Billionaire Steve Cohen's purchase of the New York Mets from the Wilpon family was finalized on Friday morning.
Within hours, Cohen has already made sweeping changes in the baseball operations department.
The Mets have parted ways with former general manager Brodie Van Wagenen as well as special assistant Omar Minaya, among others, per MLB.com's Anthony DiComo.
BREAKING: Brodie Van Wagenen, Omar Minaya, Allard Baird, Adam Guttridge and Jared Banner are all leaving the Mets.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) November 6, 2020
The rapidness of the changes is surprising. But the changes themselves are not all that shocking.
There had been speculation for months Cohen would reinstall Sandy Alderson as the primary decision-maker if Cohen's bid for ownership was approved.
Indeed, the owners approved Cohen's bid at the end of October. Just one week later, the complexion of New York's front office has changed.
Alderson released a statement thanking the departing members for their contributions to the team, singling out Minaya in particular:
“I want to thank Brodie, Allard, Adam and Jared for their contributions over the last two years,” Alderson said, via Steve Gelbs of SNY. “I especially want to thank Omar for his long and distinguished service to the Mets in many important capacities.”
Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported Alderson would not have come on board as Mets president without full authority to restructure the team's baseball operations department.
Word within the game was Alderson was not taking the job as #Mets president under Cohen without the power to restructure how he saw fit. He clearly wants a clean start with his people running baseball operations.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) November 6, 2020
While the front office has been cleaned out, manager Luis Rojas—who was appointed by Van Wagenen—might still be safe. Sherman noted Alderson has familiarity with Rojas, who has been in the organization for years, coaching in the minors for New York before his big-league promotion.
Changes are most certainly afoot in Queens, and the Mets—with the backing of Cohen's massive financial portfolio—could be gearing up for a huge offseason at a time MLB franchises are widely expected to be thrifty or reduce payroll.
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