According to Variety and various other reports, Alex Rodriguez and his paramour Jennifer Lopez have retained JP Morgan Chase to raise enough capital to purchase the Mets.

For A-Rod, this makes a lot of sense. He grew up a Mets fan who loved Keith Hernandez and the 1986 Mets. He’s also had this rivalry with Derek Jeter where they’ve had to one-up one another. A-Rod purchasing the Mets would definitely one-up Jeter buying the Marlins.

Whether it’s ego, cache, love or the Mets, financial opportunity, or something different all together, we all know why A-Rod would want to buy the Mets.

What we don’t know is why out of everyone, the Wilpons would actually sell to A-Rod.

Back in 2000, it seemed a fait accompli A-Rod was going to be the Mets next shortstop. A-Rod wanted to be a Met. Bobby Valentine and the Mets players wanted him to be a Met. Mets fans wanted him to be a Met. Everyone wanted him to be a Met except for the people running the Mets.

When it came time to sign him, Steve Phillips advised the Mets were going to stick with Rey Ordonez. At that time, Phillips derided A-Rod with the nod infamous quote calling the superstar a “24-plus-one-man roster.” Years later, Phillips would admit the Mets didn’t have the intention of paying what was necessary to land him.

It’s hard to believe the same people who didn’t want to make A-Rod the face of their franchise and didn’t want to hand him the keys to the franchise would now sell their team to him. That’s even the case if A-Rod is part of the group offering the most money.

If that may seem far fetched, remember what happened with Steve Cohen. The $2.1 billion deal fell through partially because the Wilpons wanted total control of the team for five years. Again, the Wilpons let $2.1 billion slip through their fingers because they wanted control. This is more about just money for them.

Supposedly, they will now waive that five year control period. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not going to let their egos and hubris stand in the way from the best deal.

Maybe A-Rod comes up with the money. Maybe he joins a group which puts together the best offer. At the end of the day, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Wilpons will take it. After all, they wanted no part of him 20 years ago, and they wanted no part of Cohen and his $2.1 billion months ago.