BVW’S MESS
Almost everything Van Wagenen has done as Mets GM has backfired
Let’s be perfectly frank about this: Brodie Van Wagenen has been an absolute disaster as Mets GM. Other than having the foresight to turn the firstbase job over to Pete Alonso in the spring and letting the unproven rookie run with it, every move Van Wagenen has made in his rookie season has backfired badly. He has conducted his baseball business in the manner of a fantasy league player, grabbing up players based off their 2018 stats with the aim of winning now but without any regard for defense or the future. The result is a mess of a team with a 40-50 record at the All-Star break, lacking in athleticism and reasonably effective bullpen operatives. Unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse in the second half of the season.
The Edwin Diaz–Robinson Cano trade fiasco has been well documented. In sacrificing the Mets’ two top prospects, Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn, while also taking on a $64 million commitment to Cano through 2023 to land Diaz, Van Wagenen elected to overlook the fact that Diaz only had one great season. Furthermore, Diaz did his work that season in the laid-back/no pressure environment of Seattle for a Mariners team that was out of the postseason pennant race by August. New York has been a whole different ballgame for Diaz and there’s no telling if he will ever regain his dominant stuff and overcome his yips in the pressure cooker that is New York. As for Cano, he’s 36 and having the worst season of any No. 3 hitter in baseball. There is no reason to suggest he is anything else but washed out.
On top of that, there’s the $20 million Van Wagenen wasted on Jed Lowrie, an infielder with below average defense the Mets didn’t need, and who has been nothing but hurt this year; the $30 million spent in Jeurys Familia, a back end reliever who
can’t get anybody out; the $19 million on Wilson Ramos, an offensive catcher none of the Mets pitchers want to pitch to. (According to a highplaced Marlins’ source, Miami would have traded their franchise catcher, J.T. Realmuto, to the Mets for Brandon Nimmo and Amed Rosario, but Van Wagenen balked at giving up two established regulars.)
That’s a total of $133 million spent on four players who are mostly useless to the Mets but are all on the payroll at least for the next year. (In Familia’s case ‘til 2021 and Cano through 2023.)
This is the mess Van Wagenen has created; a mess that will be only further magnified if and when Kelenic and Dunn reach the vast potential all the scouts seem to hold for them. There is no way any of this can be undone. Nobody is going to want any of these players the Mets splurged on, so now the question for Van Wagenen is how to salvage his general managership and save Alonso from becoming the National League version of Mike Trout — a popular and talented player doomed to never see the bright lights of a World Series.
To be sure, there is a core of good young players on this Mets team — Alonso, Rosario, Michael Conforto, J.D. Davis, Jeff McNeil, and Dominic Smith — but not nearly enough compared to their NL East rivals, the Braves, Nationals and Phillies. In addition, there are no emerging position players on the horizon in the Mets’ farm system.
Assuming Mets ownership is not prepared to blow the whole thing up and trade Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard for a parcel of prospects, it is imperative Van Wagenen gets a substantial return on his two most marketable players, Zack Wheeler and Todd Frazier, even though they are both free agents after the season and clubs are loathe to give up top prospects for rental players. Yankee GM Brian Cashman, for instance, said recently he would not trade his No. 1 chip, Clint Frazier, for a rental player. But because there is such a dearth of frontline starting pitchers available relative to the many contending teams seeking them, he may have no choice. Conceivably, there will be bidding wars among the Yankees, Twins, Brewers, Braves and Rays for the likes of Wheeler, the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner, Toronto’s Marcus Stroman, Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer or Detroit’s Matthew Boyd. (In that respect, Van Wagenen should also explore the market for Jason Vargas.)
Because of the damage done by Van Wagenen’s disastrous off-season, the Mets are now saddled with major liabilities at multiple positions. They can not possibly go into next season with Cano as their starting second baseman and No. 3 hitter, and they once again need to find a catcher after they were so quick to cut Travis d’Arnaud loose (and who’s now thriving in Tampa Bay). Then there’s the bullpen, must be totally overhauled, save for Seth Lugo. Other than the hapless Orioles, there has been no worse bullpen in baseball than the Mets’, which has a 5.37 ERA and 12 losses when leading after seven innings.
It’s a grim picture, especially for a team Van Wagenen bragged was the favorite to win the division, famously declaring “come get us.” There’s a lot of work for him to do before he can even think of making such grandiose utterings again. At best, Van Wagenen, as a GM, is batting at 1-for-5 in the acquisitions department (we’ll give him J.D. Davis). He needs to get that batting average up quickly if he wants to prove he knows what he’s doing.
So far there is little evidence of that.