There’s always a bit of drama that follows the Mets, even when things are looking up.
Over the last year alone, the Mets fired Carlos Beltran before he even managed a game for his role in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, saw an original sale to Steve Cohen collapse, lost Yoenis Cespedes in Atlanta before he opted out of the 2020 season, saw Cohen re-emerge to pry the team away from the clutches of Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, fire general manager Jared Porter 37 days after his hiring for lewd and explicit texts sent to a female reporter back in 2016, and now this.
Cohen fell under fire last week when small investors on the website, Reddit, took on the short sellers of GameStop and other shares, proceeding to drive up the price and send Wall Street into disarray.
While Cohen is not believed to be a short seller, he did supply Melvin Capital — who held a large short position in GameStop — with $750 million to close and survive massive losses.
Things only grew worse when Robinhood — which is an app to help novice investors navigate the market — restricted users from purchasing and trading GameStop and AMC stocks.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of the popular sports blog Barstool Sports, proceeded to go after Cohen on social media with baseless accusations that he was linked with Robinhood and altering the stock market to save his investment and his Wall Street friends.
A source close to the Mets owner’s camp and Cohen himself denied any such connections, with the source adding that Cohen had “nothing to do with Robinhood.”
“It’s an app, not a bank with fiduciary responsibilities.”
The fallout saw a large chunk of his 2.2 million followers go after Cohen and his family on social media, prompting the 64-year-old to delete a Twitter account that provided rare-seen clarity from a Major League Baseball club owner.
“I’ve really enjoyed the back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter which was unfortunately overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that led to our family getting personal threats,” Cohen released in a statement on Saturday. “So I’m going to take a break for now. We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and remain committed to doing that.
“I love our team, this community, and our fans, who are the best in baseball. Bottom line is that this week’s events in no way affect our resources and drive to put a championship team on the field.”
The source confirmed with amNewYork Metro that any losses experienced by Cohen’s hedge fund, Point72, would not impact the operations of the Mets. Multiple reports in recent days have tabbed Cohen with seeing losses of nearly 15% at his firm.
