From the moment that Juan Soto was set to hit free agency, New York Mets owner Steve Cohen seemed to take the devil may care approach of getting him to Queens at all costs. And that he did, willing to offer the ostensibly $800 million to get Soto to the Mets. Of course, with that kind of checkbook and aggression, fans in Queens are already hoping for Cohen to do the same when it comes to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Guerrero, entering his final year of club control with the Toronto Blue Jays, rejected the club's final extension offer, saying that the offer wasn't close and seemingly paving the way for him to hit free agency going into the 2026 season. Yes, there's a chance that Pete Alonso could return to the Mets then as well but, when it comes to a chance to sign Vladdy, that's not something that Carlos Mendoza just makes work from that point on.
And to his point, it does seem like Cohen and the Mets are interested. The owner spoke about Guerrero on Tuesday following the passed self-imposed deadline from Vladdy with the Blue Jays, per Danny Abriano of SNY.
"He's a great ballplayer," Cohen said. "Once again, I'll worry about that next year."
There's something to be said about playing it cool until we get to that point. At the same time, though, it was what the Mets owner said thereafter that makes it seem as if Guerrero won't be approached with the same level of aggression next offseason.
"Obviously with payroll considerations — you really can't have, you can't have too many long-term contracts because then you lose your roster flexibility. So you gotta be really careful. But I'll let my baseball people make that decision."
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Mets pursuit of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sounds like it won't be at all costs
First things first, it's clear that Cohen isn't closed to the idea of Vladdy coming to New York. There's a reason that the Mets have been considered as one of the early favorites for the 25-year-old first baseman by several MLB insiders to this point. They absolutely could and should be in the mix for a player of Guerrero's caliber.
At the same time, however, when it came to Soto this past offseason, Cohen was willing to get borderline reckless. There were murmurs of a proverbial "red button" he could push at any time to tack on $50 million on top of whatever the best offer out there was. Many also believe that Cohen pushed that button and it obviously worked to perfection.
That's where Cohen's comments about Guerrero suggest that the approach will be different in his free agency. The fact that he's already presenting caveats for why the Mets wouldn't want another expensive long-term contract on the books, the fact that he's washing his hands of it slightly by "letting his baseball people" make the decision about a deal, and so on suggest that this is a want but not something he feels like his baseball team needs.
Things can certainly change, especially if the Mets feel like they need to level up again depending on the results of the 2025 season, not to mention what Guerrero does to follow up a season with a .940 OPS. However, if you were thinking that Cohen would flex his checkbook no matter the cost to get Vladdy the same way he did Soto, these early comments suggest otherwise.