The one thing the Mets have done well in the Cohen era is keep their spending short-term.
A LOT of baseball fans (including most Mets fans) don't get this part:
The old regime left the Mets farm system barren. They cut scouting and development to the bare bones trying to stay afloat and traded almost all their prospects for MLB roster fodder.
They kept like, the top 12 guys over a decade, but you look at other teams, and they have a steady stream of "nothing special, but an MLB guy" talent. The Mets don't have that.
Then you have the next tier of players down, replacement players. The Mets don't even have THAT, either.
Look at their 2015 team that went to the World Series. Do a "trade tree" for them: 18 of the 25 guys on the postseason roster got back NOTHING. ZERO. We're talking deGrom, Syndergaard, Wright, Conforto, Cespedes, Granderson, Murphy, d'Arnaud, Colon, Cuddyer, etc, etc...
Only five guys brought something back (Harvey, Niese, Duda, Matz and backup catcher Kevin Plawecki). That got them Devin Mesorsco, Neil Walker (who got back nothing), Drew Smith (Active!) Sean Reid-Foley (active!) and four guys you've never heard of.
So the reason the Mets spent A TON OF MONEY the last three years wasn't some kind of hubris that they could buy an elite team for $300m.
They didn't even really get any "elite" free agents except the super old guys (Scherzer, Verlander). They signed DEPTH GUYS because they had to. Not only did they not have "Some kid from Triple A if we need a 6th OF" they had to buy those, too! (Abraham Almonte, Danny Mendick, DJ Stewart).
Even this past offseason, when everyone loved to point out how much the Mets spent... just bringing back their own FAs would have cost $168 million MORE that what the Mets spent.
The Mets threw a lot of money at guys to keep the fans entertained while they re-planted the farm. Being terrible last year and selling off assets for prospects (and eating the cash to get decent prospects) probably set the franchise forward three years.
