Sandy Alderson will be returning to the New York Mets as the team's president under new owner Steve Cohen.

The deal is contingent on the sale of the Mets from the Wilpon and Katz families to Cohen being approved by Major League Baseball club owners. At least 23 of the 30 owners will need to approve the transaction.

"If I am fortunate enough to be approved by Major League Baseball as the next owner of this iconic franchise, Sandy Alderson will become president of the New York Mets and will oversee all Mets baseball and business operations," Cohen said Thursday in a statement obtained by the New York Post.

"Sandy is an accomplished and respected baseball executive who shares my philosophy of building an organization and a team the right way. I am excited to have Sandy in a key leadership role with the Mets if my purchase of the team is approved."

Alderson, 72, served as general manager of the Mets from 2010 to 2018. He was diagnosed with cancer at the end of the 2015 season and had surgery, and he took a leave of absence in June 2018 after announcing his cancer had returned, and he said he did not deserve to return because of the team's poor record.

The Mets received word from the New York Yankees at a high executive level that Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was not available to them, sources told ESPN's Buster Olney on Thursday.

Alderson was hired by the Oakland Athletics in January 2019 as senior adviser to baseball operations. Alderson previously spent 17 seasons with the Athletics, including serving as the team's vice president of baseball operations while the A's won the 1989 World Series during a run of three consecutive American League titles (1988 to 1990).