Embattled Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen discussed his team’s dire straits today with the media. Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News and Mike Puma of the New York Post were among those to round up the choicest quotes. MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola approached it from a bit of a different perspective, focusing on the forward-looking aspects of Van Wagenen’s chat.
With the Mets all but buried in the standings, Van Wagenen faced the music on his “come get us” pre-season bravado with respect to the rest of the NL East contenders. As he put it today, “they came and got us.”
That may put a satisfactory wrap on a memorable quote, though it also glosses over some of the actual causes of the Mets’ failings by suggesting their rivals simply got the better of them. Van Wagenen’s claim that the club was the favorite in the division wasn’t just an attention-grabbing statement worthy of skepticism; it also seemingly represented a key driving factor for the team’s decisionmaking over his first offseason at the helm.
Van Wagenen did accept blame for how things have gone, though he did so in a curious manner, deflecting even as he absorbed culpability. “I wouldn’t want to put the blame on players or coaches or scouts or anybody of that matter,” he said, “but I can tell you that this team we built was one of unified vision and it hasn’t worked, so I accept my responsibility in that capacity as well.” Likewise, he seemingly minimized the role of big-picture roster-building when he cited a failure to “do enough of the little things right as a team.”
At the end of the day, the top roster-building decisionmakers have to own their missteps. There are quite often intervening factors that do help explain unanticipated struggles, to be sure. But it’s hard to argue that unforeseeable or simply unlucky happenings have really driven the disaster in Queens this season — Jed Lowrie aside, at least. (The oft-injured veteran has yet to play. He is now said to be dealing with a calf injury, with no apparent target for a return.)
The single major blunder, to this point, has been Van Wagenen’s signature trade — the swap that brought in ace closer Edwin Diaz and highly compensated veteran Robinson Cano. It seemed a highly questionable decision at the time, albeit one that would almost certainly deliver short-term rewards. Instead, both players have struggled mightily, and rather unexpectedly, even as the key prospects sent in the trade have prospered.
“You have to look at where we were and where we are now,” Van Wagenen said when asked whether he has had second thoughts on the deal. He noted that Diaz and Cano still have the remainder of the season to “change the narrative.”
Once again, this explanation seems to miss the mark. The real problem isn’t (just) the ensuing struggles of those players. It’s the series of conceptual failings that led to the deal in the first place. First, the deal was rough for the Mets from a value standpoint, given the huge amount of Cano’s contract the team absorbed. Even assuming that away, it was legitimately questionable whether the Mets had a strong enough roster to justify that kind of outlay for such clearly win-now players (a closer and an aging second baseman). Beyond all that, there were quite possibly better ways to utilize the team’s resources — a dedicated pursuit of Manny Machado, increased offer to Yasmani Grandal, etc. — even in a scenario in which the team pushed for contention.
The point here isn’t to lay on the blame. Van Wagenen had a distinctly difficult task as an agent-turned-GM who was trying (with limited resources) to turn around a roster that had struggled in the prior season. That was the strategic direction of ownership — even if the new GM pitched it in his interviews. And it wasn’t a ridiculous thing to attempt. It’s just that the undertaking came with obvious risks, especially in the manner it was pursued, and several of the downside scenarios have come to fruition — none moreso than the big-picture one, in which the Mets are left yet again facing a need to pursue some amount of rebuilding or reloading while also carrying a series of player assets that hints towards near-term contention.
It was a tricky spot; it is now, all the more. Van Wagenen will need to adapt on the fly. So, where do the Mets go from here?
Most notably, Van Wagenen slammed on the brakes so far as expectations are concerned. In mid-June, Van Wagenen said that the Mets were “right where we wanted to be.” Now, about a month later? “In the second half of the year I think we have low expectations for what we can be,” he said bluntly. Rather than posturing as front-runners, says the GM, the Mets will fashion themselves as “underdogs” who’ll “try to prove some people wrong this year and certainly try to improve on it next year.” It’s a starkly different look from an executive who said before the season, upon his latest hot stove conquest: “This action, rather than our inaction, should demonstrate to the fans that we say what we do and we do what we say.”
Without any pretense to immediate contention, the Mets can turn to making the best of the roster they have compiled. “We have to face our reality, to some degree, about where we are in the standings,” said Van Wagenen. Rental players — Zack Wheeler, Todd Frazier, Jason Vargas (who does have an option remaining) — seem clearly to be on the block. But the question remains whether the Mets will also “face reality” with respect to their broader organizational position, which is certainly a question that can’t be answered by Van Wagenen alone.
Van Wagenen says the Mets will be “open-minded, … thoughtful and measured” at the deadline, though that characterization obviously doesn’t offer much in the way of specific direction. He was clear that he does not “anticipate being in a situation where we’d have a total teardown rebuild.” He also says he “fully expect[s]” the team’s best veterans with future contract control “to be on our roster” past the trade deadline — though he didn’t rule out deals of star pitchers Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard. The front office has been bombarded with phone calls of late, adds Van Wagenen. It’ll certainly be interesting to see whether any of those chats lead to creative scenarios in which it makes sense for the Mets to move some of their best and best-known players.
If there’s a definitive statement on the Mets’ near-term approach to be found in Van Wagenen’s words today, it probably resides in this passage:
“The reason why we put some chips on the table this year is because we felt like we had a core of starting pitchers from which we could build around. … Right now, as we look at the halfway point, we feel like we have a core going forward, just maybe a different core. … We have a core from which we can compete, and we’ll look at our moves with both win now or certainly win in 2020 [perspectives] and looking beyond that.”
You can probably read that to mean just about whatever you want it to, but it certainly sounds as if Van Wagenen sees a vision of the future. Perhaps it suggests the club’s ace hurlers are now open to be moved … or that they are part of the “different core.” If there’s a core in place, one might think that a big push for 2020 would yet make sense … yet Van Wagenen was careful to note that the team needs to be “looking beyond that” point in time.
Whatever the precise core concept — it presumably features Michael Conforto, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil at a minimum — there’ll be an awfully tough path to navigate. Whether they pursue immediate contention or some manner of rebuilding, the Mets face a tricky financial situation in 2020, when they owe about $115MM to players (not including David Wright) even before accounting for raises to Syndergaard, Diaz, Conforto, Steven Matz, Seth Lugo, Brandon Nimmo, and a few others. For a team that hasn’t yet cracked $160MM in payroll to open a given season, it’ll be challenging to add enough to spur a turnaround. And with so much already on the books, no small part of it (Cano, Lowrie, Jeurys Familia, Yoenis Cespedes) largely immovable, it’ll also be tough to embark upon a dedicated rebuilding effort.
citizen
And they are still,paying bobby Bonilla.
SocoComfort
I think the Braves are still paying Bruce Sutter from the 80s. Hasn’t stopped them from some success in that time.
mfm420
you’re correct. bruce is due another payment in 2020, then supposedly 1 large final payout in 2021.
fun fact: sutter actually got more money the year the braves won (1995) than several of the players on the team (well, at least before their world series bonuses are factored in)
kahnkobra
and the yankees are still paying kevin brown and other teams are still paying former players till this date
seanmc1983
This is such a tired narrative. They are paying him $1MM a year. That wouldn’t hamstring even the Rays, and so many teams structure deals that way. Max Scherzer will get paid by the Nationals until 2040-something, but it’ll never be a thing like Bobby Bonilla day is.
I’m all for giving it to the Wilpons for all of their actual mistakes and falsehoods, but Bonilla is not one of them. Never mind the fact that they weren’t majority owners when that contract was signed.
Connorsoxfan
Didn’t they end up paying him like 500% of what he was actually owed? That’s a mistake
jorge78
The magic of interest…..
hotpprs
They are also still paying Brett Saberhagen $250k a year until 2030 from what I recall.
SportsFan0000
Who cares?! Sometimes deferred money saves the team a lot of money and allows them to resign their players and free agents so they can compete in a pennant race…
JayRyder
Starts With The Ownership.
This guy razzled and dazzled. Talked big. Alot of industry posturing. Bought huge. Sold or discarded with low research what he had. Overtly risky in his maneuvers.
It’s the owners fault. They hired him. . . He’s never been a GM. Or from I know, worked in that compacity. Even in an assistant role. . .
When you work for yourself. And buy and trade assets like an agent. Stock market trader. He hid behind his success… Major League Baseball always has players that need representation. Front office jobs are very few. It’s not just about selling talent. It’s buying crafting building working together. Culture. Organizational team. And good owners to support as well…
This guy misses the mark. Will never take full responsibility for selling out the future, To Look Good…
My advice. Fire him now. Look for another guy. Or girl. And build from there… They have some good players. They just need good direction from the top down. . . And this guy ain’t it. Period.
bradthebluefish
Well said! The true issue is having a smooth-talking Agent as the GM.
justreading
To add: this organization is a cluster **** from top to bottom. All the years of skimping have taken their toll on every level of this team from low minors and every level on up, scouting, drafting, international, getting players ready to play “Met Baseball” so when they get to NY they know what to expect, a team approach to hitting, defense up the middle has been so bad especially when you are trying to win with pitching, basic in game strategy, analytics – forget it, medical is piss poor, unbelievably bad at handling press let alone handling NY, not paying for talent at key positions in the organization including but not limited to pro and minor league managers, coaches and especially instructors. They have no idea what they have and where they have them, what they want and how to get talent, They are building a team around pitching when every other team has already realized that starters are pitching less in terms of innings and years, that MLB was looking to ramp up offense, that analytics would help hitters first, (still amaes they continually have poor defense and no defense up the middle) etc.. What is the plan? How are you attempting to win? What kind of players do you want? This is a team that has no business sense, no organizational structure or mission/business plan and appears not to have the resources that are required to turn a losing baseball team around – to spend money at all levels so you can bring in the right players/staff, teach them correctly, evaluate them correctly and make decisions correctly. If this cannot be done the Wilponzis can make a nice tidy profit and pull out now before this team just rots from the inside.
Agee20
You hit it on the head… this guy is a double talking bum….BVW is a clown….What we need is professional direction at the top, in the dugout and minor leagues. What we don’t need is players like Cano, Diaz, Cespedes, and a few other garbage pieces.Enough with the Callaway project, and Van Wagenen should be warming up his engine as well for departure…. in a nutshell “disgraceful train wreck”
@DaOldDerbyBastard
What a school bus fire.
nymetsking
The Mets, JayRider’s post, or both. Nevermind. It’s both.
Birch
The largest mistake in all of this is keeping Mickey Callaway. He has less of a clue managing games than Brodie has as a GM.
Brodie has been as refreshing as a hot tub in the summer. That being said, I think people are lying if they say they saw Cano dropping off as much as he did this season (not looking ahead yet) and Diaz and Familia pitching BP every single outing. In theory, the Mets were getting a Cano that SHOULD have hit around .285 and a closer that could produce under a 2.00 ERA. They’ve gotten better production from guys that people around the league have never heard of. That’s not on Brodie. Mets fans need to blame every single part of the organization equally.
Ruben_Tomorrow 2
I personally can’t stand Callaway, but at the same time, I actually sorta feel for him. I don’t think he has much control over his own team. In some respects, he really shouldn’t have control because he makes some bizarre decisions, but he was put into a bad position from the start.
I think even more of a mistake of keeping Callaway was hiring Brodie. Passing on Chaim Bloom is going to come back to haunt them for a long time. They had the opportunity to hire one of baseball’s youngest and brightest minds, and he had a track record. Instead they go outside the box, hire an agent that had many of his clients on them team already, and he has shown thus far he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing when it comes with to identifying talent and team needs.
bobtillman
A train wreck on its way to a dumpster fire.
The only thing they could of done not to disappear completely from the spotlight (admittedly, VERY hard to do in NY) was to fire both the GM and manager at the All Star break. Then they might get some sympathy from the fan base; what the heck, that’s why they put erasers on pencils. But to continue with this garbled nonsense that he was spewing just alienates the fan base more than they already are.
There’s absolutely every evidence now that their troubles aren’t the end of something, but just the beginings.
TampaGators
I mean this guy could have just played Jeff McNeil at 2B and I think after his showing last year he definitely deserved that chance. He wanted to do something flashy and it blew up in his face. He gave Familia almost as much money as Kimbrel got. I wouldn’t trust this guy as the GM for one more second if I were them. I honestly feel really badly for the Mets fans, this is gonna get a lot worse I think.
kahnkobra
the starters minus degrom and Vargas, and the bullpen did them in
bradthebluefish
The true struggle for the Mets is having an Agent-turned-GM being the manager.
SecsSeksSecks
The Mets will never win with BVW or the Wilpon bothers.
chicagofan1978
As a Sox fan I can’t laugh at a struggling organization, but man they are really struggling.
dimitrios in la
This is a well written piece, cogent, highly informative and analytic. Thank you!
Koamalu
I figured out the Met’s plan!! Get swept by the Marlins and keep right on losing to get the 1st draft pick.
I loved that BVW used the liars favorite word, but. “I wouldn’t want to say that its the players and coaches fault, BUT…”
In linguistics the word BUT means that everything that came before it in a sentence is not true.
While he should be just shouldering responsibility, he was throwing shade.
delete
Oh brother. Even the news articles are turning into features and opinion pieces now.
ludafish
Man this team can be in some trouble. The Marlins are playing 500 ball since the awful 20 games under start. Improving seeing signs…. Will the Mets be the new basement dwellers ? It’s possible.
There still is a lot of talent though. You have to think Diaz can find his way. Cano can find a way to be useful. Some starters find their way. They have some powerful hitters. The problem with the Marlins is they seem to actually have a lot of pitching but we lack that true position player star (Cooper is probably our number one guy along with Rojas and that’s saying something) it will be very interesting to see how the next 2 seasons play out for these teams battling the Nats who always have something, the rich Phil’s who can spend on anything whenever wherever and the young Braves who could be one player away from another stretch run of division titles.
jimmyz
The Mets should sell everything they have of value this deadline and over the winter and specifically target top prospects in AA and AAA in order to fill the sizable talent void at those levels in their system and also because the prospects acquired will start arriving in the big leagues in the next year or two while Conforto, Alonso, McNeil and Rosario are still all on rookie contracts. Once the underwater contracts start coming off the books the team can begin locking up it’s core to extensions and filling roster holes with free agents and the 2022-2025 Mets could be serious contenders.
SportsFan0000
The Mets appear to be a badly mismanaged franchise that starts with ownership.
The Wilpons made many of the very bad decisions that cost the Mets franchise its competitiveness and its financial stability.
MLB and Bud Selig did a huge disservice to MLB and to Mets fans by not forcing the Mets into bankruptcy and a sale of the Mets to New Ownership with the financial resources to operate in the #1 Media market in the US..
Compare the Mets to the Houston Astros that were forced into bankruptcy and a sale of that franchise to new ownership.
Astros new owners installed a new front office that rebuilt the current Astros team that won a World Series and few years ago.
MLB should be required to disclose to the fans why it kept the Wilpons in control of the Mets after a substantial amount of their assets was blown in disasterous business investment decisions with Bernie Madoff..
After the Madoff scandal, the Mets have been running a shoe string operation like a mid sized or lower sized payroll not in keeping with their operating in NYC the largest, riches media market in the country.
Have the Wilpon’s been pocketing the team’s revenues/profits and rebuilding their finances at the expense of direct reinvestment into the Mets and their fans?!
Mets fans have the right to know.
And, Mets Wilpon ownership putting Brodie Van Wagenen in charge with zero MLB General Manager and/or Front Office experience is another of the many Wilpon family ownership business blunders that has set the Mets back years of competitiveness.
The Mets should have hired a young team of well respected baseball people with the knowledge and experience to keep the Mets competitive every year.
The on the job training experiment of Brodie Van Wagenen ,so far, has been a complete disaster, but par for the course for Mets Wilpon family ownership…
justreading
This team is a cluster **** from top to bottom. All the years of skimping have taken their toll on every level of this team from low minors and every level on up, scouting, drafting, international, getting players ready to play “Met Baseball” so when they get to NY they know what to expect, a team approach to hitting, defense up the middle has been so bad especially when you are trying to win with pitching, basic in game strategy, analytics – forget it, medical is piss poor, unbelievably bad at handling press let alone handling NY, not paying for talent at key positions in the organization including but not limited to pro and minor league managers, coaches and especially instructors. They have no idea what they have and where they have them, what they want and how to get talent, They are building a team around pitching when every other team has already realized that starters are pitching less in terms of innings and years, that MLB was looking to ramp up offense, that analytics would help hitters first, (still amaes they continually have poor defense and no defense up the middle) etc.. What is the plan? How are you attempting to win? What kind of players do you want? This is a team that has no business sense, no organizational structure or mission/business plan and appears not to have the resources that are required to turn a losing baseball team around – to spend money at all levels so you can bring in the right players/staff, teach them correctly, evaluate them correctly and make decisions correctly. If this cannot be done the Wilponzis can make a nice tidy profit and pull out now before this team just rots from the inside. Whats sad is I think I wrote something like this same time last year.
FoDaChet
Just promote Omar Minaya back to GM and bring back Willie or Jerry. As a Met fan we always place the blame on everybody but ourselves. If we stopped going to the games till they see that the fans deserve better. We should only watch them on tv till they see that the revenue isn’t the same. The Mets are a joke and have been a joke for a few years. Ownership must have been part of a circus family growing up
Frankie Bani
The Yankees have the Mets solution, trading Wheeler o Noah
For Frazier and Gio Ushela
chisox lover
They really have to consider getting rid of BVW and starting a new front office search.
SportsFan0000
Mets should hire whoever is Astros GM’s right hand man
or someone similar from the Braves or another consistently winning franchise with a top farm system….
BVW should go back to being a player agent….
Strosfn79
Too late. The Orioles hired him last year. The top 2 right hand men actually
TheFixIsIn
And how’s that working out for the Orioles?
Backatitagain
Whether Brodie stays or goes, the Mets must package Jacob deGrom with Leonys Cespedes and Jeurys Familia in a trade to get at least one good MLB ready pitching prospect at AA or AAA. Then, if Possible, package Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler with Robinson Canoe to get a second good MLB ready pitching prospect at AA or AAA. Diaz can be shopped and probably fetch a young starting pitcher or elite pitching prospect. Ramos, Frazier, Vargas and Lowrie need to be traded for whatever can be returned or just bought out and dumped. These actions will clear nearly $500 Million from payrolls for next five years. Yes, in 2020 deGrom and Syndergaard will be gone and maybe Conforto to get this done, but the Mets will be renewed with Alonso, McNeil, Smith, Nimmo, Rosario, Davis, and a few others plus the prospects returned in the deals. Sooner the better. Focus on the assets teams will need in 2020 and beyond. Look at the prospect rich organizations first, Braves, Padres, White Sox, Twins, Dodgers that can afford to absorb the payroll required, then the others.
ATLbravos
i totally agree, i would gladly give up the farm for degrom and noah.. only prospects in the farm left are pache and waters.. the rest we can do without.. not to mention ender, folty and camargo can be traded