Mets’ hire leaves Hinch without an agent
The hiring of Brodie Van
Wagenen as the Mets’ general manager has ramifications for
A.J. Hinch. The Astros manager is in need of a new agent.
The Mets named the 44-yearold Van Wagenen their GM on Monday. Van Wagenen, who in 2006 co-founded the baseball division of Creative Arts Agency, has never before worked for a major league front office.
Besides Hinch, for whom he helped negotiate a four-year extension announced in August, Van Wagenen represented Robinson Cano, Jacob deGrom and Yoenis Cespedes among others. “His skill set is really unique, and there is certainly a lot he’s going to have to learn, but he’s got a foundation in our game to be really good,” Hinch told the Chronicle on Monday.
Hinch can relate to the Mets’ outside-the-box hiring. He took a roundabout route to managing, the sort of odyssey that only recently has become normalized.
Once a rising star in the front office, Hinch’s managerial hire by the Diamondbacks in 2009 and by the Astros in 2015 made
him an outlier — a young former major leaguer with more organizational prowess than coaching experience.
One look at the most successful skippers during this just concluded postseason — Hinch, Alex Cora, Dave Roberts, Craig
Counsell and Aaron Boone — proves what once was exotic is now entrenched. Young, analytically adept managers are en vogue.
“The path to high-ranking jobs has never been more creative,” Hinch said Monday.
Hinch and Van Wagenen were Stanford baseball teammates in the early 1990s. Van Wagenen was Hinch’s best man when he married his wife, Erin.
“He’s one of my closest friends, which makes it easy to root for him,” Hinch said. “He’s been everything from a sounding board like a brother to a professon. adviser. We know each other’s families. He’s entrenched in my life whether he’s a GM or an agent or would have pursued opportunities outside of baseball. I trust him with everything that’s gone on in my career to everything that’s goes on in my family.”
While Van Wagenen’s hire is unconventional, it is not unprecedented. Kobe Bryant’s agent,
Rob Pelinka, is the Los Angeles Lakers’ general manager.
Dave Stewart — the 1989 World Series MVP who started Sports Management Partners sports agency upon his retirement — was hired as the Arizona Diamondbacks’ general manager in 2014. Two years later, he was fired along with manager Chip Hale.
In its statement announcing his appointment, Mets ownership lauded Van Wagenen as a “progressive thinker.” Chairman and CEO Fred Wilpon said Van Wagenen’s “high character and blend of analytics, scouting and development ideas illustrate why he will be successful in this role.”
Said Hinch: “He’s going to connect with people. He’s obviously well-versed in player contracts, negotiations. He’s going to create a process to make decisions and build an organization the way he sees fit. It’s a tough job. I’ve seen it from both levels. But he’s smart enough to know what he knows and know what he doesn’t know. That should serve him well.”
With Van Wagenen and Hinch now ceasing their representational relationship, Hinch was noncommittal when asked if he would stay within Creative Arts Agency.
“I think that stuff sorts itself out over time,” he said. “I guess I never really had to consider it until something like this comes up.”
Angels pick White as pitching coach
Another staff member is departing Houston after one seasional First-year Astros bullpen coach Doug White is set to become the Angels’ pitching coach, according to a source familiar with the situation. Assistant hitting coach Jeff
Albert was named the Cardinals’ hitting coach on Monday.
It’s a return home for White, a Southern California native who attended Arizona State. He’ll work for first-year Angels manager Brad Ausmus, who played 10 of his 18 seasons in Houston.
White, like Albert, spent time in the Cardinals’ minor league system before general manager
Jeff Luhnow lured him to Houston. This was White’s sixth season within the Astros’ organization but first on the major league staff.
Before he was named bullpen coach last offseason, White was Houston’s minor league pitching coordinator from 2016-17 and a roving pitching instructor from 2014-15.
White replaces Craig Bjornson, who became Alex Cora’s bullpen coach in Boston.