New York Mets: Is Brodie Van Wagenen the Right Choice for GM?

The New York Mets will likely name Brodie Van Wagenen as their next general manager. Is this the right decision?

Late Friday night, Andy Martino of SNY reported that the New York Mets will likely name Brodie Van Wagenen as their next general manager/ head of baseball operations. Van Wagenen’s title is not yet clear as his deal is still being finished, but he will most likely be the next “baseball architect” for the New York Mets.

The 44-year-old Van Wagenen was chosen over Tampa Bay Rays Executive, Chaim Bloom, the other finalist for the job. Van Wagenen is expected to be introduced next week as it will take a few days to finalize his deal. He will likely need time to get his affairs in order over at CAA Sports, where he was a prominent agent.

Going into the hiring process, Brodie Van Wagenen was a very interesting candidate. He has baseball experience but he has never worked on the front office side of things. His experience is limited to agent work.

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Van Wagenen likely had a very good relationship with the New York Mets as he represents a handful of the team’s players. Yoenis Cespedes, Jason Vargas, Todd Fraizer, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Tim Tebow all use Van Wagenen as their representation.

It will be fascinating to see how Van Wagenen’s skills and background as an agent translate to front office work. His hiring is a bit unorthodox and it leaves us wondering, was it the right decision?

The front office of the New York Mets has been in dire need of a revamp as they have arguably been at the back of the sabermetric revolution. This made Chaim Bloom seem like the logical leading candidate. Bloom is an Ivy League graduate and he “grew up” in one of the league’s most forward-thinking organizations.

While it isn’t totally foreign for teams to hire agents, Van Wagenen comes into the role without any front office experience. Another prominent baseball example of an agent being hired as general manager comes from the Arizona Diamondbacks with Dave Stewart. The only difference is that Stewart had prior experience as a player, coach, and assistant general manager before taking the roll.

In my eyes, for a team looking to compete, this lack of experience could be an issue. There will likely be a learning curve that Van Wagenen will need to quickly tackle. Mets’ Assistant GM, John Ricco, and special assistants, Omar Minaya, and J.P. Ricciardi, are expected to stay with the organization, which should ease this transition.

Though Van Wagenen wasn’t the obvious choice, he very likely could be the right choice. Unlike Doug Melvin, Van Wagenen should have a good grasp on sabermetrics. He will just need to learn how to use them to favor his team instead of the player’s themselves (from the agent’s point of view). Brodie Van Wagenen is a very bright guy, he graduated from Stanford, I am excited to see his image for the future of the New York Mets.

It will be interesting to see how things play out as the offseason approaches. Van Wagenen clearly had an image for the team that caught the Wilpon’s eyes. We will have to wait to see what this image could be.