REPORT: Former NY Mets GM shares the biggest $2.5 million mistake the team may have ever made that cost them

Regrets? It’s hard to say if the Wilpon Family harbors any from their tenure as majority owners of the New York Mets. However, former Mets General Manager Steve Phillips seems to have at least one significant regret from his time leading the team.

Speaking on MLB Network over the weekend, Phillips touched on an alternate reality—one where ownership heeded the advice of both him and then-manager Bobby Valentine. This missed opportunity came down to just $2.5 million, the amount that stood in the way of signing a player they strongly believed in.

For only about $2.5 million more, Mets history could have been changed forever

Back in 2001, the $2.5 million the Mets were short on paying for Ichiro Suzuki carried significantly more weight in terms of value. At the time, Mike Piazza, the team’s highest-paid player, was earning roughly $13.5 million.

The Wilpons had already earned their unfortunate reputation for being frugal despite their financial capacity, and this decision has aged as one of the most frustrating misses in Mets history. After the 2001 season, when Ichiro made his MLB debut, the franchise entered a darker period, making this missed opportunity even more painful. The era was rife with “almost Mets” stories involving players like Alex Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero, and Ken Griffey Jr. Instead of acquiring future Hall of Famers in their primes, the Mets regularly brought in aging players like Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar.

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The $2.5 million gap Phillips and Valentine couldn’t bridge was equivalent to the 2001 salary of reliever Dennis Cook, who earned $2.4 million—just 2.58% of the team’s payroll, per Baseball Prospectus. But the full cost for Ichiro wasn’t just $2.5 million—it was closer to $13.5 million, including his posting fee, making him the highest-paid player on the team. Ownership likely would have spun the decision as an unwillingness to pay anyone more than Piazza, if pressed.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Mariners reaped immediate rewards, as Ichiro delivered a historic 2001 season, winning Rookie of the Year, MVP, Silver Slugger, and the batting title. Over his career, he became a near-unanimous Hall of Famer—denied perfection only by one bitter voter. For Mets fans, it’s another “what could have been” moment, compounded by the Wilpons’ pattern of spending just enough to appear competitive but rarely enough to secure true difference-makers.