Outfielder Brandon Nimmo has featured only for the New York Mets since he made his MLB debut in 2016 and, thus, knows plenty about what the organization was before owner Steve Cohen and team president of baseball operations David Stearns were running things.
Shortly after the Mets landed superstar Juan Soto via a 15-year, $765M contract that could exceed $800M total, Nimmo reached out to Cohen and Stearns regarding the historic agreement.
“I knew that David and Steve were doing whatever they could to bring him here,” Nimmo said about Soto during a chat with Mike Puma of the New York Post. “When the news finally broke, just extreme jubilation. I sent text messages to [Stearns and Cohen] and said, ‘I can’t thank you enough for bringing him here.'”
Nimmo was with the Mets in January 2019 when, per Puma, then-team COO Jeff Wilpon said he didn’t “know how many teams have two $30M players” while explaining why the club didn’t pursue Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. To compare, Cohen hasn’t shied away from routinely splashing cash to acquire and re-sign noteworthy stars since he assumed ownership of the Mets in the fall of 2020.
Cohen signed shortstop Francisco Lindor to a 10-year contract extension that could be worth up to $341M in the spring of 2021 and later locked Nimmo down via an eight-year deal reportedly worth $162M in December 2022. More recently, Cohen paid off portions of contracts so the Mets could execute a needed fire sale in the summer of 2023.
Last offseason, Cohen trusted Stearns to make what were seen at the time as underwhelming acquisitions. The Mets then completed a trip to this year’s National League Championship Series.
“It’s amazing how [Cohen] has changed things for Mets fans, Mets players and this organization,” Nimmo said. “It’s just a pivotal moment in his ownership and the history of the Mets franchise that he’s able to get a player away from the Yankees and a guy in his prime. Even when I was growing up, the Yankees always got the best players, they always bought the best players. It was just a common-known fact, and now you see something here where the Mets were able to bring [Soto] over. It’s a change to the way things have always been. I definitely think it is sweet to have done it this way.”
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner offered Soto a 16-year, $760M deal and seemingly believed the 26-year-old would care more about the storied franchise’s history and tradition than about things such as a free suite for family members along with other perks. Steinbrenner was wrong, and one can’t blame Mets players such as Nimmo for enjoying some victory laps ahead of Christmas.
