With final bids due on Aug. 31, MLB executives believe that Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez will be the New York Mets’ new owners.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today is reporting that MLB executives believe that the bid led by Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez is the “clear-cut favorite” to purchase the New York Mets.
Several #MLB executives believe that the Alex Rodriguez ownership group, which has shown it has the money, is now the clear-cut favorite to purchase the #Mets. There's an Aug. 31 deadline to provide the best and final bids, according to Sportico.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 16, 2020
The biggest issue with J-Rod’s bid has always been the money. The power couple has always lagged behind the other major bids in funds. Even with the help of billionaires Mike Repole and Vincent Viola, they still didn’t have enough to put together a large enough bid.
Nightengale is now reporting that J-Rod have shown they have enough money to compete. This could be the case, but it’s unlikely.
Steve Cohen is worth north of $13 billion and Joshua Harris and David Blitzer are worth $6.2 billion. Both parties could easily raise the bid if they wanted to.
Harris and Blitzer are reportedly limiting their bid to $2 billion, but Cohen doesn’t appear to have a limit. The hedge fund billionaire has more than enough funds to be able to increase his bid to whatever’s necessary to win.
That’s likely the aim here. A leak like this could be aimed at trying to get Cohen and Harris and Blitzer to raise their bid. This is especially true given the timing of the leak.
Final bids aren’t due for another 15 days. It’s near impossible to know who the favorite is when final bids are still weeks away from being submitted. It does make sense as a tactic to try and get those final bids up a few hundred million.
This isn’t to say that J-Rod couldn’t win the bidding. It’s still possible they end up the King and Queen of Queens, but it’s more likely that won’t be the case. The favorite has been and remains Steve Cohen until proven otherwise.
