Steve Cohen In, Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez Out in bid to buy Mets

Billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen is now the leading candidate to buy the New York Mets from the Wilpon family.

Mets Getting New Owner Soon? 

The New York Mets are one step closer to having a new owner. With Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez withdrawing their bid to buy the team, billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen has reemerged as the top candidate to buy the franchise from the Wilpon family.

Fred Wilpon has owned the New York franchise since 1986 and took over full control in 2002. Cohen and the Wilpons seemed close to a deal roughly two years ago but that deal fell apart at the last minute when Cohen wouldn’t agree to keep Jeff Wilpon, Fred’s son, as the Chief Operating Officer for five years. 

Several reports indicate Cohen's bid to buy the franchise is for $2 billion while A-Rod and J-Lo's bid was near $1.7 billion.

Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

NBA and NHL Playoff Action

There’s some great playoff action tonight in both the NBA and NHL. Starting things off is Game 1 in the Eastern Conference semi-finals between the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks and Game 6 in the West between the Rockets and Thunder. Houston leads that series 3-2 and would advance to the Western Conference Semis with a win tonight. 

Over to the NHL where both the Avalanche and Bruins both need a win to stay alive in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Colorado trails the Stars 3-1 in their best of seven series while Boston is behind 3-1 against the Tampa Bay. SI’s gambling analyst Roy Larkin is 18 and 4 in his last 22 bets. That red hot gambling advice can be found by becoming a member of SI’s Fantasy Pro.

Daily Business Update

According to Johns Hopkins, there are over 25.2 million cases of the virus worldwide, with over 847,000 deaths. The U.S. has surpassed 6 million cases with over 183,000 deaths. 

GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology have begun testing their experimental antibody on COVID-19 patients in the early stage. The long-acting single injection will be tested on cases that are recently diagnosed, high-risk to test its ability to prevent hospitalization. Back in April, GSK invested $250 in Vir.Eli Lilly and abCellera and Regeneron and Roche are also testing their antibody treatments. To sum it up: the antibody is designed to keep the virus from invading cells and it will recruit immune cells to kill infected cells, which replicate the virus. For GSK, the drug testing will expand to 1,300 patients globally from 20 U.S. patients and the company says that results could be available by the end of the year with complete results in the first quarter of 2021 if all goes well. As a reminder, GSK and Sanofi are developing a vaccine together.

TheStreet's Katherine Ross contributed to this report.