Reese Kaplan -- A New Owner Could Mean a New Management Style

While everyone is dancing up and down about the prospect of new Mets ownership, the vast majority of fans are excited about the prospect of seeing the club spend money more wisely to become post-season contenders regularly.  

Certainly there’s something to be said for being in on the top tier of independent free agents available on the market for writing a check, but there’s also the consideration of the fact that their farm system is ranked in the lowest 1/6 of all major league ballclubs.  

Remember, a Mike Trout might get you there today, but a Pete Alonso can keep you there inexpensively for many years. 

There are an awful lot of personnel decisions that need to be made internally come the close of the 2020 season.  Yoenis Cespedes, Jed Lowrie, Marcus Stroman Rick Porcello, Michael Wacha, Justin Wilson and others are slated to be eligible for free agency at the close of the season.  

Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz are still Mets property for one more full season, but a decision needs to be made about Wilson Ramos on whom the Mets hold a 2021 option worth $10 million (vs. a $1.5 million buyout). 

Perhaps even bigger than the personnel question is the front office hierarchy.  Brodie Van Wagenen had a checkered year one as GM.  Everyone is well aware of the criticism he’s received for saddling the club with his former clients for big money while providing going-away tickets to some of the club’s most promising minor leaguers.  

He picked up some performance stiffs (Jed Lowrie, Keon Broxton, etc.)  However, he did sign some good free agents (Justin Wilson and Wilson Ramos), made some good trades (JD Davis), and fired an overwhelmed manager.  

He compounded it by hiring another ground zero guy to fill out the lineup card who inevitably had to be fired before Spring Training began, but then ceded the job to the internal guy who probably should have gotten the gig in the first place.  

He sent some coaches packing and filled their slots with others who have yet to demonstrate whether or not they were improvements. 

If you took a poll of Mets fans and asked them what they would do to improve the club (aside from kidnapping Mike Trout or Mookie Betts from their current employers), most would say to clean out the dead wood and spend more prudently.  

Few here thought Jeurys Familia was going to flourish in a $10 million per year setup role, few thought the Jed Lowrie signing at his age made much sense, and even fewer were behind the year number two for Mickey Callaway.  It is ironic that in producing a winning record without Lowrie, without Yoenis Cespedes, without David Wright, without Brandon Nimmo most of the year and with a great many other extended injuries his club finished the year 10 games over .500 and was shown the door.  

For that reason alone I applaud BVW as his predecessors were happy to keep Terry Collins around for no logical reason whatsoever (a seven year itch after going 551-583 during that horrendous stretch). 

This off-season there was little done in terms of personnel.  They kept some folks around who might have fetched something on the open market.  They’re hoping for bounce backs from some of the low lights of 2019 (cough, bullpen).  

Otherwise the off-season was about Jake Marisnick, Michael Wacha and Rick Porcello, not exactly the prime All-Star material to improve the roster significantly, considering spare parts like Zack Wheeler, Juan Lagares and some non-descript bullpen arms are no longer in orange and blue.  Dellin Betances could be a good acquisition depending on the state of his health.  

You could spin that minor additions as not substantially changing what was working in the second half, or you could call it payroll stagnation during the open solicitation for a buyer.  Either way, it appears little was done. 

So the question I pose to the Mets fans is whether or not Brodie Van Wagenen is going to get additional time under someone who isn’t his best-paying golf buddy?  

There is a lot that went right last year in addition to the multitude of things that went wrong.  I am guessing the year 2020 is the decision point for the eventual new team owner who must decide if a GM with no experience in the job is the right approach for building a winning team.  

Winning usually fixes everything (except Callaway’s job), so a strong finish with a post-season berth could buy BVW another short-term lease on GM life.