totally surprising since Matz was a free agent anyway. Matz was pursued by as many as eight teams.
This is not the first time Cohen, the Mets and Cohen's Tweeting have made headlines.
During the summer he challenged the reporting of veteran reporter Mike Puma, questioning who his sources were in an article critical of Cohen's ownership. Cohen asked fans to find out who the source was, and whoever did would get a chance to sit in the owner's suite.
Before that, fans grew upset over Javier Baez's thumbs down antics that were directed at fans for booing the players after the Mets were coming off a 1-12 stretch against the LA Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. When Baez broke out of his slump with a game winning slide against the Marlins, Cohen took to Twitter again.
Cohen has also used Twitter to critique players on their approach to the plate during that same August swoon.
As for this off-season, it took the Mets seven weeks to find a general manager after failing to hire a President of Baseball Operations. The Mets went looking at many candidates, most ending in rejections, others where teams declined permission for the Mets to interview. The Mets wound up hiring Eppler, the former agent of the LA Angels as GM. Almost the same day Eppler was named Mets GM, former starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard accepted a 1-year, $21 million deal with the LA Angels. Reliever Aaron Loup would follow Syndergaard to Anaheim, inking a two-year deal.
