It appears the Mets’ next owner will be Steve Cohen, who entered exclusive negotiations to purchase the franchise from Fred Wilpon and Jeff Wilpon last Friday. Cohen became the favorite after beating out multiple big-money groups, including one headlined by former major leaguer/current television analyst Alex Rodriguez and famous fiancee Jennifer Lopez. The Rodriguez-Lopez team was willing to offer $2.3 billion for the Mets before losing out to Cohen, according to Josh Kosman and Thornton McEnery of the New York Post.
Now, after falling short, A-Rod is crying foul on the process, as he believes bidding was rigged in Cohen’s favor, Kosman and McEnery report. Mets banker Steve Greenberg asked Rodriguez what his group was willing to pay before final bids were due, per Kosman and McEnery, who write that the 14-time All-Star “reluctantly” gave Greenberg the information. Cohen then offered $2.35 billion for the franchise, which will apparently end up as the winning bid.
“They took the bids and showed them to Cohen,” a source close to Rodriguez told the New York Post. Another source said the sale “was fixed” because Rodriguez & Co. did not get a chance to match Cohen’s offer. Rodriguez has tried contacting Fred Wilpon since last Friday but to no avail, Kosman and McEnery report.
With Rodriguez out of the picture, it should only be a matter of time before Cohen finalizes a deal, though Major League Baseball will spend three months investigating his background before a sale goes through, Kosman and McEnery relay. If Cohen does get the team for $2.35 billion, though, it would represent a lower amount than the $2.6 billion he was willing to fork over in the winter before negotiations between him and the Wilpons fell apart.
Should’ve bought the XFL instead
I wonder if he was iced out with the thinking being he wouldn’t be approved by the other owners.
An admitted cheater wanting to become an owner of a team less than a year after MLB dealt with several other cheating teams? I’m sure that played a small role…
Cohen’s no saint, his hedge fund was caught insider trading.
Financial crimes aren’t a threat to MLB’s image in the way that welcoming an owner who made his fortune off of MLB’s longtime tacit acceptance of steroids is. They want people to forget the steroid era, or at least remember the owners as being victims rather than contributors to it.
Yes. So all the pitchers who used PEDs and faced Rodriguez were, what…? It wasn’t cheating if there was no rule or testing to back it up. Get over yourself.
Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital had the best returns, 30% net returns on a 3/50 structure if you’re familiar with hedge fund fee structure for a long period of time. That alone should have been a major red flag that they were doing some shady stuff. Nobody is that good. If you watch the show Billions, it is based off of Steven A. Cohen at least the earlier seasons. Lots of similarities.
shut up A-Rod no one cares
As much as I want to just laugh at him over this, it always did seem to me that he was simply being used to up the bidding for Steve Cohen, and the Wilpons never had any intention of selling to him.
Not sure exactly how I feel about that. On the one hand, that’s a valid tactic for a seller, but on the other, well, let’s just say it’s less than honest.
@wiffleball no trust me the Wilpons would love to sell to Alex. He doesn’t give a crap about the team nor the fans so he was perfect in Wilpons eyes and commish who is a well known Yankees fan…..
I don’t think the Wilpons particularly care who they sell the team to as long as they get their money.
They actually hurt themselves because they wanted to maintain control of the team at least for 5 years. Now they’re actually getting less. Also we don’t know if they’re holding onto SNY.
Yeah except they mix the last deal because Jeff Wilpon was upset that daddy was selling the team without his stellar input on the direction of the organization. It never occurred to Jeff to order a Arnold Palmer at the time!!!
I read that SNY was worth 2B alone,so Cohen will probably have to buy that separately.
Steve Cohen is buying it for less than what he initially bid for prior to A-Rod joining the bidding.
He’s probably getting less shares of the team than he initially bid on, he already owns 8%.
he’s buying more shares than he previously agreed to
If someone told me they wanted my maximum bid info right before bids were due, I’d tell them where to go.
Along with being a cheater, Arod is obviously a big chump who got taken advantage of by richer, smarter people who aren’t relying on celebrity status and a celebrity wife to get things done. I’m laughing at you Chump-rod.
Why? It seems like there a legit gripe here and this whole bidding has seemed shady and favored Cohen.
What we learn is Arod is a gullible jock without business sense.
If your bid isn’t due, and you get asked outside the process what you’re budget is, you sandbag it. If you want to bid 2.3b, you say 2.0b. You can always say you freed up extra funds to include in the final bid.
There is no, NO reason to tell anyone who isn’t part of your financing group as part of internal discussion what your planned offers are.
The fact arod fell for this really just shows he has NO business being a front person in a multi billion operation.
What a clown
Pretty funny that A-ROID is crying about someone else cheating. The irony is so rich it clogs the arteries.
How true.
You know… karma is a #%^*}
Liked the description of JLo – “famous fiancée”
It should read “‘and JLo’s famous backside”
She is worth $400 million. That’s a lot of booty.
It would have been so much fun to watch the battle for who controls the Mets after the break up of J-Rod. Mets fans won this one!
Suck it up Arod. Deepest pocket won. Uncle Stevie will own the Mets and he has real money and is a Mets fan. The Wilpon brother can you spare a dime days are over.
If the stock market tanks, what happens to that “real money?”
Dumbest statement ever.
ARod proving he has zero business experience.
True. After telling Greenberg 2.3, he should have bid 2.4.
Crap like that happens in construction all the time, too. It’s just super unethical
Lmao at A-Rod’s hypocrisy, gotta give the man some credit though, he’s been out of the league for years and still finds new and interesting ways to embarrass himself.
Cohen, the Met’s Banker and the Wilpons to AROD:
youtu.be/YLcAc8DsMI0
Hmmmm….so someone cheated….and ended up winning?
Man, having an unfair advantage over your rivals makes the whole thing much easier I guess…..I guess it’s good ARod is claiming fraud over the whole thing. Hate to see him get cheated…….
The fact ESPN has spent so much energy on the rehabilitation of the poster child of an MLB Cheater does NOT mean he’s entitled to buy a team.
I thought J-Lo was married to some other guy. On second thought, who cares
Wonder who she’ll marry after Arod?
So they took one bidder’s price and got another bidder to top it? Wow, what jerks! Unless A-Rod’s group wants to top that, I don’t see what his beef is. The Wilpons could also want to deal with just one person needing the background check with Cohen, instead of running the risk of any one of A-Rod’s group failing it (there’s A-Rod himself, who lied to MLB and was suspended during his playing career for steroids) and having yet another deal fall through.
Cohen has his own set of past issues/allegations, but perhaps the Wilpons are pretty confident he’ll be fine.
I agree, the background check looms large. And if Cohen’s bid isn’t binding and A-Rod’s fell through, the Wilpons would have a lot less leverage and the final bid could go down.
I’m having a tough time believing that the seller isn’t answering calls from a prospective buyer in a deal valued at 2.2 billion dollars…..that’s just silly.
Because the wilpons are such great business people? Lmao
Please buy the Rangers, we are desperate!. Just to be clear, I’d rather have the whole A-rod J-lo mess, rather that Bob and Ray. At least A-rod is competent enough to put in a new FO.
Whole team, suspended for Roids.
Wow, what a concept.
Too bad cheater.
Oh, boo hoo. Go drown your sorrows in a steroid cocktail.
WWWHHHHHAAAA
Although Knowing the WILPONS
I WOULDN’T DOUBT IT….
They Want EVERY CENT
Alright everyone. Get ready for the Mets fans when they get into the room. They may start celebrating like they won the world series. Let’s all give them some latitude because they have been stuck with the disaster that the Wilpons are.
I’m a Braves fan and even I’m happy for them. Beating the Mets is no fun when they have a load of weight to carry like the Wilpons. It’s like a boxing match with someone who had one hand tied down to his side.
Alex Rodriguez thinks cheating is unfair. That’s adorable.
Who cares what the crybaby Roider thinks.
I would never sell him a team.
Cheater, Cheater, Cheater.
Seriously, the last thing the world needs right now is another example of a cheater being rewarded for years of cheating by being given the power/title that they want.
It makes me sick to think that a-roid made enough money to even be a part of an ownership group, let alone that he really thinks he still deserves to be a part of baseball
So A-Rod is upset the someone who had an intial sale fall through at 2.6bil, and who’s net worth is 15 bil, out bid him cuz he was told the highest bid? Makes sense i guess. But when you have the money and everybody knows you do (not a group just you) you can say ill top the highest bid no matter what. Is it fair, probably not when you say submit your highest offers, but welcome to America. Id guess A-Rod/Lopez have done this themselves at some point, albeit in a lesser sale. The fact of the matter is: Money talks and stuff walks. Cohen has it and their group could never match it no matter the number…
Additionally A-Rod should be mad at only himself for disclosing his groups bid before final offers were due. He willingly gave the winner his number to beat, if they told Cohen at all. Just keep your mouth shut and see where it goes…
Not sure if it comes into play but i think after the wilpons he is the 2nd highest owner of the team. He would be able to see information related to the team and any business dealings. So whether he sees it or not might be irrelevant. Not exactly on the up and up but i think legally he has the right to know.
Arod being unhappy brings joy to my heart. Keep whining buddy.
A-Rod neglects to realize that he and his team had to scrap up $2.3B where as Cohen had initially offered $2.6B in February and could have likely offered that amount again if necessary to win the bid. A-Rod’s team didn’t have enough $.
As much as I don’t care for the Wilpons they have the right to sell to or not sell to, any one they choose. If they did not want to sell to Aroid…. so be it.
I do think the back ground checks may have come into play. Not sure the MLB owners would have approved the sale to Aroid. His money came from defrauding the game to begin with.
Are there unwritten rules on how owners have to sell their assets?
Cohen’s bid was 50 MILLION better than the other group. I would have picked his group, too.
It’s just so UNFAIR!!!
Plus I think that his financing is much more solid because he has so much cash. If they were equal offers, or even if Cohen’s was slightly lower, he’d probably win, though MLB owner approval is a little bit of a concern. (I think that’s what A-Rod is playing to as well with all of his complaining.)
LOL A-Rod upset someone might have cheated. Love it! If he owned a team after all he did, it would be a disgrace. He tried to destroy everyone else to try and save his guiltyazz.
Least likeable figure in a story involving…the Wilpons.
Alex Rodriguez, ladies and gentlemen
Perfect comment!
I’m not the biggest A-Rod fan, but I’d vehemently disagree with you there. The Wilpons have been attached to a ponzi scheme, forced players to play hurt, manipulated medicals, trashed their own players, went back on a promise to build affordable housing, and have a reputation as being ill-tempered and meddling. I’d take A-Rod as my owner 7 days a week over those pieces of garbage.
I wouldn’t be even slightly surprised if there was fishy business behind the scenes, but what did A-Roid think was going to happen? These are the Madoff Mets we’re talking about.
Also, I don’t really care what the Wilpons did as long as the team gets sold and I never have to see or read about them again.
I would have to look but for A-rods last contract with the yankees, didnt he use the mets to make the yankees up their offer?
It would be ironic if it did as i know the mets wanted to sign him.
That age old lament, ‘To the winner, the spoils, to the loser, Jenny Datassdo’.
Even as an A-Rod fan, I gotta question how he didn’t know he’s just being used to up the price. Plus… you’re a cheater breh. Don’t be a hypocrite
So, his accusation is that the Wilpons conspired with the guy whose previous deal to buy the team fell through to save him a few bucks because they didn’t want or need those bucks…?
Makes sense.
Maybe he should have juiced up that bid.
Baseball doesn’t need any more crying babies. Glad he didn’t get the winning bid.
While Arod was the face of the bid, how much money was he really kicking in? Similar to Jeter who has only a very small stake in the Marlins, Arod doesn’t have much to complain about. His group got beat out by a guy who has Arods net worth in his couch cushions. Cohen was always going to win cause he was always going onto be the higher bid and he already has a minority stake in the team.
Well Steve Cohen has already been guilty of insider trading before and was a part of “in what federal prosecutors billed as the most profitable insider-trading conspiracy in history”:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_A._Cohen
Well his company, not HIM. His company paid a fine but he wasn’t criminally charged with anything.
Arod directly cheated on baseball and the Wilpons socialized with Bernie Madoff and are paying Bobby Bonilla with money from old ladies life savings accounts.
While the US doesn’t always seem to view white collar crime as actual crime for some reason, steroids in sports are nearly unforgivable…not an a-roid fan, just a comment on our insane society
+1 ABStract. I don’t understand it. I’m not championing A-Rod’s cause. This is a case of one cheat being taken by another. I believe A-Rod here though. I don’t quite understand why he’s taking all the heat in this.
This is fun. So Arod is surprised the group directly involved in the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the country and who publicly bait and switched the two previous sale attempts is not operating ethically? Nooooooo! Can’t be!
“Waaaaah! Waaaaah! I didn’t get what I want! It isn’t fair!”
-An Insignificant Rod
ARod. Cry baby cry. The only thing that matters, is who puts up the big money and controls the team. ARod is the biggest cheater in baseball history.
James1955? The biggest? Maybe the astoes want some of that glory.
There was likely zero chance ARod/JLo were ever going to get in the owners box, they just would have been a needless distraction to a team that has already had to endure the Wilpon’s
The entire league has been dealing with it, enough is enough.
Just pump your bid up by whatever means are necessary Alex! Cheating POS. Get him off ESPN
the prevelant theory in the financial world, the people who know cohen, was that he would jump the highest bid by a significant amount and tell the Wilson’s take it or leave it. It doesn’t sound like they are in a spot to leave it so they probably won’t be looking at any other offers.
A-Rod has always lived his live by the principal of an “EVEN PLAYING FIELD FOR EVERYONE”
As a minority owner, I read that Cohen would know what the other bids were, so he did have an inherent advantage. But those were the rules.
Him having inside knowledge isn’t new news.
On a separate note, nice tribute and win by the Mets today… btw remember when the Mets thought they would win the East in 2020?
ARod never had a chance. His phony offer pushed Cohen in after his failed attempt once. That failed attempt wasn’t necessarily his fault either, and MLB had to make it look like the Wilpons didn’t embarrass MLB in the end. Which they did. But 2 offers is always better than 1.
Well if anyone knows about cheating it would be him. The further away from the game this scumbag is, the better.
As much as I totally despise A Rod I think he has a beef n if he had the money ready then let him buy it.
Guess A-Rod doesn’t like cheaters.
Wow these comments are toxic
No more and no less than any story involving the Astros. The commenters do make valid points on A-Fraud.
Was that too toxic?
Does he ever stop crying? Fake and phony at everything. Just like what’s her face.
This is a sign you’re not a businessman.
its almost like ARod doesn’t know that as a minority owner Cohen is allowed to see all the offers made for the team.
They had a financial expert, who knows Cohen, on WFAN a few months back and he said he wouldnt be surprised that once all the offers were in Cohen would give a “take it or leave it” offer 300-500M above the highest offer. This seems to have happened, hence the calls not being returned.
Rodriguez may have lucked out. With all the sports entering the realm of politics the ratings are taking a massive hit.
A-Rod publicly complaining about someone cheating is priceless.
If you want something bad enough you don’t get outbid.
Sometimes it seems that fate has a hand in things such as this. In A-Rod, we have a person who knowingly used performance enhancing drugs and lied about those about him when he was caught with the Yanks for these infractions. A cheater and a liar.
In his fiancé, of whom I have had the horrible honor of working on her show as a stagehand in Las Vegas, we have a shrill and nasty aging “star” of questionable talent who is exactly a perfect match for A-rod who knows less about baseball than most owners. If she treats the fans like she does the stagehands then there will be no trouble having social distancing next year at the ball park.
Perhaps A-rod got taken. What goes around, comes around. Maybe the 2 of them should buy a AAA team and see if they can handle that first.
Any other contractors on the board?
I get where Arod is coming from. The reality is, if you get to see the other estimates on a job & have final bid the only way you won’t land that deal is if you don’t want it.
I’ve been in Rodriguez’s spot. I’ve been in Cohen’s position. (albeit with far less loot on the table.) That’s just how it goes, man.
All that being said, if it was supposed to be a closed bid (do those ever actually even occur?) Arod has a valid complaint.
The only problem Is, he had no, ZERO, NADA, ZILCH reasons to tell anyone what he was going to bid.
Sealed bid is sealed bid. You write your numbers down and send it.
Cohen didn’t bribe an accountant working for arod. Nobody broke into an office and stole data.
A guy connected with Cohen openly ASKED a rod for the numbers. Being at best a newb totally over his head with no business experience, or a worse a roid riddled idiot, arod willingly TOLD the guy.
Only problem here is on arod.
Ooof.
He *told* someone else what his bid was!?
Ohh, Arod. That’s just…i mean…bro…Alex. You can’t *do that!*, bro.
I feel needed lol. Jeeez, that’s really basic stuff, man. Not even my crummiest field rep would make that mistake, serious.
Cohen is already a minority owner of the team.
The team banker approached arod and asked him, before the bids were due, what he planned to bid.
Arod told the banker.
You can speculate if the banker told Cohen on his own to curry favor, or if Cohen asked the banker to do it. Either way, no skullduggery involved.
Arod blabbed, now he feel dumb and throws hissy fit. Welcome to big business arod. I expect if he continues at this rate his ‘investments’ and deals will leave him broke and pennyless.
Guess he should have bid more?
Eat us, you stinking cheating piece of crap.
If baseball allows Rodriguez to even buy into a MINOR league franchise, how can they continue to keep Rose out of the Hall? One could still influence current practices snd results, while the other is being penalized for something done AFTER his playing career. The MLB should ban Rodriguez from ever being involved with current or future players.
Rose’s actions never interfered or influenced negatively any game’s outcome. Rodriguez’ steroid use not only affected game results, but imoacted
…but impacted pitchers’ careers and salaries. Arod should never be allowed near any franchise’s operations, players or personnel.
Arod isn’t a child molester unlike Pete Rose. Stop defending literal human trash.
If you think A-Rod/J-Lo would be a disaster-waiting-to-happen type owners, I have no doubt that Mets fans will rue the day Steven Cohen gets control of the team. He will become a decision maker, not only for the Mets, but for MLB and NYC municipalities. The Wilpons are children compared to Cohen.
Buck up Alex, grow a pair and stop whining.
Someone with more money than you was able to step up and give a man starved for cash what he needed. Notwithstanding your enormous ego, what evidence can you provide that you will manage this organization in a superior manner to Cohen? As I see it, there are reasons for Met fans to be apprehensive about all the bidders. All things being equal, I guess I would would prefer the guy who has billions more to throw at improving my organization than an egotistical know-it-all who lacks the cash to make investments in an organization that has been inadequately resourced (e.g., scouting, player development) for too long.
Doesn’t matter what his bid was going to be. Cohen was never gonna let anyone have the team but him. As we all know the Wilpons are idiots. Should have let Arod counter. Cohen would have just offered more. Was always going to be Cohen no matter what
Only the Wilpons can turn $2.6 billion into $2.35 billion. Well, except when he invested all his money with Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and turned it into nothing. Sorry Mets fans. You are getting another money guy owner who doesn’t care about winning, just cashing out. Manfred doesn’t care. He is paid not to.
Gee, A-Rod, are you accusing them of cheating like you cheated the Yankees and Major League Baseball? How dastardly.
Boo freaking hoo.
And this people is the reason we don’t want him running the team. Arod and JLo have been embarrassingly bitter about this. This ain’t Hollywood. Welcome to Business hardball. You’re out!!! Hit the bench.
Cohen was always going to be the highest bidder. It doesn’t matter if anyone was given a chance to match it. It also doesn’t make sense to sell a team to a group of investors when you can have a single person pay cash
So a guy who cheated his whole career doesn’t think the process was fair?