Mets owner Steve Cohen spoke with reporters on Tuesday morning, discussing the organization’s spending outlook after another huge offseason. Cohen acknowledged that a winter involving a record-setting Juan Soto contract and retaining Sean Manaea and Pete Alonso pushed spending beyond his initial expectations.

Cohen would like to get under that threshold at some point, but not now. Not when the Mets have momentum and not when they have a lineup deep enough to compete with the one out west. The Mets simply aren’t ready to compete with a lower payroll yet. They don’t have a farm system regularly churning out big-league players.

PORT ST. LUCIE — Steve Cohen has visions of dropping below what even he wryly called on Tuesday the “Cohen Tax” threshold. I bet he believes the day is coming in the next few years when David Stearns has overseen a farm system that annually delivers difference makers and depth.