Brodie Van Wagenen

New York Mets’ general manager Brodie Van Wagenen thanks healthcare officials battling against COVID-19

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The MLB season was supposed to be underway by now. However, the current coronavirus pandemic has changed everybody’s plans, and professional sports leagues of nearly all countries are currently on an indefinite break as each country tries to prevent the disease from spreading even more. That’s why the New York Mets aren’t playing right now. Them, along with the other 29 teams, are currently waiting and seeing how things unfold in the next few weeks.

MLB has reportedly discussed the possibility of playing a shortened season with some games without fans. However, the players’ association wants play to resume when there are no travel restrictions and when taking the field doesn’t represent a risk to anybody involved in the game. The earliest that the season can resume is mid-May, but that is unrealistic. July is looking like a possibility.

New York Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen, meanwhile, recently posted a message through the team’s Twitter page, supporting healthcare workers who are on the front lines battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The Mets’ GM statement:

“As we all stay home and follow the guidelines of our health officials, I just wanted to give a big thank you to the doctors, the nurses, and all of our healthcare workers for keeping us safe, for going to work, and fighting this pandemic on the front lines every day,” Van Wagenen said.

“But it’s those of you that are getting people healthy, getting people back home to their families, and putting yourselves at risk — sacrificing for the better good of our entire community. Thank you to all of you and let’s get through this together. Thanks,” he closed.

Some Mets’ players are training in their own houses, such as Marcus Stroman and his unique bullpen setting. Manager Luis Rojas said last week that he is frequently in touch with his players.

“Obviously, with what’s going on with the virus, it’s something we’ve never seen before, so we’re swimming in unfamiliar waters as far as being able to anticipate what’s going to happen in the future,” Mets manager Luis Rojas told MLB.com last week. “But as far as adjusting and adapting, like we’re all doing in our lives, I think [the baseball mentality] has helped us as a team.”

What are the Final Moves the New York Mets Can Make?

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The New York Mets and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen kept themselves busy throughout the offseason. They brought in two different managers, signed a few pitchers, and avoided arbitration with all nine of their eligible players. Spring Training is just about a week away, and the roster seems complete. These small additions can make enough of an impact to get the Mets over the hump.

Russell Martin is no longer the All-Star quality catcher he once was but is still a very serviceable backup. He is heading into his age-37 season, and while his best hitting days are far behind him, he is an excellent defensive catcher. If the Mets can bring in Martin on a minor league deal for Spring Training, it would be a low risk, high reward move. The catching core behind Wilson Ramos is Tomas Nido, Rene Rivera, and unproven prospects. If Ramos were to miss an extended period, Martin would be a good fit for the Mets.

Pat Neshek

Injuries have limited the veteran Pat Neshek during the last two seasons, and at 39-years old, there is no guarantee his body holds up again. Much like Martin, he would be a low-risk move who has a 2.82 career ERA. With the flame throwers the Mets have in the bullpen already, Neshek would round out the bullpen with a strong arm if he stays healthy.

Danny Salazar is a huge wild card the Mets can afford to take a risk on. Another minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training would allow the Mets to find out what they have in Salazar. Before injuries derailed his career, he was an All-Star in 2016. Salazar would be good insurance to have as a starter, but he looks more like a reliever at this point in his career. He can focus more on getting through one inning instead of 100 pitches. Salazar’s strikeout numbers already slotted well for a reliever, and he could add an extra strikeout artist to the bullpen.

New York Mets Are Hopeful in Jed Lowrie

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Jed Lowrie’s 2019 season for the New York Mets fell into the “typical Mets” column when it comes to free-agent signings. The 36-year old utility infielder only played in nine games during September and did not play a single out in the field. As he heads into the second and final year of his deal, the Mets hope to milk plenty of baseball out of him.

Lowrie is progressing nicely from his lower body ailments, which cost him a majority of his season. If you can think of a lower-body injury, chances are Lowrie had it at some point during 2019. Brodie Van Wagenen is confident Lowrie will make his way back to the field to contribute during Spring Training. Despite his vote of confidence, the praise for Lowrie could be a ploy to draw in teams to trade for him.

Will He Stay or Will He Go?

The Mets aired out their desire to move the switch-hitting fielder before opening day. Lowrie came off an All-Star campaign during the 2018 season. He hit .267/.353./.448 with a career-high 23 home runs and 99 RBIs. Lowrie 4.8 WAR would have been the fourth-highest on the 2019 Mets roster, trailing Jacob deGrom, Jeff McNeil, and Pete Alonso.

Lowrie’s revamped swing in 2018 allowed him to reach levels he never peaked at during his career. A significant concern for Lowrie is his age. He is going into his age-36 season and virtually spent a whole season on the sidelines. Lowrie’s swinging strike percentage had steadily increased from 6.3 in 2014 to 8.5 in 2018. During his short stint in 2019, it was at 13.9 percent.

Lowrie had plenty of rust on him, which leads to that number likely being an anomaly. Much like Yoenis Cespedes, whichever team has Lowrie will ease him back into action with plenty of care. The Mets offense will be dynamic enough without him where he will not have the pressure to contribute at an All-Star level again. Should Lowrie stay healthy, he will give the Mets a very deep bench which they have lacked for years.

New York Mets: What We Learned From the Hiring of Luis Rojas

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The Houston Astros cheating scandal put an unneeded variable in the future of former New York Mets manager Carlos Beltran. It brought questions on his credibility, and he eventually lost his job. General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen had to act quick and smart with two different owners overlooking every move.

The Wilpons are gradually taking a backseat to the day to day moves as Steve Cohen begins to assume majority ownership of the organization. While the transition is occurring, there is increasing uneasiness among the executives who worked under the Wilpon regime. Every executive is under the microscope as Cohen tries to revamp the future of the Mets.

Brodie on the Hot Seat?

Van Wagenen had a tough choice to make when selecting Luis Rojas. The decision was more than simply hiring someone to replace Beltran. If Van Wagenen hired someone they initially refused to interview, such as Dusty Baker or Buck Showalter, it would be a bad look on him. It shows Van Wagenen’s role as a puppet for the Wilpon’s instead of someone thinking on his own.

Cohen will not be the control freak the Wilpon’s have been since they assumed majority ownership. Van Wagenen is trying to stay above water with Cohen. New owners usually bring in their crew of guys and quickly moves on from the old regime. Van Wagenen has made plenty of bold moves during his two offseasons as GM. The leash is very short, and the only person who can extend it is Van Wagenen himself.

The hiring of Rojas is a good move bottom line. Van Wagenen had to stay inside of the organization with Spring Training quickly approaching. Rojas prior managing experience in the minors put him in line to become a future big-league manager. Almost every player on the roster has high praise for Rojas, and he has a good relationship with the young players he worked with in the minors.

Urgency to Win

The “win now” motto of Van Wagenen has never carried the significance it has now. His future with the Mets is on the shoulders of Rojas. No matter the outcome this season, he will have a job in 2021. Cohen is going to provide Van Wagenen with the freedom he did not have under the Wilpon’s.

Despite having freedom, the offseason is all but over. The only thing left as an evaluator of Van Wagenen will be the success the Mets have in 2020. If the season starts the same way 2019 did, it is hard to see Van Wagenen making it to the All-Star break.

Mets: Cohen Could Have Influence on New Managerial Hire

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With the Wilpons on their way out as the owners of the New York Mets, the shot-calling will soon be passed to incoming owner Steve Cohen, the billionaire hedge-fund mogul who is in the process of buying out the Sterling Equities group – Fred Wilpon and his son, Jeff and brother-in-law Saul Katz.

That authority appears to be shifting sooner than people may have thought. The Mets are in the throes of hiring a new manager after Carlos Beltran stepped aside due to his role in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.

Cohen may not weigh in on the decision, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post, but the Mets’ brass is keeping Cohen in mind when making the hire.

The fear of team executives that Cohen would question the hiring of somebody who wasn’t considered for the job when Mickey Callaway was fired in October (veterans such as Dusty Baker and Buck Showalter, among others, weren’t interviewed) had tilted the search in quality control coach Luis Rojas’ favor as of Monday. Not only did Rojas receive multiple interviews for the job during the last managerial search, he would represent continuity, less than three weeks before pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to Port St. Lucie, Fla., for spring training.

Not all of the candidates interviewed last year are available at the moment. Derek Shelton was hired by San Diego but Baker, Showalter, Rojas and Eduardo Perez are still without teams. It would be wise for general manager Brodie Van Wagenen to hire a candidate that is more of a sure thing than a lark at this point. Cohen is watching.

 

Should the New York Mets Fire Brodie Van Wagenen?

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When it was announced the new GM of the New York Mets would be Brodie Van Wagenen, agent Robert current Mets players Jacob deGrom and Yoenis Cespedes, some legitimate questions arose. And I think, with how the Mets brought Cespedes to the table to restructure his contract, we ought to re-examine those questions that could lead to major trouble for the team should Brodie go unchecked.

Conflicts of Interest

As reported by Sheryl Ring, Esq., Van Wagenen was Cespedes’s agent when he signed his $110 million contracts in 2016. Van Wagenen’s approach to convincing the Wilpon’s “This is the right move,” was to bring in headlines from the papers. The tact was to show Cespedes “puts butts in seats”. So Van Wagenen was there to work out every minute detail of the wording in the contract. Fast forward a few years, Van Wagenen is GM, Cespedes is hurt in an encounter with a wild boar, and Van Wagenen stops paying Cespedes to get him to come in and rework his contract. Or if Van Wagenen used the language he saw put into the contract as the basis for the grievance he filed with MLB, which he said he wouldn’t do because of conflict of interest, it seems Van Wagenen needs to have reigned in a bit for the sake of the Mets.

Collusion

Van Wagenen is a former agent with many former clients still playing. What happens if it’s revealed that he used his relationships with these players to lure them over to the Mets? The Clippers got in trouble for this with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George over this, what would stop Rob Manfred from following Adam Silver’s lead?

ESPN analyst, Jessica Mendoza, still broadcasts for ESPN but is a front-office employee under Van Wagenen. Mendoza is tasked with evaluating player talent, while also needing to provide color commentary ON THE TEAM SHE WORKS FOR! Van Wagenen could very easily use Houstonian tricks to pry insider info from Mendoza, who travels the country for her job, to try and get an early edge on the other GM’s in baseball, creating problems not only for the Mets but Mendoza and ESPN.

The Mets need to think long and hard about what Van Wagenen is doing, and if it’ll be worth getting punished by baseball for at a later date.

Mets Continue to Augment Farm System, Scouting Department

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The strength of a baseball franchise is rooted in it’s farm system and scouting department and the New York Mets are going through a transformation in both areas under general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and his assistant, Allard Baird.

They have added a new manager – Reid Brignac – at their Columbia, South Carolina affiliate and brought back their former scouting director Chad McDonald. Brignac replaces Pedro Lopez at Columbia.

“I’m extremely eager to start the next chapter of my baseball career,” said Brignac. “Fans can expect an energetic, competitive team that will hustle, play hard and play the game the right way. At this level, we will help build the character of these young men, both on and off the field.”

Brignac, 33, played for six teams in his nine-year major league career that included a stop with the Yankees that spanned from 2008-2016. He has no managerial experience but that seems to be the trend these days in the business.

McDonald is a big fish the Mets were fortunate to land. He should bolster the scouting ranks immediately.

From Metsmerized:

MacDonald’s first stint with the Mets lasted only one year. He would leave the Mets to become the San Diego Padres vice president/assistant general manager of player personnel. Three years later, he was hired as the Atlanta Braves special assistant to the general manager.

 

During his time with the Braves, the organization has acquired a wealth of impressive young talent including players like Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, and Mike Soroka.

Not a bad resume. You can say what you want about ownership and Van Wagenen but they are brining in top people in areas where it counts. They recently hired Brian Schneider to manage at AAA Syracuse and Lorenzo Bundy will take over at AA Binghamton. This week the team also announced that Ed Blankmeyer will assume the managerial role with the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Have the Mets Really Gotten Better This Offseason?

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The New York Mets won 86 games last season despite being their own worst enemy. They had the Cy Young Award winner (Jacob deGrom) and the Rookie of the Year in Pete Alonso who also was the MLB leader in home runs, shattering the rookie record in the process.

Their bullpen, to which general manager Brodie Van Wagenen went to great lengths to repair and bolster, did them in, blowing 27 saves. They’ve made some strides to fix that, mainly by believing Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia will have bounce back seasons and signing former Yankees all star Dellin Betances.

But the team has more issues than the bullpen. It has a roster that is lopsided with infielders and has no true centerfielder. My old colleague at SNY, Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog spoke to a front office evaluator about if he felt the Mets did enough this offseason to take the team to the next level.

“They’re strong on paper,” a front office talent evaluator told Cerrone. “They do have more question marks than most teams, though, including Pete Alonso. I expect he’ll be fine, but a lot can throw off a second season.”

Another issue for incoming manager Carlos Beltran and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner will be the middle and back of the starting rotation, which was weakened by the loss of Zack Wheeler in free agency.

“Without Wheeler, and not knowing how to project (Rick) Porcello, Noah Syndergaard will dictate a lot of their success,” the same person added. “I’ve always liked Steven Matz, but he can be very hit or miss. I just think Syndergaard tips their scale one way or the other.”

The Mets might have enough offense to get them through the day-to-day with Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Amed Rosario, Michael Conforto and J.D. Davis in the lineup but will need steady contributions from veterans Robinson Cano and Wilson Ramos. A full season out of Brandon Nimmo would go a long way, too.

But it will ultimately come down to the pitching and the troubled defense, which is the result of favoring offense over defense.

Mets’ Bullpen Plan for 2020? Standing Pat

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The New York Mets biggest issue in 2019 was their inconsistent bullpen, the one they thought they had rebuilt last offseason. The leaky pen cost them a chance at the postseason and this winter, it is widely predicted they would make that their priority.

Think again. Instead of acquiring bullpen help, they went and backfilled their starting rotation with two reclamation projects (Rick Porcello, Michael Wacha) and are now talking about in-house solutions in the pen.

The starting rotation may have lost Zack Wheeler to free agency but still has a solid core four in Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman and Steven Matz. They are banking that one of the two new additions will hit and become their fifth starter. That means the Mets won’t have to promote Seth Lugo or Robert Gsellman from the bullpen, which obviously makes it sturdier.

They re-signed Brad Brach this week as well to add to the mix of Lugo, Gsellman, Justin Wilson, Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia and either Wacha or Porcello.

“We can bolster our bullpen by having Lugo and Gsellman now go back to the bullpen along with Brach if that’s how it shakes out in spring training,” Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen said. “It’s a good position to be in, and we will sort of adjust on the fly in terms of what other opportunities come in.”

The Mets may still make a trade for a reliever. They have some spare parts on their roster at other positions in J.D. Davis, Jed Lowrie and Dominic Smith that teams could find interest in. There are also several free agents such as Houston’s Will Harris or the Yankees’ Dellin Betances but Van Wagenen, who has little salary flexibility may not want to go in that direction.

If you go by the rule of thumb where relievers have on alternating solid seasons, then Diaz and Familia are due bounceback seasons .

 

 

New York Mets: Winter Meetings End With More Work to be Done

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As the winter meetings come to a close, the New York Mets were in the middle of the pack when it came to making moves. The Yankees and Angels came out as big winners, while the Mets opted to add depth pieces. Now that we move towards 2020, what is next move for Brodie Van Wagenen?

The additions of Michael Wacha and Rick Porcello were low risk, high reward moves, but that has become the norm under Van Wagenen. Some have panned out, but they are still a couple of pieces away from becoming a top tier contender in the NL East. The moves to add starters have filled a part of their needs, but what else is left?

Who Else is There to Sign?

The most significant piece for the Mets to sign Dellin Betances to solidify their rotation. Should they sign him, the Mets have the potential to possess one of the most dominant bullpens in baseball. Of course, we are playing the hoping game but stick with it here. A bullpen of Edwin Diaz, Seth Lugo, Dellin Betances, Jeurys Familia, Brad Brach, Justin Wilson, Robert Gsellman is loaded with potential.

We have to assume Diaz and Familia were no where near the pitchers they were last year and are due for a bounce-back in 2020. Plus, this is a bullpen that is without one of the six starting pitchers that will head to the pen.

The other need should still be an everyday center fielder. Jake Marisnick was assumed to be the every day center fielder, but he will be nothing more than a Juan Lagares replacement. His role should be to replace either Michael Conforto or Brandon Nimmo as a defensive replacement in center field.

Get Marte or Get More Pitching

Starling Marte should be the man they want to play center field everyday. The Mets have the pieces in place to make the trade, but should the Mets hesitate to pull the trigger; they should have another plan in place. If they unload Jed Lowrie’s contract, they should aim to bolster their pitching staff with major league ready arms. It does not matter whether they start or relieve; the options have to be available.

The Mets were relatively lucky with health in their pitching staff in 2019. They cannot depend on the same health and should plan for the worst. If the Mets can limit guys like Walker Lockett and Drew Gagnon from making 27 combined appearances and cut that number in half, it will put the team in a much better position to contend in 2020.