Could be BOTH - made $48M on redeemed "real" taxable profits, AND lost $750M in unrealized "paper" loss.
Hypothetically, they could have invested $200M and has taken out, at any one time or over the years, $248M, realizing $48M in tangible profit, leaving the rest to grow to $1B, on paper (which was not worth the paper the Madoff statements were printed on).
That would leave them $1B - $248M or about $750M of "paper loss".
The $48M gain is the only thing that matters to Picard for clawback.
The problem for Wilpons could come if they tried to "monetize" their Madoff account, without withdrawing the funds from Maddoff - a typical strategy in corporate and wealth management to minimize taxes and increase leverage, using relatively cheap and tax-write-off debt.
If they took loans (let's say $500M) against their Madoff portfolio as a collateral, they would be on the hook for these loans, without enough liquid capital to pay back. Depending on how much they are in debt may decide how much of the Mets they may have to sell / collateralize.
As I've said before, this Madoff mess will go on for years. But it's nowhere near the damage that the Obama Pelosi Reid A--H---s network has done in recent years, for generations to come.
You got that right.