Steve Cohen is getting excited as Mets’ farm system is starting to ‘look stacked’

PORT ST. LUCIE — In front of him Mets owner Steve Cohen sees a team he expects will compete for the playoffs. And beyond that there are even larger possibilities.

“For the first time I am excited about what we’re building in this farm system,” Cohen said Sunday in his annual spring training State of the Mets address. “We haven’t developed pitching in a long time and for the first time it looks like we have depth down there.”

Names such as Christian Scott, Blade Tidwell, Mike Vasil, Dom Hamel, Brandon Sproat and Tyler Stuart provide a reason for optimism.

That’s aside from a core of position players that includes Drew Gilbert, Jett Williams, Luisangel Acuna and Ryan Clifford that could be headed to Citi Field eventually.

But Cohen, who received an underwhelming return (in terms of production) for the money he spent on high-priced free agents such as Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, is clearly most enthralled with the pitchers.

“To me, that is exciting because pitching is so freakin’ expensive in baseball today,” Cohen said. “So if we can start building a team where we have some young, fresh blood and then surround it with veteran talent, that’s a winning combination.