Mets continue to show willingness to spend with splurge for Kodai Senga

When MLB’s owners tried to curtail overspending by creating a third tier of the luxury tax, it was immediately nicknamed the Cohen Tax. Steven Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets, took that as a compliment.

“It’s better than a bridge being named after you,” he said at the time.

Cohen, a billionaire who is the richest owner in baseball, vowed that the tax would not stop him from spending, and he has proved that in a wild offseason in which he has followed up his team’s 101-win season by spending big on Justin Verlander, Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Diaz. The spending spree continued Saturday when the Mets came to terms with Kodai Senga, a right-handed starter from the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, on a five-year, $75 million contract.