The most expensive roster in major league history was a failure. The Mets’ superfan owner, Steven A. Cohen, committed nearly half a billion dollars this season to learn a timeless lesson easily forgotten when pursuing World Series glory: Money guarantees nothing.
Early Friday morning, the Mets shipped the team’s closer, David Robertson, to the Miami Marlins for two teenage prospects. That deal signaled that the front office had lost hope, and the next one confirmed it: On Saturday, the team agreed to trade Max Scherzer, a starter destined for the Hall of Fame, to the Texas Rangers for Luisangel Acuña, the brother of Atlanta’s superstar outfielder, Ronald Acuña Jr.