Mets owner Steve Cohen joined Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman on New York Post Sports' 'The Show' podcast as they discussed a litany of topics ranging from the rumors of Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto's relationship, Carlos Mendoza's firing, David Stearns' future as the team's POBO, and more.
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What Steven Cohen said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Steven Cohen, owner of the New York Mets, said the team's 36-50 record is 'horrendous' and 'wildly disappointing,' attributing it to a confluence of factors: contract-year players adjusting to New York, injuries to key players like Lindor, and poor performance in close games (6-18 in one-run games, 14 runs in the ninth inning). He described firing manager Carlos Mendoza as a 'mercy shot' after deciding not to extend his contract, and he affirmed support for president of baseball operations David Stearns, saying he will not move him out now but will evaluate over the five-year contract. Cohen said Lindor and Soto are not going anywhere, claiming they are getting along much better. He is asking more questions and holding people accountable, but has not reached conclusions. He remains optimistic about future championships, citing payroll flexibility after 2027 and young pitchers, and plans to find new ways to communicate with fans.
Key takeaways
Mets are 36-50, a 'horrendous' and 'wildly disappointing' record, with no sugar coating.
Firing Carlos Mendoza was a 'mercy shot' after deciding not to extend his contract.
David Stearns will not be moved out now; evaluation continues over his five-year contract.
Lindor and Soto are not going anywhere; they are getting along much better now.
Cohen is doing a deeper dive into decisions and holding people accountable, but has no conclusions yet.
Really pleased this week to be joined, sixth year as the New York Mets owner. Feels like dog years. It feels like saying a revolutionary war hero George Washington and like leaving out everything else, but I'm going to leave out everything else because I assume most people who are watching this want to hear about the Mets. And we do appreciate, we were saying before our guest this week is Steve Con. Steve, thank you so much for joining us on the show.
Steve, you know, we were saying before we came on, your team is 36 and 50. I think a lot of times when people even say like, 'Oh, when is the Mets owner going to talk?' And I'm like, 'The Mets owner talks all the time. You're at the ballpark all the time.' And as opposed to many other owners, you are always chitchatting with reporters and team guys. So I never buy that. And most owners hide. So I appreciate you're doing this. So why don't I just ask a big broad question? We obviously, John and I both talked to you a lot during the offseason and in spring training, and the expectation was for excellence this year. I think you said the baseline was at least the playoffs, and clearly that's not where you're heading right now. You're 36 and 50. Why? What in your mind put you at 36 and 50 right now?
Yeah, listen, if you asked me at the beginning of the season, I would never expected this type of performance. It's just horrendous. No sugar coating it. This is not anything close to what I expected. And it's really disappointing, wildly disappointing. When you spend this type of money, I know everyone is working hard and we thought we put together a pretty good club, but when it doesn't work you have to sit back and go what the hell happened here. I think it's a confluence of events. I think there was a lot of change and it's easy to put it down on paper, but these are human beings and a lot of them are in contract years and have never played at another club before. Coming to New York matters, more pressure, more reporters. We've had injuries to significant players. Losing Lindor hurt us. Lindor and Soto haven't played more than 10 or 15 games together. Underperformance of our younger players. I saw a stat we're six and 18 in one-run games. We've scored 14 runs in the ninth inning. When the game gets on the line, we're just not performing. People get anxious and they're just not getting it done. That's how you lose. So it's a confluence of things that explain the lack of performance.
Mendoza, his contract was up after this year. Obviously it was clear you and David and everybody liked him a lot. How and why did that decision come about?
Listen, I describe it as I think it came down to one simple question: Were we going to extend Carlos or not? If the answer was no, then in my discussions with David, we agreed at this time, give him a break. The guy's sitting in front of the cameras every day. If you're not going to extend him, then I describe it as a mercy shot. Given where the club was, I watched that game where we had six errors and the next day two errors. The club just wasn't playing well. That's the way it is. When you take the manager's job, not too many are in that role forever. It's part of the gig. Sometimes you have to make a change.
Steve, I just want to make sure I heard something right on your answer about Stearns. I think you said you had a five-year contract and we're going to play that out. Does that mean David Stearns is getting the full five years no matter what?
Listen, I'm going forward with David as our leader. There's no guarantees in anything. I'm going to evaluate this as we go along. David knows it hasn't worked out the way he thought or I thought. He'd be the first to admit he's made mistakes. He's reflective. What am I looking for? When things aren't going great, are you reflective, adaptable, flexible? I believe David is. That encourages me. Now, we haven't performed. I'm a hands-off guy. I don't want to be an invasive owner. There are examples where owners come in over the top and performance suffers. Because we're not performing, I'm doing a deeper dive to understand what happened. I have business experience, I'm not a baseball expert. But if I can add value, I'm doing that. We'll figure out what changes need to be made, but moving David out at this point is not one of them. If we get to year five and performance continues to suffer, everything's fair game.
8 more exchanges in this transcript
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Cohen, S. (2026, July 1). Steve Cohen on Lindor & Soto relationship, 'mercy shot' firing of Carlos Mendoza, Stearns, and more [Interview transcript]. SNY. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1055508/
MLA
Steven Cohen. "Steve Cohen on Lindor & Soto relationship, 'mercy shot' firing of Carlos Mendoza, Stearns, and more." SNY, 1 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1055508/.
BibTeX
@misc{cohen2026_1055508,
author = {Steven Cohen},
title = {Steve Cohen on Lindor \& Soto relationship, 'mercy shot' firing of Carlos Mendoza, Stearns, and more},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, SNY. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1055508/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
