New York Mets sale: Steve Cohen announces the deal has been finalized

It’s official. Steve Cohen has announced that his deal to purchase the New York Mets from the Wilpons and Katz families has been finalized. 

Steve Cohen is the new King of Queens. The hedge fund billionaire announced on Twitter that his purchase of the New York Mets has been finalized.

It’s official , we are closed .

— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) November 6, 2020

Cohen purchased the Mets for a record $2.475 billion. That’s actually a steal considering Cohen was originally slated to purchase the team for $2.6 billion in February.

The sale makes Cohen the wealthiest owner in MLB, by a long shot, and the second wealthiest in American professional sports.

According to Andy Martino of SNY, Cohen isn’t wasting any time. He’s already relieved Jeff Wilpon of his duties as COO and named Sandy Alderson the team president.

https://twitter.com/martinonyc/status/1324780184168550401

As previously reported, Alderson is set to take over the day-to-day responsibilities of baseball operations and business management. He’s essentially taking the role that Jeff Wilpon is vacating.

The changes aren’t stopping there. Alderson is also expected to hire two high-profile front office executives. One as president of baseball operations and one as general manager. This may seem like a lot of cooks in the kitchen, but this setup is similar to others around the league — most notably, the Oakland Athletics, Cleveland Indians, and Tampa Bay Rays.

Some names connected to these roles have been Tampa Bay Rays special assistant to the general manager Bobby Heck, Oakland Athletics assistant general manager Billy Owens, Arizona Diamondbacks assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye, and MLB’s senior vice president of baseball operations Peter Woodfork.

In the meantime, Alderson is expected to take over as the interim head of baseball operations and control the Mets’ offseason. It’s not yet known what the future holds for current general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, but the expectation has long been that the New York Mets would move on this offseason.