Earlier this afternoon, the Mets sent shockwaves through the baseball world by reportedly agreeing to terms with former CAA agent Brodie Van Wagenen on a deal to become the team’s new General Manager. The hire, reportedly spearheaded by team COO Jeff Wilpon, is a puzzling one for an organization in flux: Van Wagenen, after all, was hired despite a résumé utterly devoid of any front office, scouting, or player development experience, and currently represents nearly a quarter of the Mets’ 25-man roster in contract matters. Charges of interest conflicts will assuredly be flung from all directions – according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the club seems as throughly entangled with the 44-year-old former agent as any in the league. In the past two offseasons alone, Van Wagenen has negotiated deals on behalf of outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, third baseman Todd Frazier, and lefty Jason Vargas for a combined $143MM. Of particular interest to Sherman is Van Wagenen’s February 2018 outburst, where the agent, furious at perceived collusion in the glacially-paced free agent market, drafted a public statement suggesting that some frozen-out players may have been preparing to boycott the upcoming season. Van Wagenen, of course, has now scooted his seat to the other side of the table, where the traits he doubtless extolled so forcefully will likely be minimized at every turn.
The elephant in that room, it seems, is 30-year-old Jacob deGrom, on whose side Van Wagenen has long campaigned for either an extension or trade, and many questions await. Van Wagenen and his new colleagues could certainly extricate themselves from the awkward discussions to follow by peddling the ace at first opportunity in the forthcoming market, but that route seems altogether unlikely at this point. In a separate report by The Post, sources indicate that team owner Fred Wilpon is hell-bent on a playoff run next season and was loath to consider candidates who suggested otherwise.
In other rumblings from Flushing . . .
- Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News raises similar questions of the new hire, posing scores of inquiries about current and prospective players and the potential conflicts of interests with both. In particular, she addresses the cases of former Van Wagenen clients Cespedes and Vargas, both of whom the agent may be forced to engage in uncomfortable discussions with. Cespedes, of course, underwent a second surgery on his left heel yesterday and may miss up to half of the upcoming campaign. Though he’s been productive at the plate over the last two seasons, slashing .282/.343/.525, the 33-year-old has been limited to just 120 games over that time and will figure to miss a good deal more in the season to come. Vargas, 35, had a dreadful season last year, allowing 1.76 HR/9 and posting just 92 IP across 20 starts on the way to a 5.77 ERA. His 8.22 K/9, the highest of his career, did leave some room for optimism, but a return to a similar path will almost surely leave the new GM in an extremely awkward position with a former client who has just one year remaining on his deal.
- Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that Matt Ricatto and Jeff Berry of CAA will now handle agency duties for deGrom following the departure of Van Wagenen.
Such a mistake…Should’ve hires Bloom
Agreed…Seems like a poor hire.
They have a sensational manager and pitching coach.
If those two can get out of their contracts to hold the same positions for another team, I can come up with 4 teams that they can get to the WS in 2019, starting with the Nationals and Yankees.
But hey – it was an “experimental” hire. Wouldn’t want one of those qualified dinosaurs getting the job. It’s a new age! Out of the box thinking!!
Decides, what proven baseball person would walk into that position?
lol – ownership hired the guy that stiffed them selling defective free agents. Too funny!!!
Will bring a different flavor to the Mets. Hopefully opened the Wilpons eyes a little during the interview process.
He’ll be beaten down by April. The Mets right now seem to have no direction, similar to last offseason. Wright indeed gave them a solid by walking away, but there’s Cespedes,and Frazier taking up space. If their pitching “stays healthy” they could maybe compete, but with all their holes it’s probably not in the cards.
Wright will still collect all his pay though
“Wright indeed gave them a solid by walking away,”
Are you suggesting the Wright is saving them money? Where has it ever been stated that Wright was walking away from his money? He’ll get every dollar on his contract.
Yes, but insurance will pay up to 70% of the remaining costs, just as it has been doing.
The Mets and the Wright camp reached an insurance settlement covering 70% of the remaining money owed through 2020. So yea he did them a solid.
Bro Wag will survive, and has always had both Fred and Jeffy’s ear. Just think of the other famous Dutchman, named Van Gogh as I think Bro W. will wisely guide the Mets into spending money on the right free agents such as AJ Pollock, Wiilson Ramos, Marwin Gonzalez Adam Ottavino, Zach Britton, and a starting pitching in the Charlie Morton typology.
Hey Jp-opened their eyes however won’t have access to their wallets.
The only certainty is that we are entering a new season in Flushing follies soap opera.
If they don’t trade DeGrom they are just going to delay the rebuilding process.. they don’t have an infield.
I agree this winter is the year to move him. His value will NEVER be any higher.
Deroom for pirela jank Austin allen and Asuaje
Lol no
Hey 1600-they also don’t have a catcher that can play both ends.
Unless I’m mistaken the last MLB team (Diamondbacks) hire of a former Agent (Dave Stewart) as it’s GM didn’t go so well. Not sure this hire will go any better.
Braves disagree. His tenure went very well. 🙂
Idk. Dansby has been extremely underwhelming, Toussaint looks like he could be another Newcomb, unable to throw enough strikes to be consistently good. Aaron Blair was a top 25 prospect that can’t make it to the majors. Inciarte is solid though
Stewart previously worked in front office of Oakland, San Diego and Toronto before landing Dback’s GM job.
Brodie has zero experience working in a team’s FO.
Stewart interviewed for the Jays GM job after the 2001 season. When he didn’t get it he played the race card.
Jays hired JP Ricciardi instead. Stewart would have been an upgrade.
The Dbacks problem had little to do with him being an agent and a lot to do with them being militantly backwards when it came to modern baseball
Honestly I don’t know what’s more surprising, the fact that the Wilpons just hired a guy with a grand total of 0 days working in the front office of an MLB team, absolutely no scouting experience, no experience developing players, and a pretty damn apparent conflict of interest with 25% of their roster— or the fact that after 13 years as a devout Mets fan I’m still surprised that the Wilpons would do something as stupid as this. If they truly cared about this team and its’ fans they’d sell it and let us have some owners who don’t have their heads perpetually shoved up their rear-ends. Is that really too much to ask?
Hey Cbraz-it’s not too much to ask, however you had to know that given the options, after the charade they would make the wrong choice.
However it’s your choice whether to support the Wilpon’s financial scam.
You can opt out by:
-not buying any tickets to future games.
-no longer ever watching SNY.
-posting in social media that you are converting to another team because the Wilpon’s are such losers.
I’m ripping up my Nolan Ryan & Tom Seaver rookie cards in anger!
Even as a Yankee fan, I feel for Met’s fans. Damn!!!
Nothing the Mets do shocks me anymore. Until the Wilpons are gone, nothing will.
I’m not sure how this will go, but the lines between players and management just got a bit blurry by the hiring. It would make some sense to have assistant GM’s or someone else dealing with his “former” clients on the team, but that make the hiring even more curious.
I don’t know how he’s going to end up performing due to his lack of front office experience, but I think it will be an interesting dynamic with a former agent as a GM. As an agent, it was his job to “sell” his clients to GMs around the league, and in a way, he’ll be doing the same thing during trade discussions now, perhaps better than some novice GMs.
I’d much rather have had Bloom, but it will be interesting to watch Van Wagenen’s performance this offseason and into 2019.
I feel like fans should have submitted their resumes for this position. No experience required
I agree yeti. JJB is interested to see how much new drama material can be created by this foolish decision and the dynamic of someone who is not qualified to do the job.
I’m guessing that he enjoys the story line more than the scoreboard.
Mike55,
lol, you are on a roll!!
I’ve been trying to define a universe where this hiring makes some sense, and all I can come up with this:
Dombrowski was on mlb network the other day, explaining how the GM job had changed. When he first got a GM job, he had FIVE employees; a Scouting guy, a minor league guy, a “rules expert”, to handle options and stuff, a secretary, and someone to answer the phones.
As GM of the Red Sox, he now has 120 employees. So 75% of the job is organizational, and MAYBE that’s what impressed the Wilpons about this guy.
Outside of that, it’s tough to figure…..
85% may be organizational, however there has to be some experience and skill involved. Otherwise Mutt and Jeff could pick the guy in charge of the food concessions to make these decisions.
If it’s tough to figure for you, imagine what this guy will go through in such a dysfunctional organization with a foolish medical staff and incompetent trainers complimented by all of the Mutt and Jeff cronies.
I’m not sure why this is a surprise. Fred Wilpon is a control freak who is loathe to give up control to anyone. This guarantees that the Wilpon’s will stay in the drivers seat. The league needs to kick them to the curb and I don’t see that happening anytime soon
Fred is driving from the 15th row of the school bus. Mutt is screaming directions from the last row.
Playoff run? Seems apt that this is reported a day after Cespedes had another surgery. I wonder how hilarious the ask for deGrom will be now that you’re dealing with his (for mer?) agent. Very odd situation that can only happen in NY.
Hey DMC-lets clarify your statement to a more accurate view:
Only can happen to the hapless Mets.
Fred Wilpon: “so Brodie why should we hire you?
Van Wagenen: “ I got Vargas, Cespedes, Frazier $143 millions dollars from you”
Fred Wilpon: “man you’re good! You’re hired !”
Again we have “baseball people” upset that someone that they perceive as an outsider invading their space. And the media hacks back them up. This may be a terrible pick but not because he’s an agent. He was partners in one if the largest agencies and has dealt with probably all the other GMs.Stanford graduate. He certainly understands how the games works. Met fans just being Met fans.
If a degree is the most important thing, you could still find someone with relevant experience AND an Ivy League degree.
And trust me, that he graduated from Stanford says nothing about his analytical or judgmental abilities, of which are practical unknowns at this point. All that is known is that he can practically sell a ketchup popsicle to someone wearing white gloves
Brodie Van Wagenen will breathe some life into the Mets.
Hey Xabial, how can you breath life into something that doesn’t have a functional heart and any brain intelligence?
If I was the Mets, I would trade degrom and Wheeler. They’d get a haul back and they’d be able to load up they’re farm system with both pitchers and position players.
That’s if you were the Mets Ant. However if they trade deGrom and Wheeler they will get a terrible return. The farm is so barren that these deals in the best case scenario won’t load up the farm. Real world they will make poor choices and the only good news for the new guys is that it would be evident for a few years.
Why not trade Syn, Matz and put money up for a Bruce trade, wait for Cespedes to get healthy and productive then trade him with cash to an American league team, as well. Go full rebuild, and clear space from the books, then when the time is right, pick up some free agents.
Oh Mets
Roberts has taken the Dodgers to two consecutive World Series. And yet, two days ago on the MLBTR chat, a Dodger fan was asking if Roberts was gonna be canned because he couldn’t win.
Baseball fans are that way, and Met fans are in many ways, even worse.
BVW could be good, or he could be bad, or he could be somewhere in-between. He certainly seems to have won over the ownership of the Mets. And all conspiracy theories aside, baseball is a game of finding the under-utilized weaknesses within the marketplace (Money-ball).
You know full well, that if hiring a big name agent to be a GM works well for the Mets, other teams will follow suit.
HiI think a lot of people underestimate him already. To be a good agent (and he is a good agent) one has to be up to date on all the modern trends to be able to sell a player to a team, so it’s highly unlikely he’ll be completely out of his depth the way a lot of people assume
The lack of practical experience is a concern, don’t get me wrong, but this is an interesting experiment.
Perhaps Van Wagenen convinced Wilpon he has two former GMs (Minaya/Ricciardi) on payroll. Let him run the office in a professional manner, handle contracts (his presumed expertise) and he will be the suit to take them to the next level.
There are the moves that make perfect sense and the ones that don’t. This one does not but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a good one. I personally think while not disastrous if he doesn’t workout, I really don’t get it.
Man, this could get really entertaining really fast.