Business

Steve Cohen’s Mets bid ruled a wild pitch

Hedge-fund titan Steve Cohen may not have the inside track to buy a minority stake in the Mets after all.

He has quickly lost interest in buying a minority stake in the team, a source close to the situation told The Post.

Last week, Cohen, working with investment bank Goldman Sachs, was nearing a deal to buy a minority stake in the money-losing team for $200 million — and met with the team’s owners at a Greenwich steakhouse as the teamed weighed making him the preferred bidder.

Now, Sterling Equities, which owns the team, has gone back to bidders who had made offers it rejected and asked them to resubmit offers.

As a result of Cohen’s change of heart, Sterling owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz are not going to name a preferred bidder this week in time for the MLB owners’ meeting, as expected, sources said.

MLB, when it loaned the Mets $25 million in November, made the owners meeting a benchmark in which it expected the Mets to find a buyer.

Sterling in trying to raise $200 million for a minority stake, is hoping a suitor values the team at more than $800 million when factoring in its roughly $430 million in debt.

Cohen may be falling from his leadership position because MLB, which must approve his investment, has some questions about the reported federal probe into trading activity at Cohen’s SAC Capital, a source close to the situation said.

The Wall Street Journal last week reported that prosecutors are investigating trades in Cohen’s personal account at SAC Capital since he made trades recommended by former associates who have pleaded guilty to insider trading.

A Mets spokesman declined comment.