The New York Mets are still looking to sell despite the pandemic. That’s opened up the door for a deal at a bargain price for Wayne Rothbaum.
Thornton McEnery of the New York Post is reporting that biotech investor Wayne Rothbaum is preparing a bid for the New York Mets. The bid will be for about $1 billion, a far cry from Steve Cohen’s $2.6 billion offer.
This news comes just a week after Rothbaum was named in a report as the primary investor for Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez’s potential bid. McEnery is reporting that J-Rod is now looking elsewhere for financial backing.
Rothbaum was the primary investor in Jeb Bush’s bid for the Miami Marlins that eventually lost to Derek Jeter‘s bid. Now Rothbaum sees an opportunity to buy one of the most valuable teams in MLB at a bargain price.
Rothbaum would be willing to buy the team without SNY, which the Wilpons would prefer. However, Rothbaum’s bid is still well short of the team’s $1.6 billion valuation without SNY included.
It’s also possible that MLB doesn’t want Rothbaum to own the Mets. McEnery mentions that MLB would prefer someone who is wealthier and willing to spend to make the team a contender own the club. In other words, MLB wants to avoid selling the Mets to another version of the Wilpons.
Many insiders believe that Steve Cohen is still the most likely to wind up with the team. Cohen’s team has been adamant that they aren’t preparing another bid, and rightfully so. They have the top bid at the moment and nobody is even coming close to matching it.
Some insiders believe that there’s simply too much bad-blood for Cohen to end up with the team, but money talks. Cohen has previously said that he’d come back to the table to negotiate if the Wilpons asked him too.
