With stunning Carlos Correa deal, Steve Cohen's Mets are the new Yankees — with lofty expectations

Steve Cohen continues to be loved by Mets fans, but also perhaps is the most hated man in baseball after his stunning signing of Carlos Correa in the middle of the night, as he continues his relentless pursuit of a championship.

It’s still not clear why Correa failed his physical earlier this week after signing with the San Francisco Giants, but Cohen wasted no time in swooping in to land the superstar shortstop who now will move to third base to play next to his fellow Puerto Rico native Francisco Lindor.

What is clear is that Cohen doesn’t give a damn about what anyone but Mets fans think of him, as he takes his payroll toward $400 million -- $500 million if you include the tax he has to pay.

In fact, most of his fellow owners are probably regretting their vote to approve his takeover as owner two years ago, never believing he’d use his personal fortune as a billionaire hedge fund owner to gain such an advantage.

It can’t help but be noticed that Cohen upstaged the Yankees by pulling off his Correa deal only hours before they would be holding their news conference to celebrate Aaron Judge’s return.

A George Steinbrenner move if ever there was one.

Well, why not? The days of the Mets being the little brother in their intracity rivalry of sorts with the Yankees is clearly a thing of the past with Cohen now the financial bully on the block.

For that matter, talk about your Evil Empire: At this point, Cohen is outdoing anything the late Steinbrenner ever did in the name of winning it all for the Yankees.

Indeed, he has committed the rather stupefying sum of $806.1 million to the free agents he’s signed in the last several weeks: Brandon Nimmo, Justin Verlander, Edwin Diaz, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana, Omar Narvaez, Adam Ottavino, David Robertston…

And now Correa; his signing to a 12-year, $315 million contract at age 28 adds the type of bat this lineup still needed to be considered championship-caliber. He brings Gold Glove defense as well to his new position of third base, but of more significance is his proven ability as a big-game performer during his years with the Houston Astros.

For his career in the postseason, in fact, Correa has hit 18 home runs in 79 games, posting a .505 slugging percentage and an OPS of .849. Those numbers loom large for a Mets team that failed to hit when it counted most last season, in that late-season series against the Braves in Atlanta with the division title on the line and then in the Wild Card series against the San Diego Padres.

Of course, there is still the matter of Correa passing his physical with the Mets before any deal is official, which is no small formality after whatever happened with the Giants.

However, Cohen surely sought assurances of sort from agent Scott Boras regarding the issue, and he did sign him for less than the Giants had at $350 million.

With all of that in mind, Correa’s deal is surely the most shocking transaction in New York baseball since the Yankees pulled off a trade for Alex Rodriguez nearly 19 years ago, and that’s fitting not only because Correa will be similarly moving over to third base but also raising expectations to a new level for the Mets where anything short of winning a championship will be seen as a failure.

To that point the 2023 Mets become The Beatles, if you will. The coverage/scrutiny will be like it was for the Derek Jeter/A-Rod Yankees beginning in 2004, and it will be fascinating to see how Buck Showalter and his ballclub deal with their new world.

Showalter, for one, much prefers the underdog role. Even with highly talented teams, he has tried to create that type of mentality as a way of motivating his players, but it will be an awfully difficult trick to pull off now.

Still, just as he instilled some much-needed professionalism upon his arrival last year, Showalter will play a vital role in managing expectations and egos as well as the actual ballgames.

The good news for him is that there likely will none of the underlying tension and bad vibes that came with A-Rod’s arrival as a Yankee, considering that Correa and Lindor are said to be very good friends and excited to play together.

Jeter famously wanted no part of A-Rod coming to the Yankees, never forgiving his former friend for denigrating comments in a magazine story about him. Jeter’s disdain for A-Rod created such a negative vibe around the Yankees that GM Brian Cashman at one point had to make a personal appeal to Jeter to play nice – without much luck, as it were.

In any case, the Mets shouldn’t have that problem, though Correa is certainly a big personality who is bringing some baggage as one of the players in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

In fact, he was one of the most outspoken players in the aftermath of the scandal, publicly challenging reports that he felt were inaccurate, and in some cases calling out rival players for their comments, notably the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger.

“If you don’t know the facts then you got to shut the (bleep) up,” Correa said bluntly after Bellinger was quoted saying the Astros stole the World Series from the Dodgers by cheating.

The point is that Correa probably has the personality to deal with everything coming his way as a Met now, primarily the huge expectations he and the team will deal with in 2023.

Who knows, that personality may even have helped convinced Cohen to make the deal.

That is, Cohen likely sees Correa, an All-Star shortstop moving from such a prestigious position in the prime of his career, as similarly committed to winning at all costs. And to heck with anybody who has a problem with it.

Buckle up, Mets fans. This should be quite a ride.