NYC Mayor de Blasio unlikely to keep Cohen from becoming an MLB owner, but Reinsdorf will keep trying

Jerry Reinsdorf’s longstanding objection to the idea of Steve Cohen as an MLB owner goes back nearly a decade.

The Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner voted against Cohen becoming control person of the Mets on Tuesday, as the News reported. Reinsdorf was the sole ‘no’ vote, in an overall 7-1 decision from MLB’s ownership committee in favor of Cohen taking over the Mets from Fred and Jeff Wilpon and Saul Katz.

Tuesday was not the first time Reinsdorf opposed a Cohen bid.

“I would hazard a guess that it would be very difficult for (Cohen) to get a team,” former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent told Bloomberg in a Nov. 2013 telephone interview. “People like Jerry Reinsdorf, who is very important and a strong keeper of that tradition of vetting owners, would be a very major obstacle.”

Reinsdorf has long been a staunch Cohen adversary and successfully lobbied against his bid to buy the Dodgers in 2012. Around the same time, Cohen’s hedge fund, SAC Capital, pled guilty to criminal insider-trading charges and agreed to pay a record $ 1.8 billion fine. Cohen himself was not criminally charged.

Reinsdorf also has a long-standing relationship with Alex Rodriguez, who waged a lengthy and intense campaign against

Cohen in a bid to buy the Mets for a cheaper price this year.

A couple of days after being handed down his record 211-game suspension in Aug. 2013, the Yankees were in Chicago when A-Rod met privately with Reinsdorf in an effort to have him intercede with Commissioner Bud Selig to get the suspension reduced.

As the News reported several times, the group led by Rodriguez never stood a chance. He was out-bid by Cohen, who has an estimated net worth of roughly $ 14 billion per Forbes.

But Rodriguez’s bid had significant media firepower behind it, leading to ultimately inaccurate stories like an August USA Today report that A-Rod was the frontrunner to buy the Mets. On Wednesday, USA Today reported that New

York City Mayor Bill de Blasio could serve as a hurdle to Cohen’s pursuit of owning the club. Multiple industry sources strongly believe Reinsdorf was the primary source for the story.

Like the August story, this story is inaccurate. De Blasio, in reality, is not expected to “torpedo” Cohen’s plans before his approval reaches an owners’ vote. De Blasio has enough problems (controlling the COVID-19 shutdown in New York City and avoiding confrontations with Orthodox Jewish leaders) without jeopardizing the lease over a non-issue and enraging the vast majority of Mets fans who want Cohen to own the club. The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although de Blasio did say in August that A-Rod owning the Mets “would be very good for baseball and very good for this country.”

USA Today also cited that, in the 2006 stadium lease agreement between the Mets and New York City, there’s a provision in which the mayor can block the sale of the team to a “prohibited person.” The lease defines a prohibited person as “any person that has been convicted in a criminal proceeding for a felony or any crime involving moral turpitude.”

As previously stated, Cohen himself was never charged with a crime. He is not a prohibited person and was never accused, much less convicted, of a felony or crime of moral turpitude. To be clear: This is a last-ditch attempt by people who don’t want Cohen to own the Mets. A spokesman for Cohen declined to comment.

Cohen’s approval from commissioner Rob Manfred’s ownership committee Tuesday was a big step toward the hedge-fund billionaire’s lifelong dream to own an MLB club. Cohen will next need an endorsement from the league’s executive council, followed by at least 22 votes of approval from MLB’s 30 owners.

That meeting, which will of course include Reinsdorf, is expected to take place in the coming weeks. If it takes place at the owners’ meetings in Dallas, the final vote for Cohen to take over the Mets may arrive next month. If it takes place over a Zoom meeting, the vote may come sooner.

According to sources, Cohen’s approval is all but certain. Reinsdorf’s opposition is unlikely to block him from taking over the Mets.

Reinsdorf