Mets clean house:
After Steve Cohen buys the team, he asks Sandy Alderson to start over with the front office.
At around 1:20 p.m. on a day late last week, one email hit the inbox.
“STEVE COHEN STATEMENT FOLLOWING TODAY’S CLOSING OF THE METS SALE”
Around 3:10 p.m., another announcement came.
“METS ANNOUNCE BASEBALL OPERATIONS SENIOR LEADERSHIP DEPARTURES”
Well, that was quick. Immediately, Steve Cohen and his new team president, Sandy Alderson, entered office and cleaned house.
Most notably, Brodie Van Wagenen, signed through 2022, is out after two seasons as general manager. Executives Omar Minaya (special assistant to the GM), Allard Baird (assistant GM, scouting and player development), Adam Guttridge (assistant GM, systematic development) and Jared Banner (farm director) are also leaving the organization.
“We took a team that had suffered losing seasons in 2017 and 2018 to contention in 2019 and onto a chance for real success in 2020 prior to the pandemic,” Van Wagenen said in the part of his statement that addressed Minaya, Baird, Guttridge, Banner and all other Mets employees. “The energy and excitement of the fans in 2019 will stay in our minds forever. While we didn’t reach our goal in 2020, the work that you put in to keep everyone safe and healthy in the midst of the COVID-19 threat played a significant role in the return of and the successful completion of the Major League Baseball season.”
This move allows Alderson, Van Wagenen’s predecessor, to build his own baseball operations team. He’s begun that process and, for the club’s sake, hopefully it does not drag be
cause free agency is already underway and the Mets face a crucial offseason.
The Mets missed the postseason in both of Van Wagenen’s seasons in control. He improved their win total from 77 to 86 victories in his first year, but 2020 became a disappointment as a club that had championship aspirations finished eight games below .500 and missed the playoffs during a year when over half the league made it.
Van Wagenen will be remembered for trading top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn for Robinson Canó and Edwin Diaz, or for trading top pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson for a couple of months of Marcus Stroman (if he does not re-sign with the Mets).
In order to win now, Van Wagenen and his team were aggressive in trading prospects … then didn’t win.
However, Van Wagenen led two encouraging drafts that helped restock the farm system.
He helped lead an aggressive draft strategy in which the Mets were seen as winners in both drafts – though we’ll have to wait years to see if those prospects pan out.
It’s not terribly surprising that Van Wagenen’s lieutenants did not remain in place. Usually, a team president, general manager or whoever is in charge – in this case, Alderson – wants to hire his own people.
Minaya was the Mets’ assistant GM from 1998 to 2001. After a stint as the Expos’ GM, Minaya became the Mets’ GM in 2004. He’s had a long history with the organization, but it seems as if that is now over.
Baird was the Royals’ general manager once upon a time. He worked in Boston before getting his job with the Mets. Banner, who is from Brooklyn, also came from Boston. Though his job entailed a lot, Guttridge is known for keying in on the productive J.D. Davis as a trade target.
Cohen purchased the team for roughly $2.4 billion.