Alex Rodriguez Reveals Vision had he Purchased New York Mets
Once upon a time, Alex Rodriguez was competing with Steve Cohen in a bidding war to purchase the New York Mets.
But Rodriguez, and now ex-fiancee Jennifer Lopez, couldn't come close to Cohen's $2.4 million bid. Cohen eventually bought the Mets for this massive figure in October 2020.
For the first time since the Mets sale, A-Rod opened up about his vision had he wound up purchasing the team. And according to the ex-Yankees World Series Champion and former 14-time All-Star, he and Cohen had similar blueprints.
“It’s good to know that (Cohen and I) had a lot of similar thoughts in thinking about analytics and leadership,” Rodriguez told Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman on The New York Post's baseball podcast: The Show. “Buck Showalter was gonna be my guy. David Cone would’ve been my pitching coach. I would’ve definitely had Al Leiter involved.”
Rodriguez, 46, would've replaced young budding pitching coach Jeremy Hefner with Cone, who had a successful big-league career and is known for his in-depth knowledge regarding the art of pitching. He also wanted to make a run at luring Mets legend Keith Hernandez, who was Rodriguez's favorite player growing up, out of the broadcast booth and back into the dugout. Though, this plan seems like it would've been extremely unlikely.
Although Rodriguez revealed that Showalter would've been his managerial hire, he did not get into his hypothetical major league personnel strategy.
He also has zero regrets about his pursuit of purchasing the Mets, despite losing out to Cohen.
“For me, personally speaking, it was a very worthwhile journey and a very educational process,” Rodriguez said. “I’m glad I did it. I think we were in the running. I think we were second winners.”
After losing out on buying the Mets, Rodriguez and deep-pocketed entrepreneur Marc Lore teamed up to purchase the Minnesota Timberwolves for $1.5 billion in 2021.
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