Latest Mets buzz proves Steve Cohen only splurges when he can overpay ex-Yankees

The New York Mets are a bizarre contradiction of David Stearns' frugality (and desire to be the smartest person in the room) and Steve Cohen's brash fandom. Oddly, more often than not, Stearns' cleverness on a budget has won out over Cohen's rage instincts to do something totally out of control. The only place both men's instincts apparently overlap? When there's a free agent leaving the Yankees who's open to crossing town. Then, all bets are off.

Old-school Cohen used to splash short-term cash buckets on the likes of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, but when that went up in flames, he moved on to entrusting Stearns' preferences. On Monday morning of the Winter Meetings, a Will Sammon report emerged indicating that Stearns had won out again. With Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez, and Tatsuya Imai fated for nine-figure contracts, it turns out that the Mets — in desperate need of pitching after a fleet of failed bets — don't want to touch any of them.

So, that's done and dusted? The free-wheeling Mets, even with a series of glaring rotation holes, are financially capped? They'd prefer to wait for a blockbuster Tarik Skubal trade that may never come? Well ... not exactly.

Because, apparently, they're still involved on Cody Bellinger, who might be willing to swap clubhouses for the right amount of overpay. So, again, that's ... an unwillingness to pay what it costs to fill out an emptier-than-empty rotation, but an abject joy at the chance to lavish another recent Yankee with $200 million?

Mets won't sign top-tier starters (probably because none of them are former Yankees)

Maybe if Clay Holmes was on the market this year, they'd be willing to drop coin on him and try it again. Shame the rotation will just have to stay Swiss cheesy, then.

We saw this paradox in action last offseason at the forefront of the game's biggest bubble. Juan Soto, a once-in-a-generation free agent (and, yes, someone Cohen could steal from the Yankees), received a full-court press. A family sales pitch. Promises of generational greatness. But, when it came time to tack on a mere $150-200 million for homegrown bedrock Pete Alonso, the Mets balked. The treatment was bizarre. As was the news on Tuesday. The Dodgers signed Edwin Diaz to a three-year, $69 million contract. The Mets couldn't top that aggressively to convince him to stay?

Now, again, it seems clear the Mets are willing to add $40-60 million deals for familiar ex-Yankees to their ledger, but draw lines in the sand when it comes to everyone else. Declining to pay top-of-market prices because you don't like the market is one thing. Adding an overflowing scrap heap of ex-Yanks instead, clogging up your budget? Quite another.