Wilpon's investment firm Sterling Equities has agreed to pay $180M to buy back a 12% stake in the MetsGETTY IMAGES
Mets Chair & CEO Fred Wilpon is "poised to enlarge his majority Mets stake in a deal that values the struggling team" at roughly $1.5B, according to Josh Kosman of the N.Y. POST. Sources said that Wilpon's investment firm Sterling Equities has "agreed to pay" roughly $180M to "buy back" about a 12% stake in the Mets from Comcast and Charter Communications, owner of the Spectrum network. Sources added that Comcast and Charter -- which acquired the stake in '12 from the Wilpons, when the family was "scrambling to raise cash after losing a fortune on the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme -- have been trying to unload the stake since last summer." Sources said that a "major stumbling block" has been the likelihood that Wilpon will pass control of the team to his son, COO Jeff Wilpon, who has been "blasted by critics as meddlesome and tightfisted." A source said that Sterling Equities "likely paid for the stake in cash as there are rules limiting the amount of debt an owner can put on a team." The Wilpons last summer were "said to be unlikely to buy back the stakes" (N.Y. POST, 3/25).
SOUNDING OFF: The Mets are planning to finish their Spring Training with a workout at the Carrier Dome, and Mets P Noah Syndergaard said that he "isn't sure what the point of the trip is and that he'd rather the team went back" to N.Y. Syndergaard: "You'd think we'd go to New York to get, as adults, our things and our affairs in order. But no, we've got to go to Syracuse first." He added, "I mean, I'm sure the amenities in Syracuse aren't the best for a Major League Baseball team to go up there and have one last workout before the regular season starts. But those kinds of decisions are above my pay grade" (Syracuse POST-STANDARD, 3/25). In New Jersey, Andy Vasquez notes after yesterday's game in Port St. Lucie, the Mets "took a three-hour bus ride" to Sarasota to face the Orioles in their Spring Training finale today. The Mets will then "fly from Sarasota to Syracuse for Tuesday's workout, which will help to promote the team's new Triple-A affiliate there, and then to Washington where they'll take Wednesday off" before Opening Day on Thursday. Syndergaard said that his teammates are "'absolutely' upset about the trip to Syracuse and that they let the organization know about it" (Bergen RECORD, 3/25).
