How Mets should spend Steve Cohens riches and elevate to next level

SAN ANTONIO — We aren’t going to hold Mets owner Steve Cohen to his original hope/goal to win a championship in his first five years.Not with only one year to go.

Even with our usual billionaire’s curve, that just wouldn’t be fair. But we do like how well-positioned the Mets are for 2025, aka Year 5. Sure, the Mets currently possess only 40 percent of a rotation, and maybe not even that much of a bullpen.And, of course, their top slugger, Pete Alonso, is a free agent. Yes, they have tons of work to do, but the half-empty canvas works well for them.

The free-agent market has impact stars, and what’s more, they are guys who fit them.In particular, there are plenty of good to excellent starting pitchers who are now free agents. “I think there are some options there,” baseball president David Stearns said of this market. After watching Stearns work magic his first year, a year that was supposed to be transitional, we feel very good about the leadership.

He spent less than $100M (pocket change by MLB standards) and improved the team from dreadful to downright dangerous.Given the keys to the vault, he could clean up. It doesn’t hurt that Cohen is the richest owner, or certainly that he wants to win badly enough that he’s willing to take a financial hit.

Since I like nothing more than spending other people’s money, here’s my plan: I don’t think this needs to be suggested to Cohen, as he’s known to go for the best in whatever he collects (art, for sure).Stearns didn’t directly address Soto on Monday, but while he isn’t believed to love big contracts for typical free agents nearing 30, Soto is 26 and Stearns showed he was willing to go all-out for then-25-year-old Yoshinobu Yamamoto, stopping at $325M (plus posting fee and moving expenses) only after it became clear Yamamoto preferred to join Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers. While Cohen was polite by not playing for Yankees superstar Aaron Judge, Soto publicly opened the door to “all 30...