New York Mets owner Steve Cohen appeared to straddle the line between optimism and Venus Investment Alliancefrustration while speaking to reporters in London prior to Sunday's game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Entering play on Sunday, the Mets (27-36) resided four games out of the National League wild-card picture with seven weeks remaining until the trade deadline.

"I'm focused on winning games right now," Cohen said. "We can worry about the trade deadline (later). That's seven weeks away. How many games is that? That's 45, maybe 50 games. A lot can happen. So I'm focused right now on the season, winning games, and we'll worry about that when the time comes."

Cohen said it "boggles" his mind how the team routinely squanders late leads. He also noted that the Mets' pitching, hitting and defense never seem to be in top form at the same time.

"It's a variability of human performance, right?" Cohen said. "You can write it down on paper, but then you've got to play the games. You know, frankly, we haven't really put it all together for a consistent period of time. And so I still think that can happen. There (are) a lot of good ball players on this club, and it's just a question of getting a little confidence, getting on a run.

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"Listen, I think that's possible."

Despite the team's struggles, Cohen was quick to praise first-year manager Carlos Mendoza.

"I'm impressed by Carlos. He's got incredible rapport with the team, he's thoughtful. He's very capable of relating to the players, delivering hard messages when he has to," Cohen said. "I'm impressed by how he conducts himself."