PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The Mets have not had a captain since David Wright played his final game eight years ago. They’re not going to have another one anytime soon.
In a surprise comment Monday from Clover Park, Steve Cohen addressed the issue thusly: “As long as I’m owning the team, there will never be a team captain.”
“That was my decision,” Cohen continued. “My view is the locker room is unique, and let the locker room sort it out year in, year out.”
In recent seasons, Spring Training talk frequently revolved around the idea of a captain, particularly because Francisco Lindor seemed to fit all the unspoken qualifications: a star player with strong leadership qualities under a guaranteed contract for many years. But Cohen never had any intention of naming Lindor or anyone else captain, adding: “I’ve felt that way all along.”
“It’s just my own views on how I want a locker room to be,” Cohen said. “My view is every year, the team’s different, and let the team kind of figure it out in the locker room rather than having a designation. Having a captain in baseball doesn’t happen often. It’s actually unusual. Whatever previous ownership did, that was their way of doing things. I look at things differently.”
Wright served as Mets captain from 2013 until his retirement following the 2018 season. The Mets have had three other captains in their history: Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter and John Franco.
Only two of Major League Baseball’s 30 clubs currently have captains: Aaron Judge for the Yankees and Salvador Perez for the Royals. That stands in contrast to other major team sports like football and hockey, in which most teams have one or multiple captains.
“There’s a reason why we haven’t named one,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “The way I see it — the way we see it — is we have a bunch of guys there that are part of that leadership group. We lost a few guys that were a part of that group, and then we gained some guys that have done that. When you’re talking about a Major League locker room, you need to have not only one guy, but a few guys. That’s what makes teams great.”
According to Mendoza, the Mets have never discussed the issue with Lindor.
“We just want him to be himself,” Mendoza said. “If anything, it’s just, ‘Make sure you play shortstop for the New York Mets at an elite level.’ That’s his job.”
When the Mets named Wright captain in 2013, it was under a different ownership group with a different clubhouse mix. At that point, Wright was a homegrown Met entering his 10th Major League season, having just signed an eight-year contract. He was a clear and singular leader, and a Met for life.
“I think every situation is different,” Wright said Monday in a telephone interview. “What I see is a team full of veteran-type leaders where maybe it’s viewed as unnecessary to have one leader when you have a roomful or a locker roomful of leaders that you have now. You have perennial All-Stars. You have possible future Hall of Famers. You have guys that have won in other places. … What it seems to me is they want a collective captain as opposed to just one player that has that designation.”
Since Wright’s departure, the Mets have not employed a homegrown star who fits the same mold. Various leaders have popped up over the years, including Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and others. On the pitching staff, Sean Manaea and David Peterson have become influential. This offseason, the Mets also brought in multiple free agents with strong leadership reputations.
“You have now a Bo Bichette that’s played in the World Series,” Wright said. “You have a Marcus Semien who won a World Series. You have obviously Francisco. You have Juan Soto. If you look at it, now you have this lineup full of guys that theoretically could all be a leader in different ways. If you mix that up now and have a group of leaders, I think it solves the issue.”
