N.Y. Mets: The Not So Strange New World of Brodie Van Wagenen

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

The Brodie Van Wagenen Era Begins.

New York Mets: Another Pledge of the Wilpon Collegial Front Office School of Baseball?

I previously offered my opinion regarding the hiring of Brodie Van Wagenen, but through an ownership polluted point of view.

• ICYMI: Jeff Wilpon's Four-Headed New World Order

Consider this PART II.

Brodie Van Wagenen is a (super) agent by trade.  As co-founder of CAA Baseball, he is undoubtedly intelligent, and practiced in the art of business development and administration.  He now becomes the 13th general manager of the New York Mets.

There are instances of agents taking on executive positions in the NBA.  However, outside of the college draft, international scouting, and the recently established G-League, the scope of basketball operations palls in comparison to the multi-layered minor/major league operations of baseball.  

However, the full weight of Queens is not necessarily being thrown in Brodie's lap.  Both he and Jeff Wilpon reiterate numerous times during the introductory press conference how both look forward towards developing a more refined system of collaboration within a greater front office enterprise (which Jeff Wilpon is holding out hope will include Omar Minaya, J.P. Ricciardi, and John Ricco).  This strikes me as being no different than Fred's and Jeff's self-described collegial system - shared responsibility among colleagues.  Therefore, is Brodie Van Wagenen coming in to implement his own plan, or is he merely here to help Jeff Wilpon realize his?

We know agents lurk in the shadows during high school and college.  The minute these athletes turn pro, agents spring into action (if not sooner).  They have unique insight into player's needs, and understand how to get their clients noticed, and paid.  In turn, they have knowledge into the thoughts and minds of scouts and general managers.  After all, they spend time gathering the same type of information as front offices do.  Good agents collect insight into varying organizational philosophies throughout baseball.  They are able to compare, contrast, and contemplate a club's respective effectiveness of lack thereof.  Being an agent these days also requires a comprehensive understanding of baseball analytics, and knowledge into its practical applications.  With all that being said, it appears Brodie Van Wagenen has already convinced Jeff Wilpon into expanding the club's analytics staff.  Now he must stress the need for doubling their scouting efforts both domestically and internationally.

Brodie Van Wagenen just happens to represent several clients presently employed by the Mets.  A potential conflict of interest immediately comes into question.  Although Jeff Wilpon seems to have satisfactorily settled such issues with both MLB and the Player's Union, I still foresee this impacting (in some form) future negotiations involving Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Brandon Nimmo, etc.  But to what extent remains to be seen.  In any event, he's on the other side of the negotiation table now.  The decision is his now to either extend deGrom or trade him - just as he petitioned the Mets this past season.  I also wonder as a newly minted organizational man, if he now views any differently the respective contracts he helped secure for Yoenis Cespedes or Todd Frazier.

What is one of the major criticisms presently being levied against the Mets?

They spend money, just not wisely.  

I would argue Jeff Wilpon hired Brodie with this very criticism foremost in his mind.  If Van Wagenen uplifts the Mets public perception by indeed spending more wisely and effectively, that in turn makes Jeff look good.

The general managers meetings are right around the corner.  But outside of acquiring a catcher and/or upgrading the bullpen, the Mets hands are somewhat tied due to the existing contracts of Todd Frazier, Jay Bruce, Yoenis Cespedes, Jason Vargas, Anthony Swarzak, etc.  And not until 2020 will the Mets have finally paid off all their remaining Madoff related debt.  Flexibility is coming, just not yet.  I'm just trying to exercise some pragmatism.

In the meantime, the next two seasons at the very least will test Brodie's financial creativity.