The New York Post is reporting that Alex Rodriguez is “kicking the tires” on a possible purchase of the Mets. Jennifer Lopez’s fiancé has become a man of many hats since he retired from playing the game, and is now a somewhat prominent figure in the business world. The Post says that J-Lo is also keen on the idea, and their combined wealth could be a good starting point for the investing group that would be necessary to meet the expected price tag for the franchise.
The Wilpons are reportedly seeking a deal in the $3 billion range, and claim to no longer be demanding continued control of the Mets after the sale. The team’s regional sports network, SNY, is not expected to be part of the transaction.
A-Rod and J-Lo would undoubtedly need to find outside help to meet the Wilpons’ demands (even America’s most prominent 40-and-over power couple has financial limitations), but the Post says that Rodriguez has busied himself with rubbing elbows with all sorts of financial bigwigs. Derek Jeter was able to do this to buy the Marlins, even if his group only had to pay $1 billion for the keys to that particular car.
It should be noted that Rodriguez getting to sit in Jeff Wilpon’s chair is far from a done deal, and the Post characterized the potential bid as a long shot. The Post also reports that Steve Cohen has not yet completely walked away from the idea of making the Mets his, even after his very public blow-up with the Wilpons.
A-Rod being the lucky winner of this latest moment in Mets history would be endlessly amusing. He’s long said that he grew up a Mets fan, but more importantly, this would be Alex freaking Rodriguez buying the Mets. A-Rod’s history in New York is the sort of story that The Lonely Island need to make their next gonzo half-hour Netflix special about. Every baseball fan in the city has strong feelings about Rodriguez, and this would be the climax of quite a character arc. You have to imagine that the league would adore having the storyline of two teams in the NL East being owned by A-Rod and Jeter, too.
Of course A-Rod wants to buy the Mets. Why wouldn’t he want to buy the Mets? We need to will this into existence, purely for the memes. The best part of this is that it’s not hard to imagine Rodriguez actually being a pretty decent owner. The guy’s got baseball acumen for days and nobody can ever accuse him of not caring about winning.
If you like your Mets with the usual dose of absurdity but want them to actually do well on the field, Rodriguez might be your guy.
