massive three-year, $126 million deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cHe looks like a weak, ineffective billionaire, who doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing and is being led astray by a guy (Stearns) who doesn\u2019t understand what it means to have muscle and be in the biggest city in the world,\u201d Francesa said Friday on his self-named podcast.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWhat (Tucker signing with the Dodgers) also does is it completely minimizes the importance and the strength and reputation of one Steve Cohen.\u201d<\/p>\n
While no one can question Cohens\u2019 willingness to spend, the Dodgers \u2014 not the Mets \u2014 have been the team that seemingly signs any player they want in recent years.<\/p>\n
![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/strikes-fifth-inning-game-2-112971174.jpg\")
Kyle Tucker swinging during the NLDS. AP<\/p>\n
In prior offseasons, the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell, among others.<\/p>\n
This offseason, fresh off two World Series titles, the Dodgers inked Edwin Diaz from the Mets and now prevented Tucker from landing in Flushing.<\/p>\n
Cohen had a major win last offseason when he bested the Yankees to land Juan Soto on a 15-year, $765 million deal, the largest contract in North American sports history.<\/p>\n
However, many expected after he became owner that he would simply not be denied for players he truly wanted since he could outspend them all. <\/p>\n
He would simply be his \u201cBillions\u201d character in Bobby Axelrrod.<\/p>\n
MLB even created the so-called \u201cCohen Tax\u201d to try to prevent him from just winning every bidding war.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Yet, the Mets have now lost multiple bidding wars to the Dodgers for Ohtani, Yamomoto and Tucker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve never watched the character (Axelrod) that this man (Cohen) is supposed to be, he is supposed to be a ruthless, \u2018I win every time,\u2019 kind of guy, and he\u2019s getting punched this way and that way and knocked down and humiliated in baseball right now,\u201d Francesa said.<\/p>\n
Francesa noted that Stearns may factor into how the team has operated in free agency, saying that it\u2019s \u201cnot working\u201d with the former Brewers\u2019 top executive.<\/p>\n
The Mets went to the NLCS in 2024 in Stearns\u2019 first season, but endured one of their most disappointing campaigns ever in 2025 by missing the playoffs with an 83-79 record.<\/p>\n
Francesa said Stearns seemingly wants to build a small-market team in a big market for Cohen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looks like an ineffective, soft, middle-of-the-road owner who talked big game and doesn\u2019t get the job done, Francesa said, \u201cand puts people in place to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohen responded to losing Tucker by flexing his financial might to land Bichette, a strong hitter who will man third base for the franchise.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/new-york-mets-owner-steve-98743411.jpg\")
Steve Cohen did not win a bidding war against the Dodgers. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
The Mets still could use an outfielder and a starting pitcher despite already being in the highest luxury bracket, meaning they will pay 110 percent on any contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hasn\u2019t been what everybody thought he would be. \u2026The guy who was supposed to be Bobby Axelrod\u2026,\u201d Francesa said of Cohen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is he was going to be (late Yankees owner) George (Steinbrenner) on steroids. Baseball was so worried about this guy\u2019s Wall Street reputation and his outrageous wealth that they put in a guardian with him in (former Mets president) Sandy Alderson.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Francesa has a message for Steve Cohen after losing out on Kyle Tucker: You\u2019re no Bobby Axelrod.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,29,57,101,4,2046,37650,1690,61,2548,4203,185,4298,1192],"class_list":["post-525212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-baseball","tag-kyle-tucker","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-mlb-hot-stove","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-steve-cohen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115911187789751300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}