At some point, the Mets will demonstrate that it is possible to buy a title.

Baltimore — Steve Cohen’s case is still pending; he has the ability to combine his immense financial resources and strong desire to win a World Series to achieve his goals. Maybe the owner of the New York Mets will show that it is possible to purchase a title at some point.

However, the solution might still prove elusive as the legacy of his 2022–2023 Mets becomes apparent and baseball anthropologists examine the ruins of the most expensive team in the history of the sport.

It’s not financial: Cohen fielded players valued at $365 million, spent $501 million on offseason upgrades, and will spend nearly half a billion dollars in wages and taxes this season.

It’s not talent: Cohen hired a pair of Hall of Fame pitchers each of the past two offseasons, and while Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander battled injury, one two-week suspension and their professional mortality, they largely performed as asked in Queens.

Perhaps, if these Mets proved anything, it’s that you can’t simply outspend baseball – the industry, sure, but not the rhythms and whims of the game.

You can’t buy good sequencings. Nor concoct a chemistry by checkbook.

There’s no statistical column for je ne sai quois. But just like when you know a team has it, it’s equally glaring when a club doesn’t.

And these Mets never did.

“You have to play good baseball and you have to be clutch and I think some teams just have that sort of magic where they have the ability to win close games and in all kinds of different ways,” says outfielder Mark Canha, now a Milwaukee Brewer after Cohen’s trade deadline selloff waved a white flag on this season.