Section I — Ownership’s Interference With Baseball Operations, i.e. “meddling”

May 2, 2003, Joel Sherman, New York Post: Wilpons Are On Their Own (Link)

STEVE PHILLIPS is going to be fired by the Mets soon. The only mystery now is the date. Like a man drowning in quicksand, holding an anvil, the end is inevitable. Right now that feels like it will be an alibi, not a solution. It will be another member of middle management sacrificed to take heat off Fred Wilpon and his son, Jeff. *** You would have to be naive to think Wilpon’s role in player acquisition ended with OK’ing the budget. He was intimately involved in every Roger Cedeno and Mo Vaughn. Fred Wilpon selected the underwhelming Art Howe after he was unable to lure the absolutely necessary Lou Piniella to manage. It is Fred Wilpon who is so accessible and accommodating to players such as John Franco and Al Leiter, to the degree he will sign up a Steve Trachsel or David Cone at their request. … this organization stinks from the top down. Nothing changes with Phillips’ firing except the name on a door. Nothing will change even if, after the season, a strong outside GM such as Gerry Hunsicker or Brian Sabean is enlisted. Nothing will change unless things change at the top. We know the Wilpons are not going to fire themselves. What they need to do is stop conning themselves. *** If you love the Mets, stop hoping the GM will be fired, because that is going to happen — and it will change nothing. If you love the Mets, send mirrors to the Wilpons so they can see the problem more clearly.

September 16, 2004, Dave Caldwell, The New York Times: Howe Agrees to Go Quietly as Mets’ Wilpon Speaks Up(Link)

As the Mets fell apart this season, Wilpon has generally been unavailable for comment, so his decision to step forward yesterday was noteworthy. During his WFAN interview, he sought to take responsibility for the Mets’ sorry state, saying: “I’m down on the results and I’m accountable for the results. Since I’m the C.E.O., I am accountable for all the results. It’s not to be put all on Art Howe or all on anybody. It’s me.” In discussing the initial decision to hire Howe as manager, Wilpon said that he felt Howe had “a wonderful presence” and that he would know how to deal with veterans and younger players.

September 19, 2004, Joel Sherman, New York Post: Amazin’s Don’t Have Son Poisoning — Younger Wilpon Defends Family’s Commitment to Winning, Assures Rebound (Link)

Jeff Wilpon, in his most wide-ranging interview since taking over as the Mets’ chief operating officer in August 2002, disputed his widely perceived impression as a hot-tempered, know-it-all meddler, and responded to mounting criticism of his and his family’s leadership of the team by telling The Post, “We realize this is a public trust and we realize the public is upset. I want them happy.” *** … two full seasons under the Wilpons have produced woeful results that have left the media critical, fans disenchanted and the direction of the organization under attack within the industry. Matching his higher organizational profile, Jeff Wilpon has endured more ferocious barbs lately coinciding with the decision to fire Art Howe. *** Interestingly, Jeff Wilpon shoveled blame on decisions made prior to his top-level elevation to explain a chunk of the ongoing problems. He did not indict Doubleday and former GM Steve Phillips directly, but alluded to agreements inherited for players such as Mike Piazza, Mo Vaughn and Al Leiter by saying, “We were saddled with some big contracts. Let them run out and then judge us. Give us a five-year period to prove what we can do, and you can say we are two years into those five years now.” But Fred Wilpon was involved in all the previous decisions, and the Wilpons alone chose to give another fading veteran, Tom Glavine, a four-year, $38.5 million deal. This kind of contradiction is central to the picture that emerged from the conversation with Jeff Wilpon. His family simply views how it runs the business differently than outside observers, including former Met employees. It is like a funhouse mirror in which the Wilpons see something beautiful and the outside world sees the grotesque. Jeff described the current state of the club as “some bumps in the road, and we are on track.” Outside the organization the Mets are viewed as having a chain of command where the lines of authority are blurred, which creates problems form the top down. *** Jeff Wilpon did not dispute he is in charge of the day-to-day running of just about every facet of the organization from clean bathrooms to player procurement. What he challenged is that in the baseball department he rules, and titular GM Jim Duquette is essentially his assistant. Jeff asked Duquette to sit in for the first half of what was supposed to be a one-on-one interview, and together they painted a picture of the Wilpons as budget setters and question askers about potential signings and trades, but of Duquette as the guiding force. But what else could Duquette say with his boss across a table? Executives who speak regularly to Duquette say the GM lacks autonomy, is worn down by the Wilpons’ penchant for micromanaging via voluminous phone calls and meetings, and by Jeff’s inability to recognize ownership has too much else on its plate to grasp all the pieces of data needed to make an informed decision. *** Executives from other teams consider Duquette personable, and the frequency with which he does not return calls or that others return calls for him has led to the perception Jeff and Fred obstruct quick decision making by soliciting too many opinions. One NL executive called the Met “kitchen cabinet” destructive, and an AL executive said Duquette should not feel safe when Jeff Wilpon is going on scouting trips with adviser Al Goldis. Duquette insisted it is his style to seek many opinions. Interestingly, he says he now keeps a detailed calls received/calls returned sheet that Jeff can review because the organization became aware of the industry perception…. The deals for Benson/Zambrano will determine, to a large degree, the batting average, and outside executives said Duquette held out against those moves until he saw Jeff was leading a brigade of club officials who wanted them. Jeff said Duquette did all the groundwork and his major responsibility was having “buyer’s remorse” near the end and convening a last conference call in which he “held everyone accountable” to give their final opinions on the deals. Jeff also said he goes on scouting trips to educate himself, not to foist his will on player personnel or to operate behind Duquette’s back. “I think my job at the end of the day is to question,” Jeff said. *** A former Met official also said the Wilpons are hypersensitive to media criticism, and craft decisions to avoid the bashing. Jeff denied this, but there are no doubts the Mets seek counsel about important issues, even the hiring of managers, from media favorites.

May 1, 2015, Tyler Kepner, The New York Times: Pedro Martinez Tells His Story (Link)

Martinez writes that his toe was hurt and that Manager Willie Randolph had told him he was done for the season. But, he said, Wilpon, now the Mets’ chief operating officer, wanted to sell tickets for a matchup against the star Marlins left-hander Dontrelle Willis. Martinez said he protested the order and offered to give back the rest of his contract. “While I’m the boss here, you’re going to have to do what I say,” Wilpon said, according to Martinez, who gave in and pitched. He lost the game, which drew 25,093 fans, and said the injury prolonged the toe problem. Other parts of his body broke down the next season, and Martinez was inactive for the Mets’ run to Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series. “I couldn’t help but think about how when I was healthy in 2005, our team wasn’t that good,” Martinez writes. “But as my health declined, I was urged to pitch a meaningless game at the end of 2005 that wound up shortening my recovery time for 2006 and led me to a hospital where doctors performed a three-hour arthroscopic procedure to repair my shoulder.”

May 31, 2006, Lee Jenkins, The New York Times: Kazmir Deal Is a Debt the Mets Still Owe (Link)

Duquette said he asked the commissioner’s office if there were grounds to file a grievance against the Devil Rays. Wilpon said he asked the commissioner’s office if the Mets had any recourse. They were told that the problem had to be resolved between the teams. The Mets could blame the Devil Rays for not supplying more comprehensive medical reports, but then they would also have to blame their own doctors for accepting limited reports.

March 29, 2008, Michael Geffner, Record Online: Jeff Wilpon won’t rest until Amazin’ mission is complete (Link)

The Mets had just finished playing a series against the Expos in Puerto Rico, and they were returning on the team charter. First, however, they needed to go through security on the tarmac, forced to stand on this long, snaking line. It was taking an eternity, too. Jeff, who had stayed behind while his father flew out a day earlier on a private plane, suddenly showed up, taking his place in the back. But after waiting for just a half-minute, he released this snort of an exasperated sigh, lifted up his luggage with a snap, and simply bolted to the front, passing a string of stunned expressions — and forever-altered perceptions. “It was like, ‘I’m more important than everybody else,’” said one eyewitness. It’s these kinds of ugly first impressions that linger to this day, remaining uncomfortably under the surface… … Doubleday developed an instant dislike for the kid, thought he was an arrogant little twit and resented his growing role within the organization. In fact, the only times Doubleday would break his silence with the senior Wilpon was when he phoned him complaining about a perceived Jeff transgression. After Fred finally bought Doubleday out in August of 2002, whereupon Jeff was immediately named COO, Doubleday couldn’t resist a parting shot, telling one reporter: “Jeff Wilpon said he’s going to learn how to run a baseball team and take over at the end of the year. Run for the hills, boys. I think probably all those baseball people will bail.” … Jeff, who along with one of the sons of public-relations heavyweight and George Steinbrenner’s official mouthpiece, Howard Rubenstein, established an 18-member breakfast club for junior moguls in the late 1990s nicknamed the “S.O.B.s” — or Sons of Bosses, which included such notables as William Rudin, who comes from a prominent real-estate family, and Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of the Loews Corporation and son of Loews founder Robert Tisch.

Note: Sons of Bosses had first been profiled by Monique P. Yazigi for the New York Times back in 1998.

June 17, 2008, Bill Madden, New York Daily News: Mets an utter disgrace for handling of Willie Randolph’s firing (Link)

Never in the history of New York baseball has there been a more shameful, indecent, undignified or ill-conceived firing of a manager. *** General manager Omar Minaya was the one who executed the firing but make no mistake, he was just the messenger. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon and Vice President of Development Tony Bernazard were the ones who really wanted Randolph fired and have wanted him fired for a long time. They just couldn’t figure out how, where or when to do it in order to best deflect the media fallout, and Minaya couldn’t help them until he realized it was either Randolph or him.

October 15, 2009, Matthew Cerrone, MetsBlog: Gammons: Jeff Wilpon is GM of the Mets (Link)

Yesterday, ESPN.com’s Peter Gammons told 1050 ESPN Radio that Jeff Wilpon is the real GM of the Mets, not Omar Minaya. The show’s host, Michael Kay, asked Gammons if the Mets will look to hire hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, saying, ‘Omar loves him.’ “But, Omar isn’t the General Manager,” Gammons explained. “Jeff Wilpon is.” According to Gammons, “Omar’s the one out there to take the heat. Do Gammons, Kay, and everyone else in the media have it out for the Mets, or is this a case of where there is smoke there is fire…?

January 28, 2010, Anthony McCarron, New York Daily News: General manager Omar Minaya: I’m in charge of New York Mets’ moves (Link)

Omar Minaya tried to lay to rest scuttlebutt that he’s not calling all the shots in the Mets’ baseball operations department, saying on SNY’s “Hot Stove” show Thursday night that he has “full autonomy.” “Yes, I do,” Minaya told host Kevin Burkhardt. “I know there’s been some talk about that, but I have full autonomy.” He added, “We feel good about working together and we’ll continue to work together (in the front office).”

September 19, 2010, Joel Sherman, New York Post: Mets need GM bailout …but will baseball’s brightest agree to work for Jeff Wilpon? (Link)

Let’s give Jeff Wilpon the benefit of the doubt here for a moment. Let’s say he is not short-tempered. Tone deaf. A credit seeker. An accountability deflector. A micro-manager. A second-guesser. A less-than-deep thinker. And bad at self-awareness. Fine, he’s none of these things. But here is the problem: This is his perception in the industry as the Mets try yet again to fix their baseball operations department. *** A baseball executive in regular contact with the Mets: “Jeff is the problem with the organization, and he is never going to realize that. He cannot help himself. He has to be involved. He will never hire anyone who will not let him have major input. He will not hire anyone who does not run every personnel decision through him.” *** An AL executive: “This is not an attractive job unless you want the money. The only person with a worse reputation then Jeff Wilpon in the game is [Marlins president] David Samson. *** I guess the McCourts [Dodgers owners] also are in that conversation. Jeff’s reputation is not good in the industry. The perception is that behind the scenes he will throw people under the bus rather than take responsibility.” This is no small sample. Ten officials were spoken to and the best anyone offered on Wilpon was this from an AL front-office man: “Jeff is a challenge, but most people [looking for a GM job] do not have the luxury of writing off the job because Jeff is there. There are only 30 of these jobs and they all come with warts.”

October 8, 2010, Michael Schmidt, The New York Times: A Mets Candidate Used to Authority (Link)

That has been an issue for the Mets, who have had to deal with the perception in baseball that Wilpon is too involved in baseball decisions and that he handcuffed the previous general manager, Omar Minaya. At a news conference last Monday, Fred Wilpon, the team’s principal owner, was adamant that he and his son were not meddlers. “We’re not capable of picking baseball players,” he said.

May 30, 2011, Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker: Madoff’s Curveball: Will Fred Wilpon Be Forced to Sell the Mets? (Link)

Then, there is the matter of the quality of the Mets teams. At one point, I mentioned to Wilpon the theory that the Mets might be cursed. He gave a sort of half laugh, and said, “You mean” — and then pantomimed a checked swing of the bat. Any Mets fan (I am one) would understand the reference [to Carlos Beltran in the 2006 National League Championship Series]. *** Notwithstanding his obvious partisanship, Wilpon displays a deep and unsentimental knowledge of the game. “He’s happiest when he’s talking baseball, arguing about baseball,” Omar Minaya, whom the Wilpons fired as the team’s general manager after last season, told me. “I always felt best when we were arguing over a player and Fred would say, ‘Omar, you’re full of shit.’ ” In the game against the Astros, Jose Reyes, leading off for the Mets, singled sharply up the middle, then stole second. “He’s a racehorse,” Wilpon said. When Reyes started with the Mets, in 2003, just before his twentieth birthday, he was pegged as a future star. Injuries have limited him to a more pedestrian career, though he’s off to a good start this season. “He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money,” Wilpon said, referring to the Red Sox’ signing of the former Tampa Bay player to a seven-year, $142-million contract. “He’s had everything wrong with him,” Wilpon said of Reyes. “He won’t get it.” After the catcher, Josh Thole, struck out, David Wright came to the plate. Wright, the team’s marquee attraction, has started the season dreadfully at the plate. “He’s pressing,” Wilpon said. “A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.” Wright walked. When Carlos Beltran came up, I mentioned his prodigious post-season with the Astros in 2004, when he hit eight home runs, just before he went to the Mets as a free agent. Wilpon laughed, not happily. “We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series,” he said, referring to himself. In the course of playing out his seven-year, $119-million contract with the Mets, Beltran, too, has been hobbled by injuries. “He’s sixty-five to seventy per cent of what he was.” Beltran singled, loading the bases with one out. Ike Davis, the sophomore first baseman and the one pleasant surprise for the Mets so far this season, was up next. “Good hitter,” Wilpon said. “Shitty team — good hitter.” Davis struck out. Angel Pagan flied out to right, ending the Mets’ threat. “Lousy clubs — that’s what happens.” Wilpon sighed. The Astros put three runs on the board in the top of the second. “We’re snakebitten, baby,” Wilpon said.

November 20, 2012, Marc Carig, Newsday: Jeff Wilpon: Trading David Wright, R.A. Dickey would be only a last resort (Link)

If the Mets fail to sign R.A. Dickey and David Wright to long-term deals this winter, conventional thinking dictates that both would be shopped in the trade market, allowing the team to salvage some value for parting ways with their two brightest stars. But chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said Tuesday that trades would be only a last resort, and that if deals can’t be reached, he’d rather have both play out the final year of their deals. The goal remains signing both to long-term extensions. “That’s the first preference; that has been the first preference,” Wilpon said. “Second preference is probably keep them and have them play out the season. Third preference would be to trade them. They’re both very important to the franchise, they’re both fan favorites, so we’d like to keep it that way.”

(R.A. Dickey was traded the next month, in the deal which returned Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud.)

March 29, 2013, Joel Sherman, New York Post: Santana’s angry bullpen session could have played role injury (Link)

But now in retrospect, I wonder. I wonder if an organization behaving badly — by calling Santana out — and Santana acting badly — by throwing a temper-tantrum and a ball 250 feet in anger — is why this sad news about the lefty’s career came yesterday. Alderson announced Santana almost definitely needs a second shoulder surgery. That will end his Mets career.

June 4, 2013, Brian Costa, The Wall Street Journal: Las Vegas: The Mets’ Minor Disaster, Why Do the Mets Have a Triple-A Team in the Desert?(Link)

Only a handful of team-affiliate agreements expire each year, and if one of them isn’t renewed, it creates a game of musical chairs. Las Vegas is the chair no team wants. And the Mets have become the fanny no chair wants. “They’re undesirable,” said Dave Rosenfield, a longtime Norfolk (Va.) Tides executive. “Nobody wants them.” Rosenfield was Norfolk’s general manager when it became the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in 1969 (it was named Tidewater then) and was still on the job when the Mets left in late 2006. Only a one-hour flight from New York, Norfolk was perfectly suitable for the Mets. And for decades, the two got along well enough. But Rosenfield said the relationship soured after Jeff Wilpon became the Mets’ chief operating officer in 2002, after which communication with team officials became “virtually nonexistent.” “When he became involved in everything was when things changed,” Rosenfield said. “I dealt with him on some things and somebody always had to go to him if you wanted to do anything. He had his nose and hands in everything.”

May 27, 2014, Howard Megdal, Politico: The end of a hitting coach, and a G.M.’s baseball autonomy (Link)

It’s been a common thing, as the Mets have struggled, for the team’s C.O.O. to express displeasure with general manager Sandy Alderson. And sure enough, during Monday’s disappointing 5–3 loss at home to the Pirates, Jeff Wilpon sent Alderson an angry text, and followed it up with an angry call. Then, after the game, they had an angry meeting. But at that meeting, according to a knowledgeable source, Wilpon did something new: He overruled his general manager on a baseball matter, ordering him to fire hitting coach Dave Hudgens, a longtime Alderson friend and colleague.

May 28, 2014, John DeMarzo, New York Post: Mets insist Alderson, not Jeff Wilpon, was Hudgens hitman (Link)

The Mets are denying a report that said COO Jeff Wilpon ordered the firing of hitting coach Dave Hudgens on Monday. According to the report in Capital New York, an angry text message and phone call from Wilpon to general manager Sandy Alderson on Monday prompted Hudgens’ dismissal from the organization. Alderson fired Hudgens after a 5–3 loss to the Pirates and named Lamar Johnson the hitting coach. “The reports are substantively inaccurate and erroneous,” the Mets said in a statement Wednesday. But Alderson, in speaking to Capital on Wednesday, didn’t completely douse the story, saying the decision was reached after consulting with “many” people, including Jeff Wilpon. Alderson also didn’t dispute the sequence of events, according to Capital, but said the decision to fire Hudgens had been “in the works for some time.” A day earlier, Alderson was asked specifically if ownership was pressuring him into making changes. “What I try to do is evaluate what’s going on on the field and make the appropriate judgments, and that’s my responsibility,” he said. “I talk to ownership from time to time. I talk to Fred [Wilpon]. I talk to Jeff [Wilpon], and I have a sense of what they’re thinking or what their frustrations may be, but ultimately I have to make a baseball decision, I guess, and that’s what this was.”

August 19, 2014, David Roth, SB Nation: The Mets’ Matt Harvey problem is a Mets problem (Link)

What makes the Mets unique is also what has made them lousy for nearly a decade: they are an extension and reflection of their owners, both in terms of the team’s money problems logically flowing from those of the Wilpons’ and in the way that the promising, intermittently joyous team that’s developing in Queens is doing so amid an ambient vibe of blustering, blowhardy pissiness. … This should be the fun part, if only because we are watching baseball games instead of guessing — along with GM Sandy Alderson — at the team’s available operating budget or attempting to parse the incessant deferrals of various nine-figure loans. And yet this doesn’t quite work, either, because of the way that creeping Wilponism haunts the club.

November 25, 2014, Jeb Lund, Rolling Stone: The Worst Owners in Sports (Link)

Thanks to wise investment, the Wilpons have lived on a shoestring budget for six years, taking profits from their ownership in SNY to make up team shortfalls and hoping that a tight budget and crossed fingers can arrest the team cratering that began in 2009. The Wilpons have seemingly never met a problem for which an absence of a solution will do, unless they have a solution worse than the problem, and that solution is invariably “them.” As a distraction, they’ve repeatedly used the Daily News as their mouthpiece to trash players and deflect attention from complaints. The limits of that strategy were exposed when a former team executive sued Jeff Wilpon for allegedly firing her for having a baby out of wedlock.

March 31, 2015, Marc Carig, Newsday: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred confident in and defensive of Mets’ payroll and plans (Link)

The Mets’ payroll is roughly $100 million, placing them in the lower third despite playing in the nation’s largest media market. “I understand that it creates fodder for people to be critical,” Manfred said of payroll. “But what I would say to you is this: I think adding players comes at the point in time that you’ve built your farm system up and you have a really good core of players on the field. And then it’s effective to spend. I think the Mets have made great progress in terms of the young talent they have. And I know, at the point in time that they think it’s appropriate, they will spend to supplement players.” Citing the basic agreement, Manfred refused to cite an appropriate spending range for the franchise. But he expressed his satisfaction that the Mets are “making decisions directed at being successful on the field” and the Wilpons have “sufficient resources to be successful.”

December 23, 2015, Tom Ley, Deadspin: It’s Time For The Mets’ Garbage Owners To Go (Link)

So why are the Mets seemingly so intent on boning themselves? Because the owners, Fred and Jeff Wilpon, are still paying off the hundreds of millions of dollars in debt they racked up in the aftermath of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme exploding.

January 28, 2017, Ken Davidoff, New York Post: A much-needed culture change can help a long-standing Mets nightmare

Conversations with 10 people possessing first-hand knowledge of the Mets’ baseball operations produced the picture of an ultra-intense environment, created by Mets ownership, in which the daily pressure to win, not only the games but the daily media coverage, has compromised the decision-making process and, hence, led to poor moves on multiple fronts. On the medical front, that has made the Mets the butt of many an industry joke. Another is an environment where CEO Fred Wilpon and COO Jeff Wilpon both are prone to micromanagement, with Fred Wilpon more likely to assert himself in on-the-field decisions and Jeff Wilpon more involved in medical matters — such as working on media releases about injuries — clouding the chain of command.

May 18, 2017, Jerry Crasnick, ESPN: Mets’ injury issues go far beyond the disabled list (Link)

Multiple people familiar with the Mets’ operation — most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity — say the team has a less-than-optimal command structure that allows routine problems to fester until they become major conflagrations. Too often, the Mets’ approach leads to communication breakdowns, mixed signals or a lack of trust between the team and its players. “It’s the same old, same old mistakes,’’ one industry source said. “The Mets are a successful, profitable organization. But no organization, over a protracted period of time, has more significant players on the disabled list. There’s a failing across the board. And what changes have been instituted, if any?’’ *** So who’s in charge? Multiple sources said the lack of a single medical point person allows for greater involvement by COO Jeff Wilpon in areas where he’s lacking in professional expertise. They describe Wilpon as a micromanager who creates an environment in which the Mets simply whipsaw from one crisis to the next and are too often governed by how their decisions will be publicly perceived. “Jeff gets in the middle of everything that’s going on, and he ends up doing more damage,’’ said a person who has been involved in the Mets’ internal operation. “He meddles. I can’t come up with a more appropriate term.’’

May 19, 2017, Marc Normandin, SB Nation: Jeff Wilpon might be making the Mets’ medical decisions (Link)

Mets GM Sandy Alderson denies Wilpon is a problem, but what’s he supposed to do? Tell Crasnick that his boss is a meddlesome micromanager who sticks himself into every situation regardless of his qualifications or ability to help and has been more of a drag than a benefit to the organization over the years? Maybe someday, when Sandy finally snaps and is tired of cleaning up the Wilpon’s messes. But not today.

August 16, 2017, Marc Carig, Newsday: Mets GM Sandy Alderson hints that team was over budget (Link)

Sandy Alderson hinted on Wednesday that the Mets spent more money on players this offseason that originally budgeted, part of his explanation for why the club has shed about $9.3 million in salary while making a flurry of trades before and after the July 31 deadline. While insisting that he was not ordered to slash payroll, Alderson did not say that the savings would be directly used to bolster salaries for next season. But he provided one reason for paring down, hinting at an agreement in which he was given additional resources this winter, with the understanding that salary could be cut if the team slipped from contention. “I can tell you from an operational standpoint, I look at it this way,” Alderson said. “If I persuade the owner that it’s best to spend an extra 10 to 15 million dollars to go for it — but I also assure him that if it doesn’t work out I can move 9 or 10 or 12 million dollars — having actually done it gives me a better case going forward.”

September 5, 2017, Marc Carig, Newsday: Mets GM Sandy Alderson won’t commit to matching this year’s payroll (Link)

General manager Sandy Alderson on Tuesday offered what may be a preview of his offseason plans, signaling that the Mets likely will stick with their internal options at catcher, while possibly pursuing an innings-eater to solidify the starting rotation and a replacement at third base for David Wright. But when it came to the size of next season’s payroll, and the impact that Michael Conforto’s upcoming shoulder surgery could have on the Mets’ outfield plans going into the offseason, Alderson offered fewer hints. “The fact that we have so many dollars coming off the books we recognize and a good percentage of that — at this point undermined — certainly will be reinvested in the payroll,” Alderson said. “But I can’t give you a specific number.” The Mets have roughly $70 million coming off the books. But Alderson would not commit to matching the $155 million the Mets spent on players this season, a total that he said was higher than originally expected.

September 28, 2017, Marc Carig, Newsday: Sources: Mets owner Fred Wilpon protected Terry Collins from getting fired

Despite what the front office perceived as Collins’ constant tactical blunders and concerns about his relationships with the players, sources said efforts to explore a change seriously were thwarted by the elder Wilpon. “I don’t interfere,” Fred Wilpon said while declining an interview request earlier this season. The 80-year-old owner keeps a low public profile and has not spoken at length about his team since 2013. But privately, his influence in baseball matters still looms large, as shown by his ability to single-handedly shield Collins, whom he visited frequently in the manager’s office before games. “He got too chummy with him,” one team official said.

December 18, 2017, Marc Carig, Newsday: Mets analysis: Wilpons need to be more transparent about payroll, offseason moves (Link)

According to sources, the front office has only a fuzzy idea of what they actually have to spend in any given offseason. They’re often flying blind, forced to navigate the winter under the weight of an invisible salary cap. This is not the behavior of a franchise that wants to win. *** The Wilpons can start by publicly owning up to how this franchise is run. They can begin speaking for themselves rather than leaving the dirty work to middle men. But until they show the courage to take that first step, the Mets and their fans are doomed to repeat the cycle, pulling for a franchise that will never actually do enough to win.

December 18, 2017, Joe Pantorno, Metro: Mets ownership the definition of incompetent (link)

December 22, 2017, Sherman, New York Post: Mets’ Omar Minaya Recall Reminds Fans of Their Dysfunction (Link)

January 11, 2018, Jon Heyman, FanRag Sports: Mets nearly traded for Indians 2B Jason Kipnis

The New York Mets, who signed outfielder Jay Bruce to a three-year, $39 million deal Wednesday night, nearly had a deal worked out with the Cleveland Indians for Jason Kipnis, according to sources. And in fact, there were people on both sides who thought they had a deal. But apparently it was killed by someone at the top, very likely over money.

February 12, 2018, Marc Carig, The Athletic: Without another strong arm in the rotation, the Mets are doomed to mediocrity (Link)

After a season in which the franchise’s underlying dysfunction was put on full display, are the Wilpons simply choosing to be frugal? Is their answer to a 92-loss disaster going to really involve trimming payroll from the $155 million it reached last Opening Day? Can the Wilpons really be this tone deaf? And it was ownership that nixed a trade for the Indians’ Jason Kipnis. According to a source, the Mets had agreed to take on $10 million of Kipnis’ salary next season while sending a controllable righthanded reliever to the Indians. Ownership pulled the plug, scared off by the price.

June 26, 2018, Matt Ehalt, Northjersey.com: NY Mets COO Jeff Wilpon Admits Frustration with How the Mets Have Performed (Link)

“I have full confidence in John, J.P. and Omar to take a fresh look at things,” Wilpon said. “And be able to look at and improve this team short-term and long-term.” He noted that the chain of command will stay the same. “Same as Sandy would come to me to let me know of what they plan to do, I plan to have the them three come to me the same way,” Wilpon said. “Just the three of them coming to a mutual decision which I think was happening any way behind the scenes, to go to Sandy, who then had the final decision to come to me with.”

July 6, 2018, Matt Ehalt, Bergen Record: NY Mets spent over $200 million in free agency last two years with little return (link)

The six free agents have combined for -1.6 WAR (wins above replacement), and some of those signings were made despite resistance from the the analytics department, most notably on lefty Jason Vargas, according to a source. *** The six free agents the Mets signed this year certainly had quality résumés, but there were concerns over age and upside. The analytics team’s concerns with some of the players the Mets signed, which included Bruce, have been validated. *** Vargas, who had a reputation for being an innings eater, has failed to stay healthy while providing the Mets with an 8.60 ERA. One source from another team noted his analytics department also railed against Vargas, who faded in the second half of last season.

July 20, 2018, Michael Mayer, Metsmerized Online: Interview with Former Mets Executive Nick Francona (Link)

MMO — All owners are different and most meddle at varying degrees. But with the Wilpons it seems to go beyond that. It seems like they have to have their finger in every pie. Is that fair to say? Nick — Yes MMO — In what ways did they have a finger in things that you thought was unusual for an owner? Nick — There are many different manifestations of it. Even mundane things like certain press releases or public statements. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble that is still there, so I want to be cognizant of that. I will say I was very surprised by the level of involvement in seemingly ordinary minor league decisions even.

July 21, 2018 Keith Law, ESPN: Mets get weak payoff for trading Jeurys Familia early (Link)

The international slot money the Mets are getting is probably the most valuable part of the return, and that is utterly embarrassing for a marquee franchise in the largest market in the sport. Dealing major league players with immediate value for petty cash isn’t the way to run a low-revenue franchise like Tampa Bay or, well, Oakland. It’s damaging to the sport when it’s happening to a team in New York City.

July 23, 2018 Jeff Passan, Yahoo Sports: Everything with the dysfunctional Mets leads back to an ownership group that fails again and again (Link)

Multiple people familiar with the Mets’ inner workings describe an organizational culture that is almost too childish to believe — one in which Jeff Wilpon sees a winning day only as one in which the Mets are victorious and the New York Yankees lose. This is not just little-brother syndrome; it’s mania in which a franchise’s fealty to public perception drives so many of its decisions, a sad bit of irony considering Mets fans so deeply loathe the team’s ownership.

July 23, 2018 Marc Carig, The Athletic: Why the Mets Won’t Change Until the Wilpons Change (Link)

That’s not to say that the Wilpons don’t care about the Mets. Rather, it’s more accurate to say that they care too much. Even though they prefer to work in the shadows, they’ve made a family tradition out of meddling. That’s the relevant takeaway from this humiliating weekend for a franchise that has stumbled around in the darkness for decades. One of the more telling revelations of that episode was the extent of Fred Wilpon’s hands-on involvement. The team’s owner regularly spent a lot of time in Collins’ office before games, enough to leave the impression among those around the team that the elder Wilpon still wielded outsized influence over matters on the field… But according to team insiders, Fred Wilpon has been making more frequent visits to the manager’s office. That’s his prerogative, I suppose. He signs the checks. This is his baseball team. Yet, he’s fond of saying to anyone who will listen that he does not interfere.

July 23, 2018 Mike Vaccaro, New York Post: Wilpons have reached pantheon of city’s most detested owners (Link)

But, make no mistake, they have engendered an enormous amount of bad will, thanks to many things: their prominent role as both beneficiary and victim of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme; as big-market owners who have never fully embraced big-market economics in a sport lacking a salary cap; as serial meddlers (especially Jeff Wilpon); and as chief architects of a franchise hurtling toward a 13th losing season in those 18 years of the Wilpon Era.

August 1, 2018, Ken Davidoff, New York Post: Do-nothing Mets need elite GM to save franchise from Wilpons (link)

Hence the onus turns to the new GM, be it one of the Minaya Trois or more likely an outsider. This person must thrive at arbitrage like Alderson didn’t in an organization dying for more athleticism and defense, attributes that both Callaway and Ricciardi mentioned on Tuesday. He or she must be willing to manage up in order to mitigate the Wilpons’ meddling. The farm system must get better, only not at the expense of the big-league team. And a call must be made on Callaway. Does this constitute a unicorn GM? The optimist proposes that baseball has never featured a smarter talent pool and the Mets, their obvious shortcomings notwithstanding, can find someone good. The pessimist counters that if even Alderson, who probably will be featured on a Hall of Fame ballot someday, can achieve only temporary success, then it’s a sucker’s gig.

September 12, 2018, Matt Snyder, CBS Sports: The David Wright insurance mess is a perfect reason why Mets fans deserve better from ownership (link)

October 1, 2018, Tim Britton, The Athletic: The route to the ‘best offseason’ for the Mets should begin with self-evaluation from the Wilpons (link)

On Sunday, Wilpon said the club’s investment in the front office matched what was requested by Alderson and Co. “I don’t think we haven’t made the investment,” he said. “What I can tell you is that the people that are in place are what was asked for by the administration that was here. If somebody comes in and says we have to beef up this area or that area, we’re totally fine to do that. It’s not something that we ever said, ‘No’ to.” Except that, according to multiple sources, the Wilpons did say “No” to Alderson when he asked for more full-time personnel in New York’s three-man analytics department, opting to hire interns instead. The Mets have one of the smallest analytics staffs in baseball; that’s Fred Wilpon’s decision more than Jeff’s. *** While Wilpon said the team is open on what title they hand out to a new executive — be it a traditional GM or a president of baseball operations, the latter designed largely to woo sitting GMs from their current positions — there is no mistaking that this is the same job listing as it was when Alderson got the job. Whoever is hired will, like Alderson, have to navigate through the thoughts and evaluations of the Wilpons. “They’ll know their final recommendation will go through me,” Wilpon said Sunday.

October 4, 2018, Matt Ehalt, Bergen Record: Mets may be limiting GM field if they’re not open to fully embracing analytics (link)

There are rumblings that several candidates with progressive, analytics-oriented approaches do not believe they will be able to operate as they please should they take the Mets job, according to a source. That hesitation played a factor in why former Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington bowed out of the mix, per the source. *** The Mets only have a three-person analytics department, according to sources, even though there were pleas for more. Mets COO Jeff Wilpon said Sunday that the staff’s size reflects what was asked of ownership, but sources say that isn’t the case. Interns were added instead of full-time employees.

October 11, 2018, Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic: The Mets’ and Orioles’ revealing GM searches (link)

The Mets’ job should be one of the most attractive in the game, drawing widespread, heavy interest. But executives throughout the sport believe the Wilpons exert greater day-to-day influence than many owners, and the team has yet to make a strong commitment to analytics even as other clubs continue to ramp up their research and development staffs. Jeff Wilpon said recently that the Mets’ investment in the front office matched what was requested by former general manager Sandy Alderson. But multiple sources told The Athletic’s Tim Britton that the Wilpons did say no to Alderson when he asked for more full-time personnel in New York’s three-man analytics department, opting to hire interns instead (the Yankees, by contrast, employ 20 in analytics, according to a survey by The Athletic’s Marc Carig and Eno Sarris).

May 20, 2019, Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic: The dysfunctional Mets, who are toxic from the top down, need an accomplished veteran manager (link)

Callaway still will be the Mets’ manager on Monday, according to published reports, but that only means the countdown to his demise will continue. Maybe he will be fired at the end of the week, the start of next week or at some point after that in the latest installment of “As The Mets Turn.” It’s a never-ending soap opera in which the Wilpons — Fred and his son Jeff, the most prominent members of the team’s ownership group — are the only recurring characters.

***

Oh, and to answer the question posted at the top of this column: Yes, at least one out-of-work manager would take the job. At least one would want the money and responsibility. At least one would rationalize that he could “manage” the Wilpons, though sources continue to insist that Jeff, in particular, is a meddlesome presence, heavily involved in the day-to-day operation of the club.

May 21, 2019, Michael Baumann, The Ringer: The New York Mets, Where the Only Thing Amazin’ Is the Misery (link)

The team’s reputation for tying its own shoelaces together stems from its owners, the Wilpon family, who have spent the past decade as buffoons at the best of times.

***

The Mets nearly denied David Wright, their best player of the 21st century, a proper send-off before his retirement last September, because allowing him to suit up again would jeopardize an insurance payment. And true to form, the pressing question about Céspedes is not how long he’ll be out, but whether the club could recoup his salary through insurance or void it altogether because of his non-baseball injury.

May 21, 2019, Jeff Passan, ESPN: Passan: Why the Mets are a mess — again (link)

It starts with owner Fred Wilpon and his son and chief operating officer, Jeff, the hub of everything Mets-related. Ownership did not give the new GM, Brodie Van Wagenen, the ability to hire his own manager, lame-ducking incumbent Mickey Callaway before the 2019 season even began. Ownership does not take the tens of millions of dollars collected via insurance money from Cespedes’ and David Wright’s injuries and reinvest it in major league payroll. Ownership for years has fomented organizational instability, and what to other franchises might register as tiny cracks in the foundation feel to the Mets like canyon-sized fissures.

***

Here’s how: It’s not $158 million. It’s not close. The Mets have insurance that recoups 75 percent of Wright’s and Cespedes’ salaries if disabled because of injury. Wright is essentially retired … It’s actually $125 million. Top 10 in the game? Not even top half. The Seattle Mariners are paying out more than the Mets. They’re rebuilding. The Milwaukee Brewers are paying out more than the Mets. They’re located in Milwaukee, not New York.

***

A manager still employed for the wrong reasons, a GM standing by what he did for questionable reasons and an ownership group dead silent throughout it all, content to let this multibillion-dollar corporation flop about like a fish on the dock. So sad, it’s funny. So funny, it’s sad.

May 21, 2019, Tim Britton, The Athletic: Amid more turmoil, Mets insist everything is ‘normal’ (link)

The common link among those specific idiosyncrasies is, obviously, the Wilpons’ ownership. These things have happened with Omar Minaya and Sandy Alderson and now Van Wagenen as general manager. They’ve happened with Willie Randolph and Terry Collins and Callaway as manager.

June 7, 2019, Bob Klapisch, Bleacher Report: $110 Million Yoenis Cespedes Disaster Just Tip of the Iceberg of Mets’ Chaos (link)

Unlike most clubs that closely monitor their injured players, the Mets’ policy is to send them to their spring training complex in Port St. Lucie, Florida, where they remain indefinitely for extended rehab. Paraphrasing one industry executive, it’s almost as if ownership — read: Jeff Wilpon — punishes players who get hurt, banishing them 1,000 miles away from New York. Some players can be trusted on their own. Others see the relatively sparse facilities in Florida, which are designed for low-level minor leaguers during the summer, and defiantly turn the empty time into a de facto vacation. What to do with players on the injured list — where to send them, how to treat them — has been a point of contention within the Mets front office for several years. Ultimately, Wilpon has used his veto power to prevent an overhaul.

June 20, 2019, David Lennon, Newsday: Disorganization the standard with the Mets organization (link)

It’s always somebody else’s fault in Flushing, and when you’re speeding toward a 12th losing season in the past two decades, the body count tends to escalate.

***

It’s not their mess. It’s just their turn. Just as it will be Mickey Callaway’s turn at some point and, much later, Van Wagenen’s. We’ve seen this movie before. Over and over again. The Wilpons are always shuffling personnel because they’re the only ones without an expiration date — or a consistent plan that can produce sustainable success for the Mets, a little big-market franchise that somehow manages to catch lightning in a bottle every decade or so with a playoff trip.

***

All you had to do was listen to him Thursday at Wrigley Field, where Van Wagenen gave his explanation for jettisoning the club’s resident pitching experts. “This decision — along with any decision — is an organizational decision,” Van Wagenen said. “Nothing is done independently and we try to make the decisions that are in the best interests of the entire organization. We hope this will put us on that track.” That’s when Van Wagenen tipped his hand. He’s the GM. He’s running the team. He’s in charge of hiring and firing people below him. These are supposed to be his decisions. Sure, the GM consults all of his lieutenants, gets input from the manager and, in his case, maybe even polls some of his more trusted players (aka former clients). But if a team is operating correctly, the GM makes the call and stands behind it as his decision. As soon as the word “organization” is thrown in, that feels like code for ownership and makes Van Wagenen’s stature shrink.

June 23, 2019, David Lennon, Newsday: Tim Healey explains incident with Mets manager Mickey Callaway (link)

“I couldn’t confidently tell you exactly what he said, but he said, ‘You know we’re going to be in a bad mood after a loss,’ or something like that. And I tried to tell him, I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just saying I’ll see you tomorrow. And then he said, ‘Get this guy out of here,’ and that got the attention of Jason Vargas.” According to Healey, Vargas was getting dressed at his locker, which was about 15 feet away in the cramped visitors’ clubhouse, and Healey noticed the pitcher had been staring at him for what seemed like roughly 45 seconds. Healey said he was just standing there, “wondering why Mickey was blowing up,” when he saw Vargas. He recalled asking him if everything was OK or if there was something he wanted to say. That’s when Vargas threatened him. “He said, ‘I’ll knock you out right here’ and then took a couple of steps toward me,” Healey said. “Some people said charged — charged is super-strong.” Mets media relations manager Ethan Wilson got between Healey and Vargas while other players, Noah Syndergaard and Carlos Gomez among them, moved in to make sure the pitcher remained at a distance.

June 23, 2019, Deesha Thosar, New York Daily News: “I’ll knock you the f — k out, bro!”: Mickey Callaway and Jason Vargas in screaming clubhouse altercation with reporter (link)

“Don’t be a smartass,” Callaway said to Healey as the manager kept walking. Under his breath and turned away from Healey, but incredibly audible, Callaway called Healey a “motherf — -er.” After a minute, Callaway walked back to Healey and let out a string of curse words. The manager told the reporter not to speak like that to him, knowing he and the team are upset following the loss. Callaway made fun of the way in which Healey said, “See you tomorrow” by mimicking the reporter. Callaway said Healey meant the choice words sarcastically. “Shut the f — k up, get out of my face. Get out of here,” Callaway said as Healey attempted to explain he did not mean to slight the manager in any way.

***

“I’ll knock you the f — k out, bro” Vargas said to Healey. Seconds later, Vargas charged toward Healey and the two were separated by teammates Carlos Gomez and Noah Syndergaard, as well as a Mets official, among others. Healey left the clubhouse shortly after the intense altercation.

***

Callaway was particularly irked before he cursed at Healey. During the postgame interview, Mets beat writer Matt Ehalt of Yahoo Sports asked Callaway if he should reconsider using closer Edwin Diaz for a five-out situation. “No, just because you think so? Absolutely not. We have a very good plan. We know what we’re doing and we’re going to stick to it,” Callaway said.

June 24, 2019, Mike Puma, New York Post: Van Wagenen is managing Mets games from home in ‘unusual’ struggle (link)

According to an industry source, it was the rookie GM who instructed Mickey Callaway to remove Jacob deGrom from a game in Arizona earlier this month in which the Mets ace sustained a hip cramp. After deGrom was removed from the game in the seventh inning, the bullpen imploded in a loss that added to the frustration of a 2–5 road trip. The source said Van Wagenen, who was watching the game at home on TV, communicated with a member of the Mets support staff with an order to remove deGrom from the game. Callaway complied with the order, and deGrom was visibly upset as he departed the field, certain he could continue pitching. The manager was grilled for the move, but at the time insisted the decision was his. “Hell, yeah, it’s unusual: Sending word to the dugout, telling the manager what to do?” the source said. “I have never heard of that before.” MLB rules stipulate that players and coaches cannot use cell phones anywhere during a game.

June 25, 2019, Marc Carig, the Athletic: Mets reveal familiar signs of organizational ineptitude (link)

But to blame Callaway alone would be to miss the biggest takeaway, one that will carry relevance long past what’s quickly devolving into a lost season. In addition to his own foolish mistakes, Callaway has been allowed to fail, left exposed by an organization that can’t get out of its own way. For all the talk of change upon the hiring of Van Wagenen, it’s clear that with the Mets, the status quo remains alive and well. A cover-your-own-backside culture still flows from the Wilpons, permeating almost every corner of the operation.

***

But with each new failure, these declarations get harder and harder to believe. Without intervention, the organization will soon be confronted with an unflattering truth. The Mets will have squandered another season, dragged down by an overmatched manager, an overmatched general manager and an overmatched ownership group in search of the latest batch of scapegoats.

June 27, 2019, Keith Law and Buster Olney, ESPN Audio: Champs and Chumps (link)

December 4, 2019. Mike Puma, the New York Post: Wilpons nearing Mets sale to Steve Cohen amid Katz rift (link)

Multiple sources indicated a rift between Katz — who is Fred Wilpon’s brother-in-law — and Jeff Wilpon left the family uncomfortable with the idea of the younger Wilpon assuming control of the club once Fred Wilpon is no longer involved.

December 6, 2019, David Waldstein, Kevin Draper, James Wagner, the New York Times: Fans Didn’t Like the Way Jeff Wilpon Ran the Mets. Neither Did Some of His Relatives (link)

At their best, the Wilpons, self-made multimillionaires from the city’s outer boroughs, shined as generous philanthropists who occasionally broke the bank for a star player. At their worst, they were a squabbling, disorganized clan with a baseball team that fans saw as inept and thrifty, and functioning as a vanity play for the family scion, Fred Wilpon, and his eldest son, Jeff, who has overseen a team with mostly disappointing results since 2002.

***

With Fred Wilpon, 83, and his siblings aging, their children were increasingly wary of having Jeff Wilpon, their aggressive, short-tempered relative, in charge of the family’s most valuable heirloom. That issue will go away with a deal to sell Cohen 80 percent of the franchise that will give the family a huge profit, considering what the Wilpons paid each time they increased their stake in the Mets. Tensions between Jeff Wilpon and his relatives have been brewing for years. Many of them work with Sterling Equities, the family’s closely held umbrella company, but the baseball team, which last won a World Series in 1986 — before the family took full control — was largely Jeff’s domain. For years, some family members have questioned his choices behind the scenes. In 2003, for example, Jeff and his father called on Jeff’s younger brother, Bruce, who is fluent in Japanese, to help pursue the free-agent infielder Kazuo Matsui. Soon after Matsui joined the Mets in 2004 and reported to spring training, he injured his finger. Jeff Wilpon was adamant that Matsui play in televised spring training games to build excitement for the season after a last-place finish a year earlier. Bruce was more protective of Matsui and urged caution. The disagreement came to a head when Jeff, seeing a promotional opportunity, wanted Matsui on the field. Bruce pushed back. The argument grew heated and ugly, as Jeff dug in. After that, Bruce rarely, if ever, was involved with the team again. Such accounts of the family and its decision to sell are based on interviews with more than a dozen people with direct involvement with the Wilpon family and the Mets, nearly all of whom asked not to be identified so as not to damage their relationship with the family. Through a spokesman, Fred and Jeff Wilpon declined to comment.

February 4, 2020, Thornton McEnery, NY Post: Billionaire Steve Cohen’s bid to buy Mets is on life support (link)

Steve Cohen’s $2.6 billion bid to buy the Mets is on life support — if alive at all. Multiple sources close to the situation are confirming that the billionaire hedge fund manager is ending negotiations with the Wilpons on his purchase of an 80 percent stake in the franchise. According to those sources, Cohen is deeply unhappy with the Wilpons changing the terms of the deal at a very late stage and has decided to walk away.

***

But even at the time, the massive sale was reportedly structured in a way that could be politely described as unique. Wilpon would remain as control person and CEO for five years. Team COO Jeff Wilpon, Fred’s son, would continue in that role for five years. After that period — or during — it was expected that both Wilpons would be removed from the daily operations of the team. The deal also reportedly did not include ownership of the Mets’ regional sports network, SNY. But sources familiar with the talks said the Wilpons pushed late to maintain some control of the franchise beyond the five-year window

***

If Cohen’s deal does collapse, this would be the second time in less than a decade that a Wilpon deal to sell a large stake in the Mets to a local billionaire hedge fund manager has fallen through. In 2011, the Wilpons tried to tweak a deal with David Einhorn, who similarly balked at the machinations and publicly walked away, accusing the Wilpons of bad faith in the final stages of his deal. Einhorn went as far as to call out the Wilpons for not honoring the exclusivity agreement in their deal and then lobbying MLB behind his back to reject a clause in the deal that would allow Einhorn to pull his money out if they did not honor their pledge to cede some control of the team to him.

February 5, 2020, Deesha Thosar, New York Daily News: Steve Cohen backed out of deal to buy Mets after Wilpons wanted longer than five years of control (link)

According to a source familiar with the situation, the Wilpons wanted team control beyond the five years they agreed to and also wanted to extend their control of SNY, the Mets’ cable network, for longer than the 20-year rights deal. The Wilpons’ desire for extensions late in the process caused Cohen to walk out of the deal.

***

Mets president Saul Katz, brother-in-law to Fred Wilpon and uncle to Jeff Wilpon, and his children want no part of owning the team and would prefer to sell. Among the Wilpons/Katz family, only Jeff Wilpon wants to extend his ownership of the Mets, according to a source.

February 5, 2020, Kevin Draper, David Waldstein, James Wagner, New York Times: In the Deal to Sell the Mets, a Snag Fits a Familiar Pattern (link)

According to three people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, the deal was moving toward a conclusion when it hit a snag. The dispute centered on the Wilpon family’s desire to retain control of the team after surrendering majority ownership, as well as on the schedule of payments Cohen would make, according to two of the people.

***

Mets fans largely reacted positively to news that the team could be sold. They have complained for years about the fact that the team plays in the country’s largest market yet operates with a payroll more befitting a mid-market franchise [I]n the 33 seasons since the family gained a 50 percent stake (they became controlling owners in 2002), the Mets have made the playoffs just six times. During that time, the Wilpons have earned a reputation for requesting last-minute changes favorable to them in negotiations with their own partners, local government officials and even players they have tried to lure to the franchise. Just when a deal appears to be done and it is time to shake hands, the Wilpons reach for a little more.

***

The deal with Cohen, according to about a dozen people who are directly involved with the Mets and the Wilpon family, has been driven by a desire to cash out by some family members who have concerns about the direction of the franchise, which is carrying hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, if it were to be controlled primarily by Jeff Wilpon once his father and uncle step aside.

February 6, 2020, WFAN.com: Deal Between Mets-Cohen Is Dead (link)

WFAN’s Evan Roberts said on the air Thursday that he’s heard from a source there were a few issues in Cohen’s eyes:

• The five-year waiting period before he could take control of the team

• Fred Wilpon’s demand that Jeff Wilpon’s salary increase from about $2.5 million now to around $4 million by Year 5

• The Wilpons’ refusal to allow Cohen to incorporate his own analytics department immediately, as the current owners believed the changes were too much, too soon. The Jeff Wilpon salary issue especially infuriated Cohen, Roberts said.

February 6, 2020, Thornton McEnery, New York Post: Jeff Wilpon’s power play derailed Mets sale to Steve Cohen (link)

In the end, it all came down to Jeff. Multiple sources have confirmed to The Post that the biggest unsolvable issue in the now-all-but-dead sale of the New York Mets to billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen was the role that team heir and COO Jeff Wilpon would have in the transition of power and beyond. At the late stages of his agreement to buy 80 percent of the franchise for $2.6 billion, Cohen was informed by Fred and Jeff Wilpon that their plan was for Jeff to maintain total operational control of the Mets throughout the pre-agreed-to five-year transition period and then maintain a senior role within the organization even after Cohen took over. While it is unclear whether the Wilpons, who said Thursday night they still plan to sell the team, sought to keep the COO title for Jeff after the transition, sources uniformly agree Jeff wanted to be part of the decision-making under Cohen’s ownership.

***

“This guy has never done anything in his life other than play a week of minor league baseball and work for his dad,” said the former Mets staffer. “The Mets are his life. He can’t do anything else.” By all accounts, Jeff’s current leadership of the organization is extremely hands-on. Every facet of the team, from baseball operations to marketing, is known to be under his purview. “He is the owner and the de facto general manager,” said one source close to the team. “He does not want to give that up, even if everyone around him does.”

February 6, 2020, Kevin Draper and James Wagner, the New York Times: A ‘Disappointed’ Steve Cohen Walks Away From Mets Purchase (link)

The Mets and Cohen announced in December they were negotiating a deal in which Cohen, who currently has an 8 percent stake in the team, would become the majority owner. The deal included an unusual provision that allowed Fred Wilpon, the managing owner of the Mets, and his son Jeff, the team’s chief operating officer, to remain in their roles for five years after the completion of the sale.

***

The potential sale to Cohen, according to interviews with a dozen people who are directly involved with the Mets and the Wilpon family, was driven by family members who are wary of having Jeff Wilpon in charge of such a valuable asset as his father and uncle step back from the franchise. They would rather take the huge profit from a sale. Fred Wilpon is 83 and his brother-in-law Saul Katz, who is also involved with the Mets, is 80.

Section II — Other Issues

Part II— The Bernie Madoff Scandal

December 11, 2008, SEC Press Release: SEC Charges Bernard L. Madoff for Multi-Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme (Link)

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Bernard L. Madoff and his investment firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, with securities fraud for a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme that he perpetrated on advisory clients of his firm. The SEC is seeking emergency relief for investors, including an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for the firm.

August 28, 2009, Ben Klayman, Reuters: Mets owners will sell due to Madoff losses: author (Link)

The owners of the New York Mets will be forced to sell the pro baseball team due to huge losses suffered in the Bernard Madoff swindle, the author of a book about the disgraced money manager said on Friday. The Wilpon family, led by Mets owner Fred Wilpon, lost about $700 million because of Madoff, according to Erin Arvedlund, author of “Too Good to Be True,” published earlier this month. Arvedlund said she does not know the terms of the Wilpons’ bank loans, but said the losses are steep enough that a sale of the baseball team is certain. “It’s qualified by when,” she said. “It’s possible they would have to sell by next year.”

December 7, 2010, Richard Sandomir, The New York Times: Trustee in Madoff Case Sues Owners of Mets (Link)

The trustee seeking assets for victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s huge fraud on Tuesday sued the Wilpon family, the owners of the Mets, which had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the global Ponzi scheme. In a news release, Irving H. Picard, the trustee for the Madoff victims, said that he was engaged in “good-faith negotiations” to settle the claims with Sterling and the other defendants.

January 30, 2011, Alison Cowan, The New York Times: For Mets Owners, a Costly Precursor (link)

For the owners of the Mets, their involvement with Bernard L. Madoff’s giant investment fraud has been embarrassing and costly. They are being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars, and have been accused of having been, at minimum, willfully ignorant of what Madoff was up to. But for the owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, it is not the first time they have had their names and personal fortunes roughed up in a Ponzi scheme. An investment firm started by the two men had to pay back nearly $13 million two years ago when a hedge fund run by the scion of a wealthy New Orleans family collapsed in what was then regarded as one of Wall Street’s more brazen frauds.

February 2, 2011, Matthew Futterman, The Wall Street Journal: Madoff-Hit Mets Seek Cash (Link)

The New York Mets hope to complete the sale of up to a 25% stake by the end of June, according to a person involved with the planned transaction, as the baseball team seeks funds to make up for a potential settlement related to investments with fraud figure Bernard Madoff. Mr. Wilpon has long said that he was victimized by his longtime friend Mr. Madoff, but it is now clear his exposure is far greater than he has previously revealed publicly.

February 4, 2011, Richard Sandomir, The New York Times: Madoff Profits Fueled Mets’ Empire, Lawsuit Says (Link)

A lawsuit brought by the trustee for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme contends that the owners of the Mets used the profits from their years of investing with Mr. Madoff to enhance their personal fortunes, enrich a number of family trusts and financially fuel their array of businesses — all in the face of repeated warnings that Mr. Madoff’s investment firm might have been a fraud. “There are thousands of victims of Madoff’s massive fraud,” the lawsuit states. “But Saul Katz is not one of them. Neither is Fred Wilpon.”

February 2, 2011, Mike Ozanian, Forbes: New York Mets Book Value: -$225 million (Link)

Now all this debt could very well come crashing down on Wilpon as a result of his involvement with Bernie Madoff. As I wrote earlier, the Mets and their lease to Citi Field are worth about $845 million. But there is $375 million of debt attached to the Mets franchise and $695 million tied to the ballpark, leaving these assets with an aggregate negative book value of $225 million. Thus if he needs to get a lot of cash from his sports assets Wilpon will have to unload his 60% stake in SportsNet NewYork, the regional sports network in which Comcast and Time Warner are also investors. The team’s 60% stake in SNY could fetch about $1.3 billion (the price would be substantially higher if it were not for $239 million in dividends the owners of SNY paid themselves with borrowed funds) and has proportionally $270 million of debt, giving the team’s stake a book value of $1,030 million. After netting out the negative book value of $225 million from the franchise and Citi Field, selling SNY could leave Wilpon with $805 million.

March 3, 2011, Ken Rosenthal, FOX Sports: Time For Wilpon to Part With the Mets (Link)

Saying that an owner should sell is just as problematic, particularly when the state of the owner’s finances is not entirely clear. But while people inside and outside of baseball tell me that it’s too early to rule out Fred Wilpon’s chances of retaining control of the Mets, I find it increasingly difficult to believe that he will remain viable as owner. For the good of the team, the good of the game and maybe even the good of his family, Wilpon needs to get out. I understand that Wilpon has no intention of yielding majority control. I also understand that he still can survive, if he finds the right minority investors, if he reaches a reasonable settlement with the trustee for the Madoff victims, if the Mets play better than expected and exceed their revenue projections. *** If Wilpon’s debts exceed his assets, then it’s game over; he must sell. Even if his net worth is still positive, he faces a severe cash crunch. His ability to secure loans — from both banks and baseball — is all but gone. The only way for him to generate cash is to sell off assets. And selling off real estate in the current economy would not achieve the desired returns. That leaves the Mets and SNY.

May 30, 2011, Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker: Madoff’s Curveball: Will Fred Wilpon Be Forced to Sell the Mets?(Link)

“There were thousands of victims of Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme,” Picard wrote. “But Saul Katz is not one of them. Neither is Fred Wilpon.” Instead, according to Picard, Wilpon and Katz were enablers, virtually Madoff’s accomplices in the vast crime, who “willfully turned a blind eye to every objective indicia of fraud before them.”

August 10, 2012, Howard Megdal, Politico: David Einhorn’s waiting game: Why the clock is ticking on the Wilpon era of the Mets (Link)

[T]hose differences have everything to do with JPMorgan Chase, to whom Wilpon’s group owed $500 million dollars borrowed against the team itself. With those loans coming due in June of 2014, JPMorgan Chase didn’t want to take the chance that Einhorn would get repaid first. As it stands now, JPMorgan Chase will receive $70 million of the $200 million Einhorn is paying Wilpon’s group, leaving the Wilpon bill with JPMorgan Chase at $430 million. The rest of Einhorn’s $200 million is already earmarked as well, with $30 million going to pay a loan from Major League Baseball, and the remaining $100 million set to pay off team operating losses of between $60–70 million in 2011 and assumed losses in 2012.

February 20, 2012, Richard Sandomir, The New York Times: Trustee Says Mets Saw Madoff as House Money (Link)

To the court-appointed trustee suing Katz and Fred Wilpon, the owners of the Mets, the Madoff “vig” was, quite simply, evidence of the men’s implausibly unyielding faith in Bernard L. Madoff’s steady investment returns, and the men’s dependence on those returns to help finance their businesses and deepen their personal wealth. The trustee, Irving H. Picard, asserts that Katz and Wilpon took out bank loans just to invest the borrowed money with Madoff, confident that their returns would be better than the interest on the loan. That was the vig at work. *** The vig was described by David Katz, one of Saul’s sons, during a sworn deposition in late 2010 when he was questioned about one way that the family company, Sterling Equities, made money with Madoff. “You borrow money at 5 percent and you’d make 10 percent,” David Katz said. “You’d make a ‘vig,’ as my father would say, on the Bernie investment.”

February 13, 2013, Andy Martino, New York Daily News: NY Mets owner Fred Wilpon talks dollars and cents as he attempts to explain the Amazin’ drop in payroll (Link)

Wilpon also provided a new explanation for the Mets’ austerity over the past several years, saying that the payroll contracted as ownership paid down debt. “That’s what made us tight,” Wilpon, 76, said. “We were still getting revenues, lots of revenues, but those revenues were going to pay off debt. That’s done.” The payroll took a historic dip from 2011 to 2012, from about $140 million to about $90 million. Wilpon anticipates a reversal of that trend, if there are players worth spending on.

September 28, 2014: Emma Span, Sports Illustrated: In final days, Bud Selig keeps turning blind eye to Mets’ mess (Link)

Nor is he concerned about the financial disaster that’s hamstrung the team for half a decade now. “Do I have any problem with the Mets’ finances? None,” Selig told reporters. None? If that’s true, it would make Selig just about the only person in New York of whom that can be said. Ever since Bernie Madoff’s scam collapsed and took the Mets’ finances with it, the Wilpons have struggled to stay afloat. The team’s payroll had plummeted from $143 million to roughly $85 million in the last four years, despite playing in the biggest and richest market in the country. At one point, the Mets had to borrow money from MLB just to make payroll. Earlier this year, the team refinanced a Bank of America loan that was coming due, buying themselves a little breathing room, but the Mets will have to do the same with more than half a billion in loans taken out against their television network, SNY, that are coming due next year. Attendance is quite understandably in the toilet, and that’s no coincidence, as Castergine’s lawsuit did not hesitate to point out.

December 21, 2015, Howard Megdal, Vocativ: The New York Mets Operate Like A Ponzi Scheme (Link)

Back in 2008, the team’s investments with Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff were discovered to be a fraud. More than $500 million in assets Wilpon and Katz thought they had — and had borrowed against — vanished. Accordingly, just to stay afloat, they needed to take out a $430 million loan against the team and $450 million against their majority ownership stake in SNY (a network started with a loan from Madoff, incidentally). Ever since, the Mets have managed to get by annually by diverting revenue from their baseball and television operation into the financing of debt. Prior to the refinancing of the past two years, the annual interest on these two loans plus debt balloon payments of more than $43 million have exceeded team payroll itself.

***

You can add in the settlement of the lawsuit brought by the trustee for the Bernie Madoff victims, Irving Picard. He sued Mets ownership, asserting they “knew or should have known” Madoff was a fraud. Ultimately, he settled with them once he determined that even if he won, Wilpon and Katz didn’t have the money to pay him. The settlement calls for payments in 2016 and 2017 that as of now come out to about $30 million each year.

October 24, 2015, Daniel Roberts, Fortune: How the Mets moved on from Madoff (Link)

How did Mets management turn things around? By making savvy financial decisions, often galling but necessary, in the wake of the Madoff disaster. First, in early 2012, Wilpon and Katz quietly managed to sell some 12 minority stakes in the team — 4% ownership each for $20 million apiece. (One of the buyers was hedge-fund titan Steven Cohen, who had reportedly considered the original 49% stake.) That brought the owners more than the $200 million they had hoped for from the 49% stake that no one wanted. It also allowed them to repay their $40 million loan from Bank of America and $25 million loan from Major League Baseball. In March of the same year, the Mets owners scored a major legal victory when Irving Picard agreed to a settlement that Wilpon and Katz could pay the trustee just $162 million, a fraction of the $1 billion he was seeking... …Indeed, this week Picard announced the coming allocation of another $1.5 billion to victims … this is more good news for Wilpon and Katz: They can deduct 57% of their Madoff losses ($178 million) from the $162 million in gains they owe the trustee, bringing their new debt to the trustee to $60.56 million, payable in two installments in 2016 and 2017.

Part III — Other Notable Incidents/Bad Player Relations

December 7, 2005, Dave Zirin, The Nation: The Silencing of Carlos Delgado (Link)

But now, Mets’ management is pushing Delgado back into the mold. The shame of this is that despite a guaranteed contract and support in the streets, Delgado isn’t pushing back. He said at the November 28 press conference announcing his trade to the Mets from the Florida Marlins, “The Mets have a policy that everybody should stand for ‘God Bless America’ and I will be there. I will not cause any distractions to the ballclub…. Just call me Employee Number 21.” And we saw him grin and bear it when Jeff Wilpon, son of Mets CEO and owner Fred Wilpon, said, “He’s going to have his own personal views, which he’s going to keep to himself.” If opposition to the war were a stock, Delgado bought high and is selling low. There couldn’t be a better time than now, a better place than New York City, or a better team than the Mets for Delgado to make his stand. Instead, he has to hear baby-boy Wilpon say to reporters, “Fred has asked and I’ve asked him to respect what the country wants to do.” One has to wonder what country the Wilpons are talking about. The latest polls show Bush and his war meeting with subterranean levels of support. Delgado could be an important voice in the effort to end it once and for all.

July 8, 2008, Kristie Ackert, New York Daily News: Ryan Church can’t shake concussions, heads back to disabled list (Link)

The Mets were strongly criticized for allowing Church to fly and continue to play after he suffered his second concussion in less than three months when his head collided with Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar’s knee on May 20. Church, who also suffered a concussion March 1 in a spring training game, complained of fatigue, dizziness and head pain after flying and playing in the high altitude in Denver after the second injury. He was placed on the disabled list on June 9 and returned June 29 against the Yankees. “I think like anything else in any situation, as time goes by, you become more cautious,” Minaya said.

Credit to Amazin Avenue for the above find.

January 13, 2010, Ben Shpigel, The New York Times: Surgery for Beltran Means He’s Likely Out Until May (Link)

But they did not hesitate to make their dissatisfaction known privately. High-ranking Mets officials contacted the commissioner’s office after they learned of the surgery, according to a person in baseball briefed on the matter. The Mets’ officials told the commissioner’s office that they were angry that Beltran had the surgery without their approval, the person said. The Mets wanted legal advice from the commissioner’s office regarding whether they could penalize Beltran for having the surgery without their approval. *** Beltran’s knee had bothered him for about a month before the Mets placed him on the disabled list June 22, when a magnetic resonance imaging exam showed that the bruise that was causing him problems had doubled in size.

January 15, 2010, Mike Puma, New York Post: Differing stories emerge around Beltran surgery (Link)

Boras claims he informed Wilpon and Minaya of the need for surgery and that neither offered any protest on Tuesday. The source familiar with the Mets’ chronology said Wilpon informed Boras that no surgery could be performed before Mets officials spoke with Altchek, in large part because the Mets were squeamish about various time frames given for recovery. However, Boras told The Post that Altchek gave verbal approval for the surgery to go ahead on Wednesday and promised to pass that along to Mets officials. Also, Boras said that a nurse for Steadman also informed Mets’ head trainer Ray Ramirez of the Wednesday surgery and received workman compensation forms to go ahead with the procedure. In addition, in his statement, Beltran said he talked to Minaya on Tuesday and “he did not ask me to wait, or to get another doctor’s opinion. He just wished me well. No one from the team raised any issue until Wednesday, after I was already in surgery. I do not know what else I could have done.”

February 1, 2010, Post Staff, New York Post: Putz: Mets didn’t give me physical (Link)