Sandy Alderson will return to the New York Mets as team president if Steve Cohen’s $2.42 billion bid to buy the club is approved, Cohen said Thursday morning.
Alderson left the Mets as general manager in July 2018 because of a recurrence of cancer. He has been battling the disease for a number of years.
“If I am fortunate enough to be approved by Major League Baseball as the next owner of this iconic franchise, Sandy Alderson will become president of the New York Mets and will oversee all Mets baseball and business operations,” Cohen said in statement.
“Sandy is an accomplished and respected baseball executive who shares my philosophy of building an organization and a team the right way. I am excited to have Sandy in a key leadership role with the Mets if my purchase of the team is approved.”
Cohen’s bid was greenlit by current owner Fred Wilpon two weeks ago and is being vetted by Major League Baseball’s ownership committee. If approved, it will go on from there to the executive council and then to a necessary vote of approval from 75% of the 30 owners. That process is not expected to be completed until the owners meet in November.
Alderson, who also ran baseball operations for the Oakland A’s and San Diego Padres, was a high-ranking official in the commissioner’s office before leaving to join the Padres in 2005. Under Alderson, the Padres made the playoffs in 2005 and ’06, which was their last appearance until this season.
Alderson’s first tenure with the Mets was highlighted by a trip to the 2015 World Series, where they lost to the Kansas City Royals in five games. Shortly afterward he had his first bought with cancer.
The Mets were in a downturn at the time Alderson ultimately left.
“With respect to the future, I would say two things: One is, notwithstanding the good prognosis, my health is an uncertainty going forward,” Alderson said at the time. “And secondly, if I were to look at it on the merits, I’m not sure coming back is warranted.”
He was replaced as GM by former agent Brodie Van Wagenen, whose future may now be in question.
Since Alderson’s recovery he returned to the A’s as a consultant to Billy Beane, his one-time prodigy and current executive vice president of baseball operations.
