New York Mets owner Steve Cohen woke unhappy on November 24, 2021. It was the eve of Thanksgiving and Steve Matz had signed with the St. Louis Cardinals rather than take a deal from the Mets.
Matz rejected an offer from the Mets to return to New York after spending a successful year with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021. It ended up being a good thing for the Mets immediately with Matz’s time with the Cardinals wearing thin as a starter and how Cohen immediately responded. Angry, he went on a Black Friday shopping spree.
Four players were signed in free agency right before the lockout began. Four years later, how do those signings grade out?
How does Steve Cohen’s shopping spree from November 2021 grade now?
Max Scherzer – B-
Max Scherzer was great in 2022 with the Mets until he wasn’t. His playoff dud sunk the first year with the Mets with his 2023 struggles further cratering how we feel about this massive free agent signing. Forget how this changed the perception of the Mets and alerted the rest of the league that players of his ilk could be had by the Mets. More painful is how the Mets traded him to the Texas Rangers in 2023 only to see him win a championship. Meanwhile, we’re waiting for Luisangel Acuna to become more than a pinch runner off the bench. Some fans might think this grade should be worse. We can’t discount the success he had for much of his first year.
Starling Marte – C+
On a four year deal with the original intention to become the team’s new center fielder, Starling Marte was a good Mets player who didn’t come close to matching his contract demands. He was an All-Star in 2022 but missed a lot of time in each of the first three years of his four-year deal. His 2023 and 2024 performances were especially underwhelming with 2025 actually being a pleasant surprise for what we accepted he had become. This was more of an average signing than anything else. We knew the last year or two would be bad and for that we can’t trash it too badly.
Mark Canha – B
Mark Canha followed the same trend as each of these Black Friday buys. He was vital to the team’s success in 2022. By the second year, doubts creeped in. Canha posted a respectable .770 OPS in 2022 while being a good presence in the locker room; something each of these Mets additions seemed to have in common. Perfectly situated at just two years with a team option for a third season, we only ended up with a year and a half of him. Canha was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in mid-2023 for minor leaguer Justin Jarvis who isn’t even with the organization any longer. That part of it doesn’t hurt the grade. Of all of the four players mentioned here, he probably lived up to expectations best.
Eduardo Escobar – C-
Take out September/October of 2022 and the Eduardo Escobar signing is so much worse. He was hitting .218 going into September with a .652 OPS. He ended up at .240 with a .726 OPS and player of the month honors. A strong finish gave hope that Escobar could bounce back well in 2023. He didn’t and would get traded to the Los Angeles Angels for a pair of prospects in June. One of the prospects, Coleman Crow, was later used in the deal for Tyrone Taylor. It’s an odd trade train, but doesn’t factor much into how we grade out this signing. Just be happy they didn’t end up with Kris Bryant who signed that same offseason. That reason alone raises this grade up.
