Rather Than Spend Like ‘Drunken Sailors,’ the Mets Prioritized Depth

At the start of the off-season, when the Mets became property of the richest owner in baseball, it was easy to assume how they would operate. If Steven Cohen wanted something, he would pay anything to get it. If money were no object, why not?

Then Cohen said this, at his introductory news conference on Nov. 10:

“I can promise you we’re going to act like a major-market team. Are we going to act like drunken sailors in the marketplace? No. Listen, I want to be thoughtful. You can spend a lot of money today and then tie up your team in bad contracts for the next five years. That’s part of building a sustainable franchise: You want to make decisions on what works not for the next 60 games, but…