Despite rumors the Wilpons are angling to sell their team to former Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez and his fiancée, pop sensation Jennifer Lopez, Steve Cohen has no plans to bow out of the Mets sweepstakes now or ever. The investment mogul and real-life inspiration for Billions’ Bobby Axelrod, was already denied by the Wilpons once, but that hasn’t deterred him in the slightest. According to Thornton McEnery of the New York Post, the 64-year-old Cohen is committed to buying the Mets “for the good of baseball.”
Cohen has come under fire recently following complaints of discrimination filed by multiple female employees at his Stamford-based hedge fund, Point72 Asset Management. However, the Wharton alum has largely dismissed those claims while accusing his opponents of spreading “misinformation.”
At an estimated net worth of over $14 billion, Cohen certainly has the capital to buy his beloved Mets, though the Wilpons appear hell-bent on preventing that transaction from taking place. Per McEnery, Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ Chief Operating Officer (COO) and son of principal owner Fred Wilpon, “hates” Cohen and wants to either sell the team to A-Rod or “make Cohen pay double the nearest offer.” While the Mets had previously entertained other ownership bids, McEnery notes the field has been narrowed down to Cohen and Rodriguez/Lopez.
Cohen offered $2.6 billion for the team this past February and while the “J-Rod” group has yet to submit an offer of that magnitude, Rodriguez and Lopez’s financial backing from JP Morgan, among other investors, should be able to bridge that gap. A decision on the Mets’ ownership front should come shortly with final bids reportedly due at the end of the month.
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