Mets owner Steve Cohen offered reward to whoever could out the source of a negative story about him

When Steve Cohen took over ownership of the New York Mets, his presence as baseball’s wealthiest owner set the highest of expectations for Mets fans. He was supposed to use his deep pockets to bring in talent, and he didn’t shy away from offering Francisco Lindor a $341 million contract.

But money alone hasn’t made the transformational impact that Cohen hoped for, and organizationally, the Mets have remained a mess with Jared Porter’s firing for sexual harassment and acting GM Zack Scott’s arrest for DWI. In a recent article from The New York Post, that front-office turmoil was chronicled. But there was one quote from an anonymous source that really caught Cohen’s attention.

It read:

“Cohen is out there tweeting about the organization and about stuff that he shouldn’t be tweeting about like he’s a fan,” the former executive said. “Why would somebody want to sign up for that? I think it’s a huge issue.”

Now, Cohen has been active on Twitter since taking over the Mets — aside from briefly deactivating his account amid threats related to GameStop stock. He also tweets a lot about things that don’t help the Mets at all — the quote was pretty spot on. But if there’s one way to prove a negative source wrong about your tweeting habits, this wouldn’t be the way to do it.

“Insightful” source in Mike Puma’s article in the New York Post today .The person who can guess the source correctly will have the opportunity to sit with me in my suite at Citifield.First one right wins.

— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) September 16, 2021

Cohen took to Twitter on Thursday to tweet his response to the story, which was offering a reward to the person who could guess the source behind that New York Post quote. The prize was being able to watch a game with Cohen in his suite at Citi Field.

Without evidence, Cohen accused former Marlins exec and current CBS Sports personality David Samson as being the source behind the story.

Well , Twitter figured it out as usual. The source, who has already put out a pre- denial denial is David Samson.I will have my press people reach out to the 3 winners

— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) September 16, 2021

Both Samson and Mike Puma (the writer of the article) denied that — not that any reputable reporter would out a source even if Cohen was correct.

Sorry @StevenACohen2 but I hope those three fans still get to watch a game with you! https://t.co/yjvHRKoe58

— David P. Samson (@DavidPSamson) September 16, 2021

It is a bit wild that Cohen’s reaction to criticism of tendency to tweet about things he shouldn’t tweet about is to … well … tweet about things he shouldn’t tweet about. Way to show ’em, Steve.

This could only happen with the Mets.