They say you can’t win the World Series in December, January or February. That’s what they say, anyway.
I say: If the Dodgers don’t win it all this year — and they are historically heavy favorites — then the spend-heavy, hard-hitting Mets just might.
If the Mets do become champs, they won it in Steve Cohen’s ultra-modern Beverly Hills abode, his West Boca retreat, and also Pete Alonso’s private hideaway club in Tampa. They won in a winter of private powwows bookended by two big signings, giving the Mets arguably baseball’s best lineup — and a helluva lot more than a random October chance.
The early winter talks that culminated with Juan Soto’s decision to move 9 ³/₄ miles to the south and east resulted in the biggest sports contract ever, some very hard feelings among Yankee fans who never envisioned anyone of this exalted ilk leaving them (and certainly not for the Mets!), and a slight change in status among our two teams.
The Yankees, history’s darlings, may always be No. 1, with the game’s highest payroll, the 27 titles and the ubiquitous interlocking NY caps worn the world over. But with one quick movement of the pen moments before the Mets staged their happiest news conference ever, Soto made the Mets more relevant than at any time in decades.
Soto declared upon signing the record $765 million deal that he decided to sign in Queens partly because he saw a better future for the Mets, which, to be fair, may be a bit of a hopeful feeling. We aren’t about to proclaim the forever little brothers of the Yankees the best of the Big Apple. Not quite yet. But they do look even better now than when Soto made that startling proclamation.
That’s because two days short of two months later, the Mets made sure Soto wasn’t the greatest replacement player ever and brought back Alonso, their beloved slugging first baseman. Unlike Soto, who has a deal that could take him into middle age, Alonso’s opt-out means he may be back for only 2025. But that’s OK, that’s the season we are previewing today.
And this very season looks like a winner for the Mets, who just may have passed the talented but nickel-squeezing Braves and the oh-so-solid Phillies in a tight-at-the-top NL East.
Sure, this team isn’t perfect. Any team this side of the Dodgers isn’t.
But it looks as good as any Mets squad heading into spring since the wild days of Doc and Darryl, when the Mets pulled off the second miracle in their 63-year history, launching their two-out, none-on, Mookie-made comeback.
It isn’t a stretch to think they could win their third ring after they made it all the way to the National League Championship Series as an expected also-ran last year. Their biggest hurdle remains LA, which managed to win the World Series with a shell of its pitching staff, then added four amazing arms. With the expected return to the mound of impossible superstar Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers look like the most formidable favorite since the Mets entered the National League.
The two teams with baseball’s highest payrolls just may be baseball’s best. But unfortunately, unlike LA, the Mets aren’t quite perfect.
David Stearns is the GM Cohen hoped for since Cohen laid out $2.4 billion for the ballclub. He showed in 2024 that he can find rare rotation bargains and is back buying starters at a flea market.
Two things we’ve learned about Stearns are that he likes long deals for pitchers almost as little as for older players. So the Mets ignored a trio of aces — Max Fried, Corbin Burnes and Blake Snell — and return with their rotation of Sean Manaea and a quartet of flyers.
If there’s a concern, this is it. While Manaea redid his windup and reinvigorated his career, the rest of the rotation has sufficient talent but also comes with considerable question marks.
Kodai Senga pitched like an ace in 2023, but he, along with the ghost fork, virtually disappeared last year, as the iffy medicals The Post first reported when he signed in 2022 only surfaced last year. Frankie Montas is an underachieving fireballer who wasn’t himself as a Yankee.
Clay Holmes is a nice arm the Mets envision as a starter. And David Peterson flashed his first-round potential in 2024. In all, the rotation is solid but far from Dodger-like.
Of course, with a lineup featuring MVP runner-up Francisco Lindor, on-base machine Brandon Nimmo, emerging star Mark Vientos and of course Soto and Alonso, they don’t need a rotation of aces.
A day after bringing Alonso back, and bringing smiles to the fans — and truth be told, Soto, too — Cohen allowed himself a moment to reflect in a phone interview with The Post. The era of hoping to play meaningful games in September is officially over.
“We’ve got a pretty good-looking team,” Cohen decided.
We agree.
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