THE COHEN CASUALTY! Craig Carton and Big Mac Declare the 2026 Mets SEASON OVER

**Craig Carton** (0:07)
Nothing like Mick Jagger on a Thursday, Carton Show, Big Mac.
Who's that knocking on my door? It's Irrelevancy. That's exactly right, because it's the New York Mets.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:17)
They're kicking it in.

**Craig Carton** (0:18)
Yeah.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:19)
They ain't knocking.

**Craig Carton** (0:20)
Well, look, here's the deal. Thank God for the New York Knicks. New York Knicks got us to a Summer of Yankee Baseball.
That's what they did. From one first-place team and our champion to another first-place team that hopes to be a champion. So the beauty of having the two teams in this particular market is, could you imagine if the New York Mets were the only baseball team here in New York? How miserable the summer would be? And how much longer the Knick talk would have to last to get us to football season?

**Chris McMonigle** (0:47)
That is the benefit of having multiple teams.

**Craig Carton** (0:50)
Even if you're a die-hard Met fan, be grateful that the Knicks exist, obviously. Number one, and number two, have some respect. Have some respect for what the Yankee organization does. Because here's what the Yankee organization does. It's really more what they don't do than what they have done.
They have never done this.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:09)
Never.

**Craig Carton** (1:10)
In the Brian Cashman era of the New York Yankees.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:13)
You got to go back to when George Steinbrenner was in the team to have it look like this.

**Craig Carton** (1:16)
This Met experience that you're living through right now, a Yankee fan in the Cashman era has never experienced this. Big losses, yes. Embarrassing losses, sure. Disappointing losses, yes. Early exits, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.
But never this. The New York Yankees have never been irrelevant on June 25th.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:37)
And again, there's misconception in saying that is somehow taking bows or somehow declaring victory or somehow saying anything other than just acknowledging that fact.
It's an acknowledgement of a fact. Even the Knicks won this championship.
Decades of irrelevance. It sucks. Irrelevancy sucks. And as much as there has been disappointment, and as much as they've had bad loss, and as much as it's been a long time now since they've won a championship, and it's been a long time now since they've looked like the playoff teams we remember from the late 90s and 2000 Granted, all of that's true. Yet they hardly ever play a meaningless game, let alone have a meaningless month or a meaningless half a season. Like, they, every single year, they give you relevancy and they give you a damn good team. And when you look at what the Mets have done here with a $370 million payroll, it is worth the acknowledgement of, at least saying, it's not as easy as we think.

**Craig Carton** (2:33)
That's exactly right.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:34)
We think we can, anyone, anyone, anyone, if I've heard this once, I've heard it a million times. Anyone can do what Brian Cashman does with the amount of money he spends. With the payroll the Yankees have, anyone can do what the Yankees have done.

**Craig Carton** (2:48)
You hear it all the time, right?

**Chris McMonigle** (2:49)
And here we are.

**Craig Carton** (2:51)
With under $370 million.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:52)
Under Steve Cohen, since the day Steve Cohen got here, he's had the same level of payroll the Yankees have. He hasn't put back-to-back playoff seasons together. And these are the two worst, arguably, in the franchise's history. They have a $370 million team that's irrelevant by July.
It's not easy to do what Brian Cashman does. That's not saying he should have parades thrown for him. That's not saying he should have a lifetime contract. That's not saying he's the greatest GM who ever walked the earth. But it's saying it's not easy to accomplish what he accomplished for 30 years. And go ask people around baseball if it's easy to do what Brian Cashman has done. Because it's not.

**Craig Carton** (3:25)
You have a pimple on your nose.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:27)
Do I? It's a little distracting. Sorry.

**Craig Carton** (3:28)
It's okay. It's not your fault. It happens. It's like Rudolph.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:31)
No, is it red? Because I can squeeze in it, that's why.

**Craig Carton** (3:33)
Yeah, stop touching it.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:33)
It's not a whitehead, though, right?

**Craig Carton** (3:34)
No, but it's going to be.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:35)
No, it's not.

**Craig Carton** (3:36)
That's going to be bad in Boston.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:37)
I think I eliminated the whitehead part of it, but now it's red.

**Craig Carton** (3:39)
Yeah, but now it's like, I was like, am I Santa Claus?