Twenty-three votes from MLB owners are all that stand between billionaire Steve Cohen and a 95 percent stake in the Mets franchise. So long as he’s approved by the league’s other owners, he’ll step in and assume control of the club from the Wilpon family for a reported sale price of $2.475 billion. But while the Wilpons may be on their way out the door, another familiar name could return to the fold. SNY’s Andy Martino reports that Cohen is likely to bring former GM Sandy Alderson back to the organization — though not as general manager. Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds that Cohen is mulling an advisory position for the 72-year-old Alderson.
Alderson was the Mets’ general manager from 2010-18 and only stepped away from the position when a cancer recurrence prompted him to take a medical leave in July 2018. Alderson would not return to the role, candidly acknowledging even while stepping away that, “on the merits, I’m not sure coming back is warranted.” The Mets went through an exhaustive search and ultimately went way outside the box when they hired high-profile agent Brodie Van Wagenen, who represented Jacob deGrom (among other Mets players), as their new GM. Months later, Alderson was hired by the Athletics as a senior advisor. Alderson was Oakland’s general manager from 1983-97.
Sherman adds that Cohen could make a push to bring former vice president of player development Paul DePodesta back to the organization. DePodesta departed in 2016, two years before Alderson, when he made the bold move to jump not only to another club but to another sport entirely. He’s spent the past four years serving as the chief strategy officer for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. As with Alderson, a potential role for DePodesta is unclear, but Cohen is plenty familiar with both veteran executives, having long served as a minority stakeholder.
Questions abound with any ownership change, and that is particularly true in this instance. Beyond the potential returns of some high-profile names, the most immediate question is: what would this mean for Van Wagenen? He was hired due in part to a strong existing relationship with Fred Wilpon, and it’s common for new owners to install their own appointees in the baseball operations department. The Mets, meanwhile, missed the postseason in Van Wagenen’s first year on the job and are all but certain to miss in 2020 as well.
Van Wagenen can’t be saddled with the blame for Noah Syndergaard’s Tommy John surgery or Marcus Stroman’s decision to opt out of the season. He can, however, be held accountable for the regrettable trade that sent Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn to the Mariners in exchange for Edwin Diaz and half of Robinson Cano’s remaining contract. The Jed Lowrie signing has been a circus. Wilson Ramos and Jeurys Familia haven’t been as impactful as hoped.
As with virtually any GM, there are highlights, too. The Kelenic/Cano/Diaz swap often overshadows the team’s trade for J.D. Davis, but Davis was acquired for a relative pittance and has emerged as a quality bat. DeGrom would be in position to make far more than $130MM in free agency this winter had the two sides not worked out an extension during Van Wagenen’s first spring on the job. We don’t know the exact financial limitations placed on Van Wagenen & Co., but we know that despite playing in New York, the Wilpons have spent more like the Cardinals than the Yankees or Dodgers.
Van Wagenen is under control for another two years beyond the current season, but there’s no guarantee he’d get the opportunity to see that play out under Cohen. The fate of manager Luis Rojas is similarly uncertain. It’s tough to evaluate Rojas based on this of all seasons — particularly when he spent much of the offseason expecting to open the year as the quality control coach under manager-that-never-was Carlos Beltran. As with Van Wagenen, there are low points and high points in Rojas’ brief time on the job, and it’s possible that Cohen would prefer more input on who is running the day-to-day in the clubhouse.
Sherman raises the possibility of former MLB agent Arn Tellem, now the vice chairman of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, also having a role with the Mets, but Martino tweets such a move is unlikely. If nothing else, the fact that it’s been considered or speculated upon only further underscores the organizational turnover that’s likely to come to the Mets in the event that Cohen is approved by his potential ownership peers.
DarkSide830
i think blaming BVW for Familia would be unfair as well. kinda fell apart out of nowhere.
mlb1225
Yea, he was pretty good when he played a full season.
davidk1979
It was a dumb move
Oooof
Relievers frequently fall apart out of nowhere. That’s why you shouldn’t, say, give up your best prospect for one and give an 8-figure annual deal to another in your first offseason.
JackStrawb
It’s worth noting that Familia fell apart after a significant injury in 2017, and after two seasons where he was far from his 2014 to 2016 peak.
His performance across 2017-2018 hardly warranted 3 years at 10 million each, but this is what happens when, as the Mets have been wont to do, you go 2nd tier.
Reminds me of the Jay Bruce signing, where Bruce got 3/39 while premium OFers were going for 4/65. Skimp on the extra year and a few million more per year, and you destroy your upside.
Even if you liked Familia after 2018, it was clear he had little upside left.
HubcapDiamondStarHalo
When will the approval vote take place?
Far Beyond Driven
During the November meetings
HubcapDiamondStarHalo
Thank you kindly!
Mpicc33
There are rumors it could happen earlier since the owners meeting will be virtual anyway… I saw it’s possible at some point in October … the sooner the better lol
User 4245925809
I like Alderson for 1 thing coming back.. He’s a voice who’s not afraid to speak out for what’s right and what is wrong, same with Cohen. Put John Henry (R/Sox, Cohen as 2 outspoken large market owners now who will not care for supporting small teams I imagine, hopefully steinbrenner jr will grow a spine close to what Georgie had in NY and join the chorus. All it would take is several large market teams joining up who are keeping these samll teams afloat to get some of these giveaways done away with.. Like freebie draft picks for starters.
bradthebluefish
Freebie draft picks are one of the only ways small market teams are to remain competitive
Robertowannabe
Also, if the the league allowed several of the mid and small market teams to fade away and fail, say goodbye to the huge TV deals as no network would be willing to pay big bucks for a league half the size or smaller. because the TV markets would be very limited. No one will care about MLB outside of NY, Boston, LA and Chicago. MLB already had fan issues willing to spend money at games or watching on TV. before the Pandemic.
PiratesFan1981
Don’t forget about those famous blackouts that prevent you from watching your team play. It’s not worth the money to pay for MLB.TV, Network, etc. And the league wonders why people are turning off the TV sets and refusing to pay 130 a month to watch the games. They only scratched the service by allowing satellite companies broadcasting MLB games without worry of blackouts. There is a lot of work to do to make the game presentable to everyone regardless of where their market sits. MLB lost touch with the fan base well before Manfreid took over. Late 90s is when MLB started losing touch with the fan base and became money hungry. Such a shame to see fans turning away from “America’s favorite past time”
MarlinsFanBase
Uh, solid comment except for your mention of John Henry. He used to be the Marlins owner and attempted to screw the city before he found his way to own the Red Sox in that borderline illegal deal that he, Loria and Selig pulled off.
Henry essentially claimed that he was a pauper in Miami, after he was refused ownership in the NHL for his questionable claims there too, and refusal to reveal how he would fund a team and how much revenue he truly had for sports ownership.
JackStrawb
Alderson was a oompany man happy to lie overtly, again and again, on behalf of the Wilpons.
Alderson will say anything at all for 4 million dollars a year.
nymetsking
Wouldn’t you? I mean, I have integrity, but $4m…
sufferforsnakes
Advisory role?
metsie1
I have a feeling this would be done to help with the Owner Approval process. Alderson is the ultimate insider and he may be around to help with Cohen’s image working with the other owners. Remember that Sandy was brought in by the Wilpons with the blessing of the Commissioner. Sometimes people forget that the Owners are “partners” and MLB is a monopoly.
JackStrawb
Recall that Alderson was forced on the Wilpons by MLB as a condition of their even being permitted to continue as owners.
davidk1979
Brodie is the worst gm in Mets history please fire him
Evil_MrM
M Donald Grant on line 1…
dugmet
That’s actually not true. Congrats.
bestno5
I guess that means you didn’t jump on the VanWagen
MarlinsFanBase
Steve Phillips, Jim Duquette and Omar Minaya really love this comment.
I wonder if anyone would agree that Steve Phillips was not only a genius as Mets GM and on E!SPN, but he had great taste in mistresses when you compare his side fling to his wife.
wordonthestreet
Brodie is toast!
bobtillman
How’d that Browns experience work out for ya, DePodesta?
Robertowannabe
Surprised that he did not drown himself in the lake working for that team…..
djulio4u
Or Cleve? Maybe track record is something to consider? COLLETTI/Hendry/Dombrowski!!!!!
wild bill tetley
DePodesta can start a podcast with Keith Law. They can discuss why they underperformed or failed as baseball execs.
Oooof
How can you call Law a failure as a baseball exec? Can you even tell me what authority he had?
Jeff Zanghi
I’m not sure I’d really “blame” Van Wagenen for his trade of Kelenic and Dunn for Diaz (and Cano) — I mean obviously the trade has been more or less a disaster BUT at the same time… Diaz falling off the face of the earth is really not something that could have been predicted. I mean even still his stuff is amazing so, especially at the time, making a bold move to acquire what looked like the best young reliever in baseball can’t really be viewed as a “massive mistake” or whatever. Sure since then it’s looked like a bad deal, but hindsight is 20/20 and given that Diaz looked like a superstar reliever and was so young at the time… it’s a trade lots of GM’s would make. You could make the argument that taking back Cano and his massive contract was a bad move… but ironically Cano has actually been the best player (by far) so far involved in the trade (granted Dunn and Kelenic are still promising prospects and Dunn has even already emerged as a decent SP and figures to only get better) I still have a hard time saying the GM made a massive error/mistake given what everyone around baseball thought of Diaz at the time
Jeff Zanghi
And actually now that I’ve checked on Diaz stats this year — he seems to be totally back on track to being the dominant RP he was at the time of the trade — so to be honest, assuming he keeps that up. And if Cano continues to play as well as he has this season… I’m not even sure that I’d call this a bad trade at all. Maybe you can still make the case that they “gave up too much” but Kelenic’s still a little ways away from the majors and while Dunn is showing promise this season… it’s not as though he’s been lights out… so I really don’t think this trade is something that needs to be “blamed” on anyone… Honestly other than Cano’s albatross contract… the rest of the trade looks pretty solid
zoocreatures
Let’s not forget too who else was traded away at the same time, Bruce and Walker. Opened roster spots for a handful of young guys who I believe have exceeded the performance of those two at a smaller cost. Diaz’s numbers don’t look too bad this year but his pitching in pressure situations is certainly not top closer status.
Oooof
“Other than” the boondoggle of the contract? How badly would Kelenic have to turn out from here and how good would Diaz have to be for the trade to be good?
dugmet
One thing a GM cannot control is how a player performs on the field. You can only go by recent history and scouting. In BVW’s case, what did Mets’ scouts — as well as analytics — predict for both Diaz and Cano? Sure, you could expect Diaz to regress a bit, but not to the degree he failed in 2019. Cano has a sweet swing many scouts believe ages very well. 2020 is evidence Mets could have expected a productive year from him in 2019. And with the shift ,range is not as critical to a 2Bman as it used to be. Cano also brought veteran leadership and more importantly success with NYC media — something ownership values. The deal was also made because Wilpon wanted to win in 2019 — chances are because he figured a sale was in the near future.. That meant giving up part of the future. The GM works for the owner. BVW paid an appropriate price for Diaz. To date neither Dunn nor Kelenic have produced significantly for the Mariners. Dunn’s FIP in 2020 is over 6.00.
Oooof
Predicting a guy’s swing to keep him being so good that he’s worth a huge contract through his age 40 season when you acquire him coming off a PED suspension year? That’s a stretch for any scouting.
dugmet
You are not a scout and Cano’s swing is still easy and quick enough to produce. As mentioned, Wilpon was probably interested in the outcome of one or two years, 2019 and 2020. Winning just one W.S. adds $50m-plus to the team’s profits significantly helping to offset player costs down the road.
wild bill tetley
Scout or not, Mets better pray the DH becomes permanent. That is the only way the team gets any use from Cano. They have to figure out what to do with Dominic Smith this offseason. Can’t move Cano and they won’t move Alonso.
Oooof
Who cares if I’m a scout? How many second basemen still hit well enough to justify that kind of money in their late 30s? How many hitters period? I’ll even set aside the PED suspension. Go ahead.
tjbarnaba
Paying 12 million dollars for the next three years isn’t exactly worth calling “that kind of money” is it? The value he brings to the club house alone is worth that price tag… you don’t have to be a scout but someone who does even a little bit of research before opening your mouth is expect
Oooof
You think he’s gonna be worth $12 million in his age 39 and age 40 season? And can you prove he’s good in the clubhouse? How much is that worth? You couldn’t find a cheaper player with leadership skills? Let alone without trading top prospects for the right to pay that.
Oooof
Trading a top flight outfield prospect for a relief pitcher is bad. Also taking on a vast amount of money for a second baseman for the end of his 30s is even worse.
Joggin’George
Ugh with the “hindsight” stuff. It was a bad trade. Many of of us thought so then without the benefit of hindsight at the time. Bad, bad trade. They could’ve dumped Bruce somewhere, somehow else. Bad trade.
JackStrawb
Fwiw, there was no reason to ‘dump’ Bruce. He gave every evidence of being able to turn into a respectable 5th OFer, and should not have been expected to start more than twice a week with a ph appearance thrown in for luck.
The only problem with Bruce is the Mets should never have signed him for 3/39m. After his miserable 2018 they needed to accept they grossly overpaid.
The Wilpons never understood sunk costs. Had they done so in the case of Bruce they would have had one of the better 5th OFers in the league. Of course, if they wanted to deal him and had gotten a decent offer that let them unload some of this salary (he projected to be worth about 5m in 2019 and 3m 2020) towards reallocating payroll, sure, why not? But there was no reason to feel compelled to move Bruce.
resident
Had Diaz pitched well the last year performing close to his previous year and the Mets were in the playoffs
JackStrawb
@resident That’s unconstructive cherry-picking.
The Mets had better than average luck in any number of areas. With ordinary luck they would have been a .500 club.
JackStrawb
The problem with the deal for Diaz is that he had had all of one season where he was as good as just one average Craig Kimbrel season.
There was every reason to expect Diaz would be good. There was little reason to believe his leap to the stratosphere in 2018 represented a permanent increase in ability.
Ducky Buckin Fent
I’m curious how the actual transfer takes place.
Is there a contract?
Is there a payment plan? Or does Cohen transfer 2+ billion the day it’s official?
Anybody know?
merci
hd-electraglide
That’s a lot of moolah!
BTW – Sweet Triple – speed racer, I’m more of a cruiser!
Be safe
marcfrombrooklyn
It takes place however the Wilpons’ tax lawyers tell them will minimize their tax bill. I suspect the five-year takeover plan was about taxes, not control, despite what people thought.
Rangers29
I saw a clip of an Athletic article talking about GMs that might be on the hot seat this winter. One he brought up was Jon Daniels. So please please please can we get a new gm? And for that matter a new FO and ownership? You know what, just replace everything.
Yep it is
Yes let’s bring back all the Has Beens to run the team. New owner same old joke.
top jimmy
Good lord. So much for the Mets getting better with the Wilpons out of the picture. Bringing back Alderson?! The guy who tossed Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner on the trash heap? He’s a horrible evaluator of talent.
Oooof
Murphy left as a free agent and then played vastly better in his age 31 and 32 seasons than he had ever played as a Met. How exactly is that Alderson’s fault? And did you have any inkling that Turner had that in him when he was a Met? Wild to judge a GM by that, but not, say, the Dickey trade or the Beltran trade.
Roll
I partially agree with you. Murphy was waiting for the Mets before he signed with the Nationals and he just came off a monster playoff run along with being a fan favorite. For what he signed with the Nationals was on the pitiful side and probably would have been even less if the Mets tried.
I actually like Turner and felt they never gave him a chance when they released him. He was played sporadically and all over the place. Did i expect him to be what he turned into? Not even in my wildest dreams but i did expect a solid player with versatility.
The dickey trade kind of evened itself out as D’arnauld continued to be what he was an injury prone catcher that sparked just enough to make you believe. In the end and not have a backup plan, it was syndegaard for dickey for me. I think if Dickey played in a division they werent used to the knuckleball (wakefield) he would have done better. They definitely made out better in the end for that.
Everyne knew it was a fleecing Beltran for Wheeler but they were on the way to the world series and needed the bats. Like Chapman for Torres…
Oooof
Even if that knuckleball point is true, getting Thor before he made the majors in exchange for, what, one year of Dickey control is a huge, huge win.
JackStrawb
@Oooof In fact the Blue Jays got 4 years of control over Dickey. The trade was conditional on Toronto extending him beyond the one year/5m he was still signed for, and Toronto and Dickey added 2/25m with a club option for 2016 for 12m.
Joggin’George
I think what is meant is that the Mets only gave up one year of control
Oooof
But the Mets weren’t trading away those years of control.
FloridaMan1988
Hahahahahahaha.
Oooof
I would get rid of Brodie just for spending so many resources on acquiring over the hill former clients of his. Trading a top prospect for the end of Cano’s boondoggle of a contract? Giving Jed Lowrie that much money at his age with his health track record?
I’m not saying the guy has done his job unethically, but he hasn’t done it well, and the whiff of conflict of interest in the guy’s very first time ever working for a team? I’d have him out the door quickly.
RodKanehlJesseGonder
To me, the biggest issue with that trade was that it showed a lack of understanding of the Mets prospect depth. Kelenic was the only OF prospect of any worth and at CF, one of the Mets biggest needs. The Mets have a lot of depth and quality prospects at SS and also at 3B. One of those should have been included instead.
Oooof
It was a lack of understanding of value. The back of Cano’s deal has negative value. A reliever is insufficient value for a top positional prospect. Let alone that plus a good pitching prospect. Just awful.
Javia
I hate that trade as well so don’t get me wrong. As I remember it the Mets had a killer rotation and an good to excellent lineup at that time. They needed relief help and they got the best reliever in baseball at that time. Perhaps BVW thought that would be enough to put them over the top.
I am sure that the Cubs do not regret their Torres for Chapman trade despite what a monster Torres has become. Chapman helped get them a Championship. Sure the Cubs would LOVE to have Torres on their team right now but I am sure they wouldn’t trade their WS rings for him. If the Diaz trade had brought a WS to NY the trade would have been lauded as genius. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Just FYI, I see Kelenic becoming good to very good but I don’t see him approaching Torres value.
Oooof
The Cubs were a world series contender at the time. Not exactly the same as wishing to be one.
flmetfan
A new broom sweeps clean⚾️
BlueSkies_LA
“Baseball is not a widely profitable business.”
— Terry McGuirk
Michael Chaney
The Browns wouldn’t let DePodesta leave, whether they should actually do it or not. The Haslams love him too much, and they keep giving him more authority.
JackStrawb
“The Kelenic/Cano/Diaz swap often overshadows the team’s trade for J.D. Davis, but Davis was acquired for a relative pittance and has emerged as a quality bat. ”
—-This is not entirely…. honest. The Mets dealt three talented minor leaguers who are far too young for us to be able to make any remotely conclusive claims about their futures.
Meanwhile, Davis’ pitiable defense is always ignored by those who hope to say something kind about Van Wagenen’s appalling tenure in NY.
Davis is a part-time player, a platoon player, and that’s if he’s playing at his peak. Why he’d be considered a meaningful acquisition is a mystery.
SalaryCapMyth
I was hoping I could look at Davis stats and disagree with you because I have sympathy for Mets fans but you are completely right. His glove really does erase the positive value of his bat.
He isn’t a good first basemen either and if you can’t play that position very well then you don’t have much hope. He can obviously be a DH but then that doesn’t get you very far in the value department.
Joggin’George
His glove at third has supposedly improved but we’ll see
Rsox
Sounds like Brodie’s days are numbered…
wordonthestreet
Brodie is toast!