The New York Mets have reached an agreement to buy the Syracuse Chiefs and make the International League baseball team its top minor league affiliate, according to two sources briefed about the deal.

Under terms of the agreement, the Mets will acquire ownership of the Triple-A Chiefs from the Community Baseball Club of Central New York Inc., and continue to play its games at NBT Bank Stadium starting in 2019, the sources said.

The Mets would own and operate the Syracuse Chiefs, the sources said, bringing in the resources necessary to build a franchise that struggled in recent years with its finances.

The deal would end almost six decades of community ownership of the Syracuse Chiefs, dating back to 1961, and cut off the team's nine-year affiliation with the World Series-contending Washington Nationals.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon and Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney plan to announce the agreement Tuesday afternoon at NBT Bank Stadium, one source said.

The offer was approved Monday morning by the executive board of directors of the Community Baseball Club on Central New York, which owns the majority shares of the team, the sources said. The remaining public shareholders will be asked to approve the deal beginning Tuesday.

The sources did not know how much the Mets agreed to pay for the team, or how much would be paid per share. The Chiefs previously disclosed in 2013 that the team has about 4,000 shareholders who hold a combined 15,857 shares.

Bill Dutch, president of the Community Baseball Club of Central New York, declined to comment Monday afternoon when asked about the sale.

"Right now, the board is not prepared to make any comments," Dutch told syracuse.com. "If and when the time comes, there will be a press release."

Jason Smorol, the team's general manager, could not be reached for comment.

The Chiefs have been the top Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals since 2009. Prior to that, Syracuse partnered with the Toronto Blue Jays for 31 years.

The agreement with the Washington Nationals ends after the 2018 season. Likewise, the New York Mets will be able to leave their deal with Triple-A Las Vegas after the 2018 season. The Las Vegas team has criticized the management of the 34-year-old ballpark in Las Vegas, citing its deteriorating condition.

The Mets have tried since 2009 to consolidate their minor league teams in New York state and promote their brand statewide. The team's Double-A affiliate is the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. The Mets also briefly had their Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo at the start of the decade, but did not own and operate the team.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to convince the Wilpon family to move their Triple-A team to Syracuse in 2009, only to see the team decide on Buffalo instead.

Schumer said Monday the Syracuse-Mets marriage makes sense.

"With Syracuse's rich history and love of baseball, the Mets purchasing the Syracuse Chiefs is a grand slam for the entire community," Schumer said.

Cuomo's office would not confirm the deal, but issued a statement of support from the governor Monday night. "This is a home run that ensures the Chiefs stay right where they belong while the next generation of 'amazin' greats is fostered right here in Central New York," Cuomo said.

The Chiefs were in danger of bankruptcy five seasons ago, after the team lost nearly $1 million in 2013. The franchise's board of directors accepted a proposal from a group that included Dutch to revamp the team's leadership. That move ousted long-time general manager John Simone.

That new group, Chiefs First LLC, pledged over a period of time to loan the team $500,000 in exchange for the gradual acquisition of 600 shares of stock.

Under Smorol's leadership as GM, the team cut the deficit to $241,584 in 2014 and $169,011 in 2015. The team finally turned a profit of $67,108 in 2016.

This year, Syracuse's average home attendance was 4,636 fans for an overall total at 292,054. That figure represents an 11.5 percent increase over 2016's average of 4,158.

That's the largest leap in attendance since NBT Bank Stadium opened in 1997 (then known as P&C Stadium), when the average attendance jumped 27 percent (from 4,694 in 1996 to 5,982).

-Staff Writer Lindsay Kramer contributed to this report.

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Editor's note: The company that operates Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard owns shares in the Syracuse Chiefs, purchased in the 1960s. The media company's chairman, Stephen A. Rogers, sits on the Chiefs' board of directors.