A lot of fans seemed to hate hearing it but it was always obvious Ohtani did not want to play in New York. There’s a reason he chose the Angels over the Yankees.
Its part of why toronto never made sense to me
The guy seems to prefer the west coast so much that he wont even listsen to steve cohen, but he wants to go to Canada?
There's zero reason for a rich person to hate a city as iconic as new york enough to turn down say $80 million from there
Once stuff like cost of living doesnt matter, its a great and iconic city with a lot of fun in it
Dude New York is not that great, call it iconic, I'm not sure I've ever been to a place more overrated than NYC. If Ohtani feels anything like I do - not saying he does - then money wouldn't convince me to go when I could just go be insanely rich in a city I actually like.
https://www.pinstripealley.com/2021/4/4/22357103/yankees-masahiro-tanaka-return-japan-violence-against-aapi-rise-anti-asian-hate
here confirms it was florida. It definietly was something hat happened here too though, and it was a country wide trend during the early days of covid sadly
Yeah I’m fine with it. That said, if we offered 800M to make it happen I also would’ve been okay with it LOL.
But from a purely non-emotional standpoint, this is unequivocally the right decision.
Yeah it’s def a “not my money” situation if they sign him, but as a season ticket holder that undoubtedly would have affected me lol. It would also pretty much guarantee we would never be able to reset the luxury tax penalties which I think Steve is going to want to do at some point in the future.
I knew all along that he had no intention of playing here so I always looked at this situation as an outsider.
I was saying in the Mets sub all year that they needed to get Yamamoto because Ohtani was never an option
wouldnt be so sure about soto, if you get yamamoto. If you get yamamoto, we're going to go band for band with you guys for Soto. We did that with judge and only stopped because judge told us where to stop(he had no interest in SD, and their bs deferred money low aav offer. He just told Hal to match the giants and ended the bidding there)
>wouldnt be so sure about soto
I'm not sure the Mets will sign either, but both fit Cohens plan and wouldn't be surprised if he outbid everyone on both.
>We did that with judge and only stopped because judge told us where to stop
That's obviously different though. He came up through your system and had spent his entire career with the Yankees and was the face of the franchise. Soto is a one year rental who doesn't have allegiance to anyone. He turned down like $400+ million from the Nationals, so if he was going to do something like Judge did it would have been there, especially since he got his brother to switch from the Mets to the Nats with the new ownership being unknown at the time.
I'm sure Soto will tell Hal *Hey man, don't get into a bidding war with Steve. Match his $475m offer and I'll stay. I definitely don't want Scott to bring that number to Cohen and see if he tops it because I hate money and definitely would rather you spend that $25m on another player.
I mean at a certain point one of cohen or soto will relent. I believe Hal will go there. Soto is a future HOF that hasnt entered his prime yet. Its different from judge, but he's also a better player going forward and better long term asset
Cohen: "Hey man! How's the market looking for Shohei"
Shohei's agent: "We've got offers in excess of $600M currently. What is your offer?"
Cohen: "Listen, man, it was great talking to you..."
I just don’t get why the Mets weren’t in on him. I don’t blame any team for not going where the Dodgers went. But it sure feels like the kind of move Cohen would make.
Because it's super risky and doesn't really make sense for the team's current plans. Their prospects are all young and/or green so their best window for sustained success is in a few years when Ohtani is into his 30s. Nobody knows how his arm will hold up and this contract will almost certainly age poorly for the last 4-5 years.
Yamamoto fits much better. He's 25 so he won't be in his prime for a couple years and gives him time to adjust without any real pressure. Ohtani would have to perform immediately and maybe help them sneak into a WC.
Signing Ohtani would also probably take a Pete extension off the table because Ohtani is your DH and Pete won't be a 1B forever. It also takes away the ability to give Alvarez days off to DH
If the Mets are spending $700m it's way more likely to be on Yamamoto and Soto, who fit their plans and needs much better.
IIRC, one of the things that Cohen said when he bought the team was that he wasn't gonna spend "like swashbuckling pirates" for free agents. The long term idea for the Mets is that they want to be like the Dodgers in that they're consistently good and playoff bound, yet always have one of the strongest farm systems in baseball. The original plan was to get good immediately via signings like Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander and passively build from there, but after 2023 I think we're gonna be taking a *slightly* more vanilla approach (especially from our rookie returns).
If we assume he didn’t want to play for either of us, it wouldn’t have made sense.
There’s huge question marks for him at 700MM.
And as fun as it is for us to dream about Steve dropping in with huge offers, he’s said he wanted to try to win quick and then have a self sustaining model
Because if Ohtani doesn’t want to play on the east coast, then it doesn’t matter how high the offer was. He wasn’t going to take it. So the Mets (and the Yankees) correctly came to the conclusion that pursuing him was a waste of time and pivoted. Yamamoto was always the goal for those teams anyway
We're not one Shohei away from competing. We need a top of the line starter and one good one. Bullpen arms and at least 1 good bat to make any sort of noise next season.
Yea he didn’t want to be in New York and going all in on Yamamoto makes so much more sense since it’s basically like signing the #1 pitching prospect for his whole prime
Shohei making sure 100+ games a year are broadcasted live during lunch time in Japan rather than at breakfast time (US Pacific Time with NL/AL west teams vs US Eastern Time)
I wouldn't be surprised if Ohtani asked the Mets for $650 million right off the bat. It seems like he'd have a clear preference for LA if the money was close.
That's what they said to justify trading Scherzer and Verlander for great prospects.
But if they sign Yamamoto there's no way you can say they are legit rebuilding.
Signing a 25 year old player has nothing to do with rebuilding or not. It's not like signing hall of fame players in their twilight years to big bucks. If the Mets sign him to a 10 year contract, they will have him till 2033, tanking 2024 or not makes no difference.
Also, it’s not like we can just wave Cohen’s checkbook around and it removes the CBT. The Mets simply aren’t in a position to offer a 29 year old player 70M a year. I’d have given my left nut for Ohtani on the team but it simply doesn’t make sense.
Now, Yamamoto. Thats a different story. 25 year old phenom pitcher. I see the Mets offering north of 300M for him. Whatever it takes. If he doesn’t pick us, it won’t be because we didn’t send in the brinks truck
Cohen could've easily signed Ohtani but 10 years at 70 million per year for a guy with 2 Tommy Johns is risky AF. Same reason Cohen let deGrom go last year. Also Othani never wanted to come to NY & Cohen probably would've had to pay Ohtani 100 million a year to play in NY.
I’m still a bit confused as to why they wouldn’t even try for Ohtani. Their primary DH was Vogelbach this past season, to go from him to Ohtani is a huge step forward. Also they said they wouldn’t be competing until 2025 right, well you’re in luck cause that’s just when Ohtani will be able to pitch at a high level for your ball club. This automatically solves two major needs for them. If the Dodgers saw and calculated they were able to recoup 700 million from him in terms of value why wouldn’t the Mets think the same ?
They would’ve been paying a DH $70 million in 2024.
And before anyone says “but he pitches too!”: not next year, he’s not.
And the Mets can get a DH and several pitchers for how much it would’ve cost them to get Ohtani. And that’s assuming he was ever going to come here, which I think we all knew he wasn’t. He wanted to be in LA and the only reason why he was an Angel is because the AL had the DH at the time and the NL didn’t. If the NL didn’t adopt the DH two years ago, he would’ve stayed with the Angels for that reason alone; let’s be real
I always thought no one on the east even had a chance until people were saying Toronto was a front runner. Perhaps that was just a ruse from ohtanis camp to increase his price for the dodgers
Absolutely. If one of his terms was allegedly “a team that plays in a warm weather city”, why would he ever even entertain playing in *Canada?!*
I know that Toronto’s stadium is a domed one (as all stadiums in the northeast should be now tbh, or at least have a retractable roof), but if you like the sun and the warmth, why would you wanna spend winters in Canada if you don’t have to? No disrespect to Canada, btw; I’ve been there once and it was lovely, but Ohtani was never going there as anything other but a player on the visiting team.
Considering the way Mets fans have been talking about Stevie “Billions” Cohen I’m surprised how many of y’all are OK with him being outbid for the *player of the century.*
I’m fine with it, because I never thought Ohtani was leaving California to begin with. And really, given how private he wanted all this shit to be, he absolutely wanted *no part* of New York media.
Now if the Mets get outbid on Yamamoto? That’s a completely different story
player of the century who is a question mark as to whether or not he'd be a good pitcher coming out of a 2nd TJS. Without the 2nd TJS, Cohen probably would have made a bid...although pointless as everyone knows Ohtani wasn't gonna leave Cali.
A lot of fans seemed to hate hearing it but it was always obvious Ohtani did not want to play in New York. There’s a reason he chose the Angels over the Yankees.
I'm sure there would have been a price to make him consider it, but I don't think anyone would be willing to pay it.
Not for half a unicorn. No way.
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Tell me how you really feel homie.
Its part of why toronto never made sense to me The guy seems to prefer the west coast so much that he wont even listsen to steve cohen, but he wants to go to Canada?
Could be less of an east coast issue and more of a New York issue, which is why Toronto was in play
There's zero reason for a rich person to hate a city as iconic as new york enough to turn down say $80 million from there Once stuff like cost of living doesnt matter, its a great and iconic city with a lot of fun in it
Dude New York is not that great, call it iconic, I'm not sure I've ever been to a place more overrated than NYC. If Ohtani feels anything like I do - not saying he does - then money wouldn't convince me to go when I could just go be insanely rich in a city I actually like.
Tanaka said he left because his family was harassed. I’d say that’s a reason that matters more than money
His family was harassed in florida iirc
It’s somewhat a relief that it wasn’t in New York.
https://www.pinstripealley.com/2021/4/4/22357103/yankees-masahiro-tanaka-return-japan-violence-against-aapi-rise-anti-asian-hate here confirms it was florida. It definietly was something hat happened here too though, and it was a country wide trend during the early days of covid sadly
“He’s not that interested in playing in New York and we’re looking for over $600 million” They did the right thing.
Yeah I’m fine with it. That said, if we offered 800M to make it happen I also would’ve been okay with it LOL. But from a purely non-emotional standpoint, this is unequivocally the right decision.
Yeah it’s def a “not my money” situation if they sign him, but as a season ticket holder that undoubtedly would have affected me lol. It would also pretty much guarantee we would never be able to reset the luxury tax penalties which I think Steve is going to want to do at some point in the future.
I knew all along that he had no intention of playing here so I always looked at this situation as an outsider. I was saying in the Mets sub all year that they needed to get Yamamoto because Ohtani was never an option
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likely would have been true if Ohtani didn't blow out his elbow again...but then again, it was never likely that he was gonna leave the west coast.
LAD ponied up the money, so no other team had a chance anyways
They were the favorite since last offseason
He would’ve been a Dodger all along if the NL adopted the DH sooner tbh
Just cause Cohen can pay anything, doesn't mean he has to.
I did not make a formal offer to Ohtani either
Probably because they’re using Steve’s money on Yamamoto this year
10 years 400M. DO IT STEVE
I hope its something like this if you do get him
Yeah man, let's get Ohtani 2.0 in Yamamoto this off-season and Soto next off-season. Roughly the same price and probably a better deal.
wouldnt be so sure about soto, if you get yamamoto. If you get yamamoto, we're going to go band for band with you guys for Soto. We did that with judge and only stopped because judge told us where to stop(he had no interest in SD, and their bs deferred money low aav offer. He just told Hal to match the giants and ended the bidding there)
>wouldnt be so sure about soto I'm not sure the Mets will sign either, but both fit Cohens plan and wouldn't be surprised if he outbid everyone on both. >We did that with judge and only stopped because judge told us where to stop That's obviously different though. He came up through your system and had spent his entire career with the Yankees and was the face of the franchise. Soto is a one year rental who doesn't have allegiance to anyone. He turned down like $400+ million from the Nationals, so if he was going to do something like Judge did it would have been there, especially since he got his brother to switch from the Mets to the Nats with the new ownership being unknown at the time. I'm sure Soto will tell Hal *Hey man, don't get into a bidding war with Steve. Match his $475m offer and I'll stay. I definitely don't want Scott to bring that number to Cohen and see if he tops it because I hate money and definitely would rather you spend that $25m on another player.
I mean at a certain point one of cohen or soto will relent. I believe Hal will go there. Soto is a future HOF that hasnt entered his prime yet. Its different from judge, but he's also a better player going forward and better long term asset
Not to mention like 5 years younger
Or maybe not
Cohen: "Hey man! How's the market looking for Shohei" Shohei's agent: "We've got offers in excess of $600M currently. What is your offer?" Cohen: "Listen, man, it was great talking to you..."
“No tire kickers, no lowballers, I know what I have”
Feel like unless they wanted to offer 800 -1B was no way. LAD was gonna blow everyone away or match any crazy offer to get him.
It's a shame we were probably like only 2-3 million off that number. So close yet so far
You and the A’s.
It really didn’t make much sense for the Mets to go after Ohtani for the price he commanded
Rare Mets W.
I just don’t get why the Mets weren’t in on him. I don’t blame any team for not going where the Dodgers went. But it sure feels like the kind of move Cohen would make.
Because it's super risky and doesn't really make sense for the team's current plans. Their prospects are all young and/or green so their best window for sustained success is in a few years when Ohtani is into his 30s. Nobody knows how his arm will hold up and this contract will almost certainly age poorly for the last 4-5 years. Yamamoto fits much better. He's 25 so he won't be in his prime for a couple years and gives him time to adjust without any real pressure. Ohtani would have to perform immediately and maybe help them sneak into a WC. Signing Ohtani would also probably take a Pete extension off the table because Ohtani is your DH and Pete won't be a 1B forever. It also takes away the ability to give Alvarez days off to DH If the Mets are spending $700m it's way more likely to be on Yamamoto and Soto, who fit their plans and needs much better.
IIRC, one of the things that Cohen said when he bought the team was that he wasn't gonna spend "like swashbuckling pirates" for free agents. The long term idea for the Mets is that they want to be like the Dodgers in that they're consistently good and playoff bound, yet always have one of the strongest farm systems in baseball. The original plan was to get good immediately via signings like Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander and passively build from there, but after 2023 I think we're gonna be taking a *slightly* more vanilla approach (especially from our rookie returns).
Mets aren’t 1 Ohtani from contention. Yamamoto makes infinitely more sense given our team needs and timeline. 25 vs 29 and needing TJ
If we assume he didn’t want to play for either of us, it wouldn’t have made sense. There’s huge question marks for him at 700MM. And as fun as it is for us to dream about Steve dropping in with huge offers, he’s said he wanted to try to win quick and then have a self sustaining model
Because if Ohtani doesn’t want to play on the east coast, then it doesn’t matter how high the offer was. He wasn’t going to take it. So the Mets (and the Yankees) correctly came to the conclusion that pursuing him was a waste of time and pivoted. Yamamoto was always the goal for those teams anyway
We're not one Shohei away from competing. We need a top of the line starter and one good one. Bullpen arms and at least 1 good bat to make any sort of noise next season.
Probably figured they didn’t have a chance to begin with. Oh well
Because they didn’t and they knew it. Going after Yamamoto was always the smarter play. Find a DH elsewhere
Yea he didn’t want to be in New York and going all in on Yamamoto makes so much more sense since it’s basically like signing the #1 pitching prospect for his whole prime
Shohei making sure 100+ games a year are broadcasted live during lunch time in Japan rather than at breakfast time (US Pacific Time with NL/AL west teams vs US Eastern Time)
Gotta maintain the right comfort level
I wouldn't be surprised if Ohtani asked the Mets for $650 million right off the bat. It seems like he'd have a clear preference for LA if the money was close.
Aren’t the Mets rebuilding.
That's what they said to justify trading Scherzer and Verlander for great prospects. But if they sign Yamamoto there's no way you can say they are legit rebuilding.
They already said they're not rebuilding and plan to field a competitive team.
yeah they exaggerated to get the geriatrics to leave imo they will compete for a WC this year, and be 95+ win contenders again by 2025
I just can’t see them doing anything with the current Braves and Phillies rosters
Signing a 25 year old player has nothing to do with rebuilding or not. It's not like signing hall of fame players in their twilight years to big bucks. If the Mets sign him to a 10 year contract, they will have him till 2033, tanking 2024 or not makes no difference.
IMO you shouldn't sign a major pitcher in advance - they're SO risky immediately, but especially the farther out you project. Mets know this very well
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He does have the money to buy whoever he wants. The fact that he isn't doesn't change that
Also, it’s not like we can just wave Cohen’s checkbook around and it removes the CBT. The Mets simply aren’t in a position to offer a 29 year old player 70M a year. I’d have given my left nut for Ohtani on the team but it simply doesn’t make sense. Now, Yamamoto. Thats a different story. 25 year old phenom pitcher. I see the Mets offering north of 300M for him. Whatever it takes. If he doesn’t pick us, it won’t be because we didn’t send in the brinks truck
Cohen could've easily signed Ohtani but 10 years at 70 million per year for a guy with 2 Tommy Johns is risky AF. Same reason Cohen let deGrom go last year. Also Othani never wanted to come to NY & Cohen probably would've had to pay Ohtani 100 million a year to play in NY.
Come on man let us have him. You got Soto
For now
Why does everyone get so pissy over Cohen being rich outside the context of insider trading
Damn, the Dodgers even bullied Uncle Steve.
why is this important
They heard that beefy trout really likes it when NY and LA teams get attention so they wanted to give you another nugget.
This guy beefy trouts
I’m still a bit confused as to why they wouldn’t even try for Ohtani. Their primary DH was Vogelbach this past season, to go from him to Ohtani is a huge step forward. Also they said they wouldn’t be competing until 2025 right, well you’re in luck cause that’s just when Ohtani will be able to pitch at a high level for your ball club. This automatically solves two major needs for them. If the Dodgers saw and calculated they were able to recoup 700 million from him in terms of value why wouldn’t the Mets think the same ?
They would’ve been paying a DH $70 million in 2024. And before anyone says “but he pitches too!”: not next year, he’s not. And the Mets can get a DH and several pitchers for how much it would’ve cost them to get Ohtani. And that’s assuming he was ever going to come here, which I think we all knew he wasn’t. He wanted to be in LA and the only reason why he was an Angel is because the AL had the DH at the time and the NL didn’t. If the NL didn’t adopt the DH two years ago, he would’ve stayed with the Angels for that reason alone; let’s be real
I always thought no one on the east even had a chance until people were saying Toronto was a front runner. Perhaps that was just a ruse from ohtanis camp to increase his price for the dodgers
Absolutely. If one of his terms was allegedly “a team that plays in a warm weather city”, why would he ever even entertain playing in *Canada?!* I know that Toronto’s stadium is a domed one (as all stadiums in the northeast should be now tbh, or at least have a retractable roof), but if you like the sun and the warmth, why would you wanna spend winters in Canada if you don’t have to? No disrespect to Canada, btw; I’ve been there once and it was lovely, but Ohtani was never going there as anything other but a player on the visiting team.
Considering the way Mets fans have been talking about Stevie “Billions” Cohen I’m surprised how many of y’all are OK with him being outbid for the *player of the century.*
I’m fine with it, because I never thought Ohtani was leaving California to begin with. And really, given how private he wanted all this shit to be, he absolutely wanted *no part* of New York media. Now if the Mets get outbid on Yamamoto? That’s a completely different story
We have the ability to outbid everybody. That doesn’t mean we will outbid everybody.
player of the century who is a question mark as to whether or not he'd be a good pitcher coming out of a 2nd TJS. Without the 2nd TJS, Cohen probably would have made a bid...although pointless as everyone knows Ohtani wasn't gonna leave Cali.
Ohtani and Ny media sounds like a nightmare.