The so-called Cohen tax, as MLB nicknamed it when it reached a collective bargaining agreement earlier this year, is a financial threshold designed to rein in Cohen’s spending or allow other teams to profit from his largesse. That didn’t limit him, and since 50% of the tax was paid to other teams, those other clubs would share about $55 million from Cohen to help him win a title.
When the Mets were controlled by the Wilpon family, Boras often joked about the team shopping for players in bargain bins, a legacy bolstered by the family’s fallout from losing hundreds of millions of dollars in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. Now, to the delight of fans and agents like Boras, the franchise’s fortunes have changed dramatically under Cohen, who bought the team in 2020.
“They’re in the caviar section,” Boras said. “It’s about championship baseball in a major market.”
Boras said he provided the Mets with a full medical report on Correa and didn’t expect them to react the way the Giants did. He described the holdup with San Francisco as a disagreement over the reported outcome, adding that the Giants’ medical issues were not related to a previous back injury.
“Medical opinions are what they are,” Boras said. “Opinions.”
The Giants acknowledged their general concerns, citing confidentiality, but did not elaborate in a statement released Wednesday morning that was credited to the team’s president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.
“While we are prohibited from disclosing confidential medical information, as Scott Boras has stated publicly, there is disagreement regarding the results of Carlos’ medical examination,” the statement said. “We wish Carlos the best.”
The Mets did not respond to a request for comment, but Cohen told the Post, “That puts us in the lead.”