Billionaire Steve Cohen Signs Agreement To Buy The Mets, and the Mets Fans are about to get first look at Steve Cohen as owner
One of Cohen’s first orders of business with the Mets was to bring back Sandy Alderson as president of baseball operations. Alderson was the GM of the Mets until 2018, when he left the role due to a recurrence of cancer. The 72-year-old is credited with helping to build the Mets’ 2015 NL championship team.
An introduction of the Mets’ new regime to the fan base will come Tuesday afternoon with a Zoom press conference.
Mets owner Steve Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson are scheduled on the call, which is set to begin at 12:30 p.m. and will be streamed on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Mets.com. It’s also likely SNY will carry the press conference, but as of Sunday night that had not been finalized.
The 64-year-old Cohen, a hedge-fund billionaire and lifelong Mets fan, completed his $2.4 billion purchase of the club from Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz on Friday. That same afternoon Alderson gutted the front office, announcing that general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, assistant GMs Allard Baird and Adam Guttridge, director of player development Jared Banner and special assistant Omar Minaya had departed the organization.
Cohen has been active on Twitter, where he announced the deal had closed. On Sunday, he indicated the statue honoring Tom Seaver that has been in the works for the past 18 months will likely be ready and unveiled for the start of next season. In previous tweets, Cohen has indicated he’s in favor of reinstituting Old Timers’ Day.
In addition to providing an update on his search for a new front office, Alderson will likely be asked to assess the status of manager Luis Rojas, who survived Friday’s purge. Rojas managed in the Mets minor league system during Alderson’s previous tenure, but was initially hired by Minaya during his reign as GM.
The Mets’ appetite for spending on free agents this offseason will almost certainly be broached. J.T. Realmuto, George Springer and Trevor Bauer highlight the free-agent class, and the Mets have a need at all three positions (catcher, center field and starting pitcher).
WHO IS STEVE COHEN
Steven A. Cohen (born June 11, 1956) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager and majority owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball. He is the founder of hedge fund Point72 Asset Management and now-closed S.A.C. Capital Advisors, both based in Stamford, Connecticut. He owns one of the world’s most valuable private art collections, worth over $1 billion, which includes notable artworks such as Koons’s Rabbit, Picasso’s Le Rêve, and Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.
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Steve Cohen
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|---|---|
| Born | June 11, 1956
Great Neck, New York, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | Hedge fund manager |
| Known for | Majority owner of the New York Mets Founding and leading: S.A.C. Capital Advisors & Point72 Asset Management Insider Trading Record Fine $1.8bn |
| Net worth | US$14.1 billion (February 2020) |
| Spouse(s) |
Patricia Finke
(m. 1979; div. 1990)
Alexandra Garcia
(m. 1992) |
| Children | 7 |
Topline
Steve Cohen has signed an agreement to buy the New York Mets, according to a statement released by the billionaire hedge fund manager Monday, signaling the roller coaster sale process may be nearing its end.
Pete Alonso #20 of the New York Mets
Key Facts
“I am excited to have reached an agreement with the Wilpon and Katz families to purchase the New York Mets,” Cohen said in his statement.
Cohen will own 95% of the team, according to Sportico, which cited unnamed sources who said the deal was valued at $2.42 billion.
This would break the record for the most money paid for a Major League Baseball franchise, including the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Cohen already owns 8% of the Mets; the deal will require approval from Major League Baseball (at least 23 of 30 owners must sign off on it).
The vote will likely happen in November.
Key Background
The sale has been in the works since last year, when Cohen agreed to purchase 80% of the team for $2.6 billion, but then pulled out. Cohen placed another bid for $2 billion in July and won the bidding process against former Yankees player Alex Rodriguez and his fiancée Jennifer Lopez, who offered $1.7 billion.
Big Number
$14.6 billion. Cohen’s net worth, according to Forbes estimates. Cohen oversees Point72 Asset Management, a $16 billion hedge fund firm. For years, he ran SAC Capital, one of the most successful hedge funds of all time, which he was forced to dissolve after the firm pled guilty to insider trading charges in 2013 and was assessed a $1.8 billion fine.
