Look out, below! The looming hammer of Steve Cohen might signal the end of the Yankees' default dominance in NYC

Yesterday, the prospective Bond-villain and super-billionaire, Steven Cohen, ripped the sheets away from his latest toy - the perpetual, also-ran atrocity known as the New York Mets. 

Today, the Mets front office is out of work. And the Yankiverse is about to shake. 

Just eight days ago, Cohen won MLB approval to join the secret brotherhood of MLB owners, an evil cult worthy of its own Qanon conspiracy. In his final confirmation tally, four owners voted against him. His money mills - Point72Asset Management and SAC Capital Partners - have faced claims of sex discrimination and insider trading. Cohen has never been indicted - (the bar of righteousness these days is rather low, wouldn't you say?) - but to grease the fly wheels of justice, his companies have paid fines of $1.8 billion.

So, yesterday, he brought down the hammer. Gone are five Mets front office gerbils, including GM Brode Van Wagenen. Under Cohen, the Mets will be run by the venerable management specter, Sandy Alderson, an ex-Marine who in 37 years has one World Series ring - courtesy of the 1989 A's. 

Some Yank fans will pooh-pooh this threat. The Mets are the Mehts, they'll say, and a Met is a Met is a Meh. 

I say, Katie, bar the door.  Says Tyler Kepner in today's Gray Lady:  

Sandy Alderson, the Mets’ former general manager and new team president, will hire a fresh front-office team supported by not just Cohen’s billions, but also his drive. At a time when other owners will show caution after a season without ticket sales, the Mets are positioned to spend the way they rarely did after the Bernard L. Madoff scandal ravaged the Wilpon family finances.

Alderson knows both NYC and the Mets, which he ran between 2010 and 2018. He is the baseball equivalent of Leon Paneta, a backroom insider who only seems to occasionally disappear, but then always bobs to the surface in a new role. Under Alderson, the Mets went to a World Series, something the Yanks failed to do during that period. He is no fool, and he is now backed by one of the richest owners in American sports.

Cohen's first strike has brought cheers from long-suffering Mets fans. His next one will probably happen in the free agent market, where he won't be hobbled by luxury taxes, money shortages or PTSD from past mistakes. At a time when wonky Hal Steinbrenner may seek to cut payroll, the Mets will be looking to sign marquee stars. 

As evidenced by the Back Page Races on the left side of this site, the Yankees have ruled the zeitgeist of Gotham for the last several years. That era about to end. That doesn't mean the Yankees cannot win. But the stakes of losing, or of perpetually chasing second place, will never be greater.