Baseball owners have no business complaining about their cohort in Queens.

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is playing by the rules previous owners created through collective bargaining with the players. Those rules were only tweaked, not changed, by the current owners during the most recent negotiations.

There is no salary cap in baseball. There is no salary floor. There is some revenue sharing, but not nearly enough to offset the massive disparity in team revenues.

So this is the business landscape that Cohen walked into when he bought the Mets.

He has more way more billions than he could ever spend in a lifetime. Cohen likes baseball more than, say, space travel or unleashing the full fury of social media on society.

So he is throwing his disposable income into Mets players, building a payroll that sits at $369.9 million even after the team backed away from free agent shortstop Carlos Correa.

“We're in New York, and I'm competitive,” Cohen told ESPN’s Jeff Passan. “If you're going to own a team -- I came in with a commitment that I was going to put a good product on the field. And I think I've done that. I had no idea what it was going to cost to put a good product on the field, but I'm in a position where I make a good income, right? So I can do this.”

Cohen is on pace to pay a $98.6 million luxury tax, which is more than five teams are on pace to spend on their roster this season. That figure makes him shrug.

“I didn't think it was that big a deal,” Cohen said. “I was already going to be in a big bracket anyway, no question. So it's like the government raising taxes. You're already in a high bracket. What I think about is making income. If I make income, it solves problems. It'd be great to get the payroll to the point where I don't have to pay tax anymore. That's the goal. If we do our job and develop a farm system and get a nice, sustainable pipeline going, we should be able to accomplish that.”

The luxury tax have been a deterrent for some franchises. Two of the sport’s biggest spenders, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, have been conspicuously conservative this offseason.

The San Diego Padres, on the other hand, show no signs of slowing their spending. The owners incorrectly assumed that the luxury tax would serve as a de facto salary cap, since owners traditionally ran their franchises as a business.

That left the door open for fanboy owners like Cohen to try to win at all costs. This displease owners who do not want to win at all costs.

“I've heard what everyone else has heard: that they're not happy with me,” Cohen said. “I hear things from people who are maybe more neutral -- that they're taking a lot of heat from their fans. I kind of look at that like, you're looking at the wrong person. They're putting it on me. Maybe they need to look more at themselves.

“I'm not responsible for how other teams run their clubs. I'm really not. That's not my job. And there are disparities in baseball. We know that to be true. I'm following the rules. They set the rules down, I'm following them.”

Cohen doesn’t expect to spend his millions willy nilly forever. He does have a business vision for the franchise.

“I'd love to develop some pitching,” Cohen said. “Pitching's really expensive. And I don't know why we can't. Other people can. At some point we will. The goal is to eventually get our payroll down to something more normalized for a New York team.”

In the meantime, the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates of the sport will just have to deal with it.

TALKIN’ BASEBALL

Here is what folks have been writing about Our National Pastime:

Kirby McDaniel, ESPN.com: “The Cards . . .  have a wealth of young talent showing up to the big leagues -- to the point that I'm not sure how all the pieces will fit together. The major league lineup is already full enough that recent graduate Nolan Gorman and prospect Alec Burleson don't clearly have full-time spots, which means Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and Ivan Herrera are all sitting in Triple-A waiting for a big league shot. At the same time, the rotation lacks an ace, but there are six solid starting options in St. Louis while Matthew Liberatore, Gordon Graceffo and a few others sit in the upper minors waiting for a chance to crack that group. This is feeling Dodgers-adjacent -- and that's a huge compliment.”

Robert Orr, Baseball Prospectus: “Perception of (Dylan) Carlson around baseball is divided; on the one hand, a top prospect managing a 95 DRC+ through 1200 career plate appearances is a bit of a disappointment. On the other: A plus glove in center field with an essentially league-average bat is an exceedingly valuable player. And at just 23 years old, there’s still room for Carlson to grow. The problem is . . . Carlson doesn’t suffer from poor contact quality against a certain pitch type; he suffers from poor contact from an entire side of the plate . . . From both sides he exhibits a good eye, creating positive value from laying off chase and waste pitches. But once pitchers challenge him within the zone, the contrast in his performance is stark. He simply wasn’t able to hit from the left side of the plate. And that’s been the story for his entire major-league career; there’s nearly a 200-point gap between his career OPS against left-handed pitching (.869) and against right-handed pitching (.686). Cedric Muillins had a 260-point gap in his splits when he elected to hit from only one side; Carlson isn’t seeing a divide quite that dramatic—nor is he as helpless from his weaker side as Mullins was from his (.439 OPS as a RHB)—but he could be a candidate to see less right-handed pitching if he can’t improve as a lefty.”

R.J. Anderson, CBSSports.com: “At this stage of the offseason, it seems unlikely that the Pirates will abide by star outfielder Bryan Reynolds’ trade request. Even so, there's room for other teams to make swaps heading up to the start of camp. In our estimation, the most obvious candidate to change addresses between now and Opening Day remains Twins outfielder Max Kepler. Minnesota's depth chart is full at this point. Beyond Kepler, the Twins employ star Byron Buxton, youngsters Trevor Larnach and Alex Kirilloff, and offseason additions Joey Gallo and Michael A. Taylor. The Twins could shift Gallo or one of the others to first base, but that would still leave them with more players than available spots. Moving Kepler would also free up additional funds. Elsewhere, the Red Sox are reportedly interested in obtaining more middle-infield help. That won't necessarily have to come via trade, but it can be easier to find traction at this point in the offseason, when teams are more willing to prune their roster of players no longer in their plans.”

Bob Nightengale, USA Today: “They won three World Series championships together.  They may be going into the Hall of Fame together one day too.  Now, for the first time in 17 years after building a dynasty together in San Francisco, Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean are headed off into different directions for the start of spring training.  Bochy, 67, who wondered whether anyone would hire him to manage again, is going to Surprise, Ariz., trying to lead the Texas Rangers back into the playoffs and building toward the organization’s first World Series title.  Sabean, 66, uncertain whether a team still valued him, will be off to Tampa, Fla., trying to end the New York Yankees’ 14-year World Series championship drought in his front-office position . . . Sabean is one of the shrewdest executives in the sport’s history, winning three World Series titles as GM of the San Francisco Giants with seven postseason berths.  Bochy is one of the game’s greatest managers, winning the three World Series titles with Sabean, a National League pennant with the San Diego Padres and 2,003 regular-season victories along the way. Yet, it’s almost as if all their success was forgotten.  Bochy resigned from the Giants after the 2019 season, twice turned down the San Diego Padres’ managerial position in 2020, saying that he simply wanted to take a year off. Two years came and went, and no one ever called him again until the Rangers in October.”

Anthony Castrovince, MLB.com: “The Rockies used to have a pretty good third baseman named Nolan Arenado. You’ve probably heard of him. When Arenado was traded to the Cardinals prior to the 2021 season, (Ryan) McMahon assumed the hot corner in Colorado. And while he’s not going to win 10 straight Gold Gloves like Arenado, McMahon has proven himself a good defender. Over the last two seasons, he ranks third in OAA (19) at third base, behind only Ke’Bryan Hayes (30) and Arenado (25). McMahon’s offensive numbers are nothing to write home about. They come out to roughly league average. But when you deliver on defense the way he has, it provides a high floor. To that point, McMahon’s total WAR over the last two years (5.5), as calculated by FanGraphs, ranks 11th among third basemen and is just ahead of the 4.9 mark posted by former Rockies infielder DJ LeMahieu in a similar number of games played.”

MEGAPHONE

“Some people thought I was done. The chances of me managing was getting slimmer each year. After awhile, I really didn’t know whether I would manage again. But maybe the great jobs that Dusty (Baker, 73) and Buck (Showalter, 66) did helped me get a call. But I also knew it had to be the right fit, the right situation, and this felt perfect for me.” 

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, to USA Today.