The Mets announced this afternoon that minority owner Steve Cohen and the Sterling Partners (owner Fred Wilpon’s company) are negotiating a deal in which Cohen “would increase his investment in the New York Mets.” The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal first reported the news just minutes before the organization made a formal announcement (Twitter link).
The arrangement would make Cohen the new majority owner of the Mets if it is indeed completed, as Bloomberg reports that the proposed sale of shares would give him an 80 percent share of the team, which is being valued at $2.6 billion. Newsday’s Tim Healey tweets that Cohen would become the Mets’ control person heading into the 2025 season under the current proposal.
Under the terms of the yet-to-be-finalized agreement, Fred Wilpon (the co-founder and senior partner of Sterling Equities) would remain the Mets’ CEO and control person for another five years. His son, Jeff Wilpon, would also remain COO for another five years. Cohen will continue on as CEO of Point72 Asset Management, per the announcement.
Any ownership-level shakeup, of course, can have payroll implications for a team, but there’s no immediate indication that the Mets will increase spending in the near future. To the contrary, multiple reports this week have indicated that the Mets may need to move some undesirable contracts before spending further this winter — a reality that has long since been apparent to any who’ve closely examined the team’s payroll outlook. As for what would happen with regard to team payroll down the line, that can’t be known at this time, but it’s worth highlighting that the Bloomberg Billionaire Index lists Cohen’s net worth at a staggering $9.2 billion.
Today’s announcement seemingly puts a finite window on the Wilpons’ rein atop the organization and, as ESPN’s Buster Olney points out (Twitter link), perhaps explains why the club has been so focused on winning as soon as possible and making splashy moves toward that end. The Wilpon family has long been among the most highly scrutinized ownership groups in all of Major League Baseball, with reports of organizational dysfunction and over-involvement in more granular aspects of day-to-day operations becoming commonplace in recent years.
Wish he was taking over today but great news nonetheless
Mets fans should love this. I’m a Braves fan that doesn’t know much of anything about Cohen but he must be better than the Wilpons by default. I think the Wilpons are probably the worst big market team owners in all of baseball so it seems like it can only go up from here. If they add payroll and Cohen gets a GM smart enough to not commit it to players like Cano, the Mets could be a real force. First move: trade Bobby Bonilla. He is only under contract for the next decade so hopefully they can get a deal done. Next move: trade David Wright. Any team that acquires him will expect him to at least try harder to make the roster than the Mets do. Unlike Bonilla, Wright is still legally obligated to play if it won’t make his injuries worse. Final move: Trade Cano… Because acquiring him was just flat out idiotic in the first place.
Oh, yeah… I forgot to mention trading Cespedas for a bag of used damaged baseballs. He has to go as well. That will free up what.. About $200 million and cost the team basically nothing in terms of production? If they can’t pull those trades off it is only because they were the idiots that thought those contracts would pay off in the first place.
This post could be just ten words long.
you do realize that about half of all MLB teams are paying players deferred payments? being a Braves fan you should know that they’re still paying Bruce Sutter $1.2 mil a year for the next couple of years when they make the last payment of $9.1 million. Gary Sheffield even gets deferred payments from two teams,the Tigers and the Yankees. it’s actually a good financial move to defer monies for a set number of years than pay it all at once
I hope this was meant as a terrible joke and you don’t actually believe any of that.
if you don’t believe me look it up,google is your friend.
Yeah @whynot. Look it up. He’s right. The only contract dumber than Bonilla is the Sutter contract. At least it was about $10 mill less than Bonilla but they were both stupid contracts. He’s wrong about deffered contracts being good for a team though. That’s mortgaging the future which is not smart for any team that wants to stay competitive. Those contracts are usually handed out by GM’s who only have goals of keeping their jobs. If the team has to bleed out the rear decades after the GM retires, what does he care? He probably didn’t grow up as a fan of that team anyway. Teams have to pay interest and inflation on deffered contracts so anyone that thinks they are good for a team doesn’t know what they are talking about. It only makes sense if the team is straight out of cash and that specific deferred contract wins them a world series. If the deffered player leaves without contributing to a world championship it is a terrible decision. Even if they do contribute to a world championship it only makes sense if the team deferred the contract because they literally didn’t have enough cash available to do it straight up. It’s like buying something with a very high interest loan from a bank when you could have just bought it outright… And if you don’t win the championship in the process it’s like whatever you bought with that expensive loan just became completely worthless and you have nothing to show for it.
Finally!!! LoL Mets fans are calling today the best day since the team won the World Series back in 1986!!!
Unless Tebow makes the roster. That will be the 3rd coming of Jesus.
Did I miss the second one?
I guess we all did!
Tebow’s not expected to make the roster until after the Second Coming. Then he’ll be the Third.
W
Finally the day has come for Mets Fans to be happy and optimistic for what the future holds. Funny how we go from one of the cheapest owners in baseball to the richest owner in all of baseball If approved by the owners and when he owns 80 percent of the Mets in 5 years time.
Thank God Free at last
So who’s brokering the deal? Michael Avanati? Rudy Gulliani? Bernie Madoff? Joe Pesci? Michael Cohan? Soupy Sales?
Enquiring minds want to know……
Soupy Sales. To pay for the deal Mr. Cohen. Needs the young kids of all Mets’ fans to sneak into their parents’ wallets and mail in all of those green slips of paper…
Bobby Axlerod
Scott Boras
Great! I’ll be in my 70s before the Mets get a new owner!!!
Better late then never lol.
Mr Cohen always here!
this is probably just a stunt to make Mets fans think there will be more spending. chanses are the wilpons will still be pulling the strings, just from behind the curtain this time.
I’m not sure the ego of a guy who would be the second richest owner in sports would listen to the Wilpons.
You probably think Ukraine will be behind it all
The Wilpons will have empty titles, they will sit in their office and play computer solitaire.
Cohen will be majority owner, what he says goes.
And what he will say is “go spend”.
A whole lot.
His art collection is worth more than some small countries lol.
Dude basically has unlimited money and an insane desire to win.
And just like that, the Mets win the offseason!
Fred & Jeff will stay in the same roles and cede control in 5 years? Lol.
This sale of the Islanders was similar but only involved two years.
Did I sleep though the moves that showed they’re focused on winning ASAP?
Before spending FURTHER? They haven’t spent a dime yet unless you factor in a coaching staff and new manager.
This has to be a banner day at MLBTR. Big signings, a trade, one stadium deal, now potentially the sale of a major market team.
For real, all day MLB news today.
Rejoice!
I know, the Giants signing Tyler Anderson earlier today was huge.
Was this orchestrated by MLB as a way to show Wilpon the door with the last shred of his nonexistent integrity intact?
The Stems will always be second bananas in the Big Apple
Good news for Mets fans.Now the Mets can finally start to spend money like their long suffering fans deserve.I am a Yankee fan not a Mets fan but Mets fans deserve better then the greedy cheap Wilons. My best friend a Mets fan called me happier then I’ve ever heard him when discussing the Mets, He’s just hoping that Cohen takes control of spending sooner rather than later
Uh…..
I don’t think you get it. Apparently you didn’t read the specifics in the article.
He’ll be the owner in 2025. Until then the Wilpon family will continue to run things. And apparently the one-year free-spending Brodie move to try to get the Wilpon’s to lay out even more money in payroll has just been shot down. They want some of the big contracts moved off the books. ASAP.
What a mess.
The Mets have little to trade, and what they have that is cost efficient will have to be piggy-backed onto a bad contract to get it moved……..meaning they aren’t going to get much back in trade.
As screwed up as the Phillies are as they throw outrageous amounts of money after overrated free agents because their rebuild didn’t produce much, it now appears that they’re going to buy 3rd place in the NLE for the next few years.
As for Brodie……
I get it fine.Read the whole article. If I was a Met fan up til today I would’ve thought my team would be mediocre for the rest of my life.Now the end to this crap is at least near. y friend who was incredibly happy viewed it that way too
Not that they should, but the Mets can package minor league talent with, say, Familia or Lowrie, and clear salary that way.
Another alternative, if his insurance is transferable, is to package Cespedes with someone like Giminez to an AL team with money to spend but a weak farm system they want to improve.
If Giminez is still worth something like 20m, and you figure Cespedes’ insurance will average a 10m payout in 2020 versus whatever he might give you as a DH, that shows it’s not impossible to put together a deal that clears significant salary for the Mets. In addition, NTCs are made to be bought out, plus Cespedes has a better chance of finding a deal after 2020 if he gets a lot of time at DH rather than as the Mets’ 4th OFer. Finding a team whose needs match up, though…
Long overdue!!! Thank God!!!
I have a sudden mental image of a crazed Brodie Van Wagenen running into Scott Boras’s office waving wads of cash.
Merry Christmas, Mets fans! Happy new year
I’m not a Mets fan, but I assume this is the best news Mets fans have heard since 1986. The Mets play in a huge market and are often unfairly viewed as the inferior little sibling to the Yankees. They have a pretty decent team right now with one of the best pitchers in the game. Their loyal fans deserve ownership that’s willing to spend. Ding dong the witch is dead.
How are they unfairly viewed as the inferior little sibling to the Yankees.They haven’t won their own division since the 1980s. They have been inferior and earned that title with what they did.
they won their division a few years ago ye who doesnt check before typing thoughts.
I mean unfairly in the sense that they shouldn’t be compared to the Yankees at all. The Yankees are better than most baseball teams out there, and they have a richer history than every single other team in the league. It’s unfair to lump the Mets into that. Of course the Yankees are better and often more talented than the Mets, but I don’t think the Mets should always be held up against the Yankees. The Mets should have their own identity so to speak. That’s the point I was trying to make,
5 Years is a long time.
not as long as :since the 80s”
What sucks for Met fans is the Wilpons still get to run things for 5 years!!?? What the…..!!??
Ironic, one crook kills the Mets, and another saves them!
Rejoice Mets fans! Soon enough!
the sooner that this man rescues the Metropolitans form the tyranny of the Wilpons the better.
It’s like I said many times to Mets fans that wanted the Wilpons out. They needed to wait for MLB to sort out the Loria situation here in Miami, then something would be sorted out with the Wilpons.
Of course, none of us will ever know what is happening behind the scenes…just what these phat cats tell the public through their PR teams’ spins.
You gotta love that the writer leaves out the story of when Cohen was fined a small amount of $1,800MM for pleading guilty to insider trading charges in 2013.
“In 2013, Cohen’s former firm, SAC Capital, pleaded guilty to insider trading charges and paid a record $1.8 billion penalty. Cohen was accused of failing to adequately oversee an employee and was not personally fined.”
Oh and he’s not worth $9.2MM. More like $13.6MM.
the article isnt a life bio of the man
Thank you Cohen!
Does he get SNY as well ???
Even if its 5 years out the end is in sight. I’m not a Mets fan, but this is good for baseball.
5 more years of the Wilpons? Sounds like a severe sentence.
I can hear the fans chanting at FanAppreciation Day 2020 “ Four More Years! “Four More Years!”
Can he do something for Knicks fans as well?
I’m a Yankees fan but I’m wondering if Cohen can maybe think about buying a majority of the Knicks and free us from Dolan
He’s have to buy the Knicks and Rangers. Please god let that happen.
That’s great for the Mets
Great news. I had thought this might be on the table when the Mets picked Jeff’s golfing buddy rather than a real GM–they were hoping that a more business-oriented guy at the top would make the Mets more salable while providing a de facto CEO to deal with the money end of the game as Fred increasingly became too old to handle that. As for Jeff, he was never capable–ergo, the haircut at the top.
As a RS fan, I am obliged to hate you until we beat you in a WS.
But as a BB fan, I am forced to congratulate you. Still, the Wilpons are only the second worst owners in the world.
Is it just me that finds it odd that, on the day that the Braves sign Cole Hamels and the Phillies sign Zack Wheeler, the Mets come out to announce that they’ll have a new owner…IN FIVE YEARS.
Can someone say…red herring.
I’d love to hear the logic behind this brilliant comment. Please indulge us with more of your conspiracy theory!