The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-01)

A16| Tuesday, December 1, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

But enough good players are

available for the Mets to make a

splash, including former Houston

Astros outfielder George Springer,

All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto and

this season’s National League Cy

Young winner, Trevor Bauer.

Trade options exist as well, with

the Cleveland Indians expected to

dangle shortstop Francisco Lindor.

In an offseason where few owners

will open their wallets, Cohen’s

money looms large.

But Cohen has already learned

that his resources can’t solve every-

thing. He recently admitted that hir-

ing an executive to lead the Mets’

baseball operations department has

been more difficult than he ex-

pected, since opposing teams ha-

ven’t let potential candidates inter-

view for the position. So even with

his lofty aspirations and stuffed

bank account, Cohen is still search-

ing.

“Baseball is kind of funny where

you have to ask for permission and

all that stuff, and we’re not getting

a lot of permission,” Cohen told

SNY, the Mets’ television station.

In his introductory news confer-

ence, Cohen cited the Los Angeles

Dodgers as an organization he ad-

mired. They spend loads of money

on players, but also boast one of the

most sophisticated front offices and

deepest farm systems in baseball,

indicating that they don’t just

spend, but spend smartly. The

Dodgers just won their first World

Series since 1988.

Cohen gives the Mets a pathway

toward developing into the East

Coast version of the Dodgers, com-

bining a deep-pocketed owner with

a savvy, progressive approach to

building an organization. If things

go well, they might even accomplish

a goal that had long seemed impos-

sible: finally competing with their

neighbors in the Bronx, the Yankees.

“I’m essentially doing it for the

fans,” Cohen said. “When I really

thought about this, I could make

millions of people happy, and what

an incredible opportunity that is.”

Mets ownerSteve Cohen,left, appears ready to act aggressively this offseason.

SPORTS

back from elbow surgery next sea-

son. Their lineup—led by Pete

Alonso, Michael Conforto and Domi-

nic Smith—led the majors in batting

average in 2020 and ranked third in

OPS.

The current crop of free agents

lacks an obvious superstar, with no

Gerrit Cole or Bryce Harper sitting

there for the Mets to woo with their

sudden influx of cash.

land, Cohen bought his favorite

team for about $2.4 billion, offi-

cially closing the deal in early No-

vember. He quickly brought back Al-

derson, who promptly purged most

of the front office, including his own

replacement, Brodie Van Wagenen.

Soon, Alderson will hire a new GM

to help oversee the process of try-

ing to build a roster capable of win-

ning the Mets’ first championship

since 1986.

“I do believe this is a major-mar-

ket team,” Cohen said recently, “and

it should have a budget commensu-

rate with that.”

The Mets’ arrival as big spenders

comes as most of their competitors

want to cut costs. MLB commis-

sioner Rob Manfred says the league

sustained operating losses of about

$3 billion while staging a shortened

2020 campaign almost entirely

without fans in attendance. Further

uncertainty remains as base-

ball attempts to restart next

spring, prompting owners to

find avenues to slash payroll.

That gives the Mets the op-

portunity to emerge as buyers

in an ocean of sellers, and

players already seem to ap-

preciate Cohen’s presence.

Pitcher Marcus Stroman de-

clined a chance to become a

free agent and instead ac-

cepted a one-year, $18.9 mil-

lion qualifying offer to stay

with the Mets. Stroman then

tweeted that he was “beyond

excited” to play for Cohen af-

ter seeing his “excitement and

passion” in his introductory

news conference.

“If I don’t win a World Series in

the next three-to-five years—I’d like

to make it sooner—I would consider

that slightly disappointing,” Cohen

said.

The Mets don’t need all that

much help to put themselves in a

position to contend.

They already have perhaps the

best pitcher in baseball in Jacob de-

Grom, with Noah Syndergaard due

FROM TOP: VINCENT CARCHIETTA/REUTERS; LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS

wound up thumped, 31-3.

Fangio lauded Hinton’s effort.

“He did everything he could,”

the coach said. “That’s a big, big

ask, and it didn’t work out.”

If that all sounds a little bleak, it

is. December is arriving, everyone’s

exhausted and more than a little

grumbly, and the pandemic mar-

ches on. NFL team facilities are

closed Monday and Tuesday, a pre-

caution against Thanksgiving

surges.

On the field, the Pittsburgh

Steelers are scheduled to host the

Baltimore Ravens Wednesday in a

game that was supposed to be

played on Thanksgiving, but has

been rescheduled a spectacular

three times (Sunday, Tuesday,

Wednesday) as the Ravens con-

tinue to collect positive tests. The

Steelers have their own cases, too.

Does it happen Wednesday?

Who knows?

Who knows for all of it. The NFL

is trying to NFL it—strap on its

helmet, improvise and steer

through a public-health crisis that’s

disrupted much of everyday life.

The league is not alone here; col-

lege football is attempting to do

the same, and the chaos is far

greater there, as games continue to

disappear from the schedule and

powerhouses like Ohio State might

not collect enough action to qualify

for the postseason.

There’s a confidence the NFL

can do it simply because the NFL is

a tighter ship, determined to get it

done and make the money. There’s

a bet we all like the game too much

to get waylaid by the commotion

off the field.

But the virus is a stubborn

thing. This time last week, the Ra-

vens thought they’d quickly con-

tained their situation; they had not.

Now the league is trying to sort

out a consequential game with lim-

boys for visiting Niners?

NINERS PLAYER: Why are you

giving me this silver helmet with a

star painted on it?

JERRY JONES:Shhhhh.

Meanwhile, the season trudges

forward. There are delights: Patrick

Mahomes of Kansas City remains

magical, Tennessee’s Derrick Henry

is a battering ram sensation again,

and despite the scheduling crazi-

ness with the Ravens, the Steelers

sit undefeated at 10-0. Elsewhere,

the Buffalo Bills are 8-3 and so are

the Cleveland Browns. That’s right:

the Cleveland Browns are 8-3. And

the New York Giants are 4-7 and

atop the NFC East. 2020 is really

something.

Good stories still happen in

those empty and near-empty stadi-

ums, plus some highly familiar

ones. The Jets continue to be very

bad, with an 0-11 record.

Some things never change—even

in a season where anything can

change at the last possible mo-

ment.

My advice? Keep practicing your

throws at quarterback. You never

know when you might get the call.

ited time in the schedule. As the

Journal’s football writer Andrew

Beaton pointed out, these aren’t

the wide-open days of September

and October, when the NFL could

simply kick the can down the road.

Options are fewer. The Super Bowl

is a little more than two months

off, and the field is nowhere near

set.

That’s not the only new head-

ache. Last week, word arrived that

the San Francisco 49ers might have

to pursue a temporary new loca-

tion after officials in Santa Clara

County put a brief hold on contact

sports. I’m not sure where that’s

coming from—as Beaton and the

Journal’s Louise Radnofsky wrote

in October, there’s scant evidence

that playing football itself trans-

mits the virus. (It’s off-the-field

gatherings like group dinners that

are the problem.) On Monday, the

club announced it would make a

temporary move, playing its Week

13 and 14 home games in Arizona.

At least it wasn’t Dallas, which

was another rumored destination.

Couldn’t you see Jerry Jones qui-

etly trying to swap out some Cow-

The NFL is learning that
playing football in a pan-
demic is like...well, it’s
like playing football in a
pandemic.
Sometimes, your team plays on
schedule. Sometimes, it doesn’t.
Sometimes, a big game gets moved
from a Thursday to a Sunday, then
to the subsequent Tuesday—and
then to Wednesday. (And Wednes-
day doesn’t feel like a sure thing,
either.)
Sometimes, a county declares
contact sports are a coronavirus
lockdown no-no, forcing a Califor-
nia franchise to abruptly up and
move to Arizona.
Sometimes, a team loses all of
its quarterbacks, a day before it
plays.
It’s football’s hectic Covid-19 re-
ality, underlined by the unprece-
dented chaos this past weekend in
Denver.
On the eve of its contest with
the New Orleans Saints, the Bron-
cos found themselves without a vi-
able roster quarterback after one
backup QB tested positive for
Covid-19, and three others were
benched for having sat through a
meeting without wearing face
masks—an NFL coronavirus proto-
col no-no.
Denver scrambled for a resolu-
tion. They asked to push the game
a few days, but were denied. They
wanted to activate an assistant
coach to play the position, but that
was a no-go, too. General manager
John Elway, 60, did not appear to
be an option, alas.
The Broncos wound up calling
upon Kendall Hinton, a wide re-
ceiver on the practice squad who
hadn’t taken a snap at quarterback
since making a few starts at Wake
Forest, before switching his posi-
tion to receiver.
In the Disney movie, Hinton
would have stayed up all night Sat-
urday, drinking coffee, memorizing
the Broncos playbook, and go on to
throw six touchdown passes in
leading the Broncos to a shock vic-
tory over the Saints, getting trium-
phantly carried off the field in the
end.
But this isn’t a Disney movie. It’s
the merciless NFL.
Hinton stepped up admirably on
a day’s notice—he had just a hand-
ful of hours of prep, according to
Denver head coach Vic Fangio—but
he managed to complete only one
of his nine passes. He was inter-
cepted twice. The Broncos were an
easy mark for the Saints, and

JASON GAY

Football Is Sideways. Wear a Helmet.

A Covid-19 scramble thrusts an unknown into a starring role in Denver, while the 49ers find a temporary home in Arizona

The Broncos’ Kendall Hinton completed only one of his nine passes and threw two interceptions in Denver’s 31-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

RON CHENOY/REUTERS

Some things never

change—even in a

season where anything

can change.

SANDY ALDERSON STEPPED IN
as general manager of the New York
Mets at one of the bleakest points
in the history of a franchise filled
with disappointments: the revela-
tion that Bernie Madoff’s fraud had
ravaged the personal finances of the
team’s owners, the Wilpon family.
The Wilpons don’t own the Mets
anymore. Hedge-fund manager
Steve Cohen does, and his net worth
of more than $14 billion immedi-
ately transforms the Mets into the
most fascinating team in the sport.
While the rest of the industry re-
trenches in the wake of significant
losses caused by the coronavirus
pandemic, the Mets have brought
Alderson back as team president
and appear ready to act aggres-
sively.
That has cast the Mets in an un-
familiar role: not a punchline, but
an economic force primed to shake
up an otherwise stagnant employ-
ment market.
“It’s not about how much less we
can get somebody for. It’s more
about getting that somebody,” Al-
derson said. “We can now empha-
size the acquisition rather than the
cost.”
That sentiment didn’t apply dur-
ing Alderson’s previous stint with
the Mets, when budgetary restric-
tions left them unable to compete
for talent befitting an organization
that plays in MLB’s largest market.
Prominent agent Scott Boras used
the Wilpons’ austerity as the inspi-
ration for an annual comedy routine
at the winter meetings, mocking the
Mets for shopping in the “fruits and
nuts” department or the “freezer
section.”
Under Cohen, the wealthiest
owner in baseball history, “we’re
going to be shopping in the gourmet
section,” Alderson said—joking that
he must locate it first after so many
years wandering the clearance
aisles.
A lifelong Mets fan from Long Is-

BYJAREDDIAMOND

The Mets Are the Most

Interesting Team in Baseball