DAVID RUBIN: Welcome to Owning The New York Mets! Here is your Initial Operations Manual! Part ONE of THREE

 

Welcome, new owners, to your new team! It’s used, of course; in fact, it’s quite far from being in mint condition. However, with some real TLC, and a WHOLE lotta cash-money, things can change with the snap of your fingers!!!

As a warm welcome to you, we would like to present to you this FREE Operations Manual. This is the overview version – the FULL edition will be available for purchase for the small sum of $10,000 – we can discuss terms once you have taken full control of the operation! We will present this to you in 3 parts, so that you have the time to take it all in, digest it, and then be prepared to ask questions and make comments in the “comment section” (wink, wink!)

Now, since you’ve purchased the team, and have looked through the (embarrassing) financial records (and it’s still a miracle that you actually had to BID on owning this team- they should have simply handed it to you and said “please pay off all of our debts”), you KNOW that you’ve got a ton of work on your hands to get this team to profitability. As you’re about to see, you DO have some true gems on your hands – in the front office, the minor and major leagues, and in your fan-base most of all! We will give you a broad overview on these and other subjects – but remember, we can offer you a far deeper dive for the low, low price of $10,000. Again, we can discuss that later.

Here, then, is part one of our look at the entire Mets organization for your Initial Operations Manual:

THE FRONT OFFICE

Now let’s get one thing straight – you are going to be hiring or retaining a General Manager in the most challenging media market in the world, good ole New York. The positive side is an incredibly passionate fanbase; the negative side is that they’ve been lied to and abused for so long that whichever way you decide to go you need to be prepared for the naysayers, both loud and angry. That being said, you need to know that you can NEVER make a move just to placate your fanbase- you need to make great, solid decisions that will effect the team now and in the future.

We will present to you 3 examples of this, 2 who are already successful and can be looked at as your template for success, and one who could potentially replace your existing GM, but first, let’s discuss the incumbent, Benedict Cumberbatch!!! Oops – I mean Brodie Van Wagenen (hereby referred to as “BVM”).

Like his predecessor, Sandy Alderson, Brodie first seemed to favor home runs and fastballs over defense and speed, two things that helped put the team on the map on the way to their first four World Series appearances. Then, this season, when injuries struck, all at once we had defense-first players at shortstop/inf in Andres Gimenez and at second base/inf in Luis Guillorme (finally!!!!) Coupled with new addition Billy Hamilton in Center and Tomas Nido catching, the team’s up-the-middle defense hadn’t looked so good since the year 2000! We still had enough offense, in theory if not in practicality (think NO RISP-movement) and with a pitcher such as Rick Porcello or Michael Wacha on the mound, this type of defense can be critical to winning games. Can we chalk this up to planning? Happenstance? Either way, it was encouraging to see something that is supposed to be routine like a double-play become just that for a change!!!

Fans should NEVER have to worry about something as simple as highly paid, talented middle infielders not being able to make that routine play! Look, Mets fans are highly educated about the ins and outs of the game, and while our passion might make us shout for change before we’ve given something a decent chance to succeed or fail, that passion is what has kept us supporting this team even through the truly dark times (which encompasses WAY too many years’ of this franchises’ existence!) So having a GM in place who understands this passion, who understands what the fanbase truly wants, is imperative to not just success in MLB but to success at the gate and beyond!

Has BVW done that? Has BVW had enough time to redo a very broken and under-staffed organization – at all levels??? Well, to be fair, he’s going to be judged publicly on the seemingly horrible trade of Jarred Kelenic and company to the Mariners for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz, or the equally bad signing of Jed Lowrie. To be fair to Brodie, he has done a lot of things right; he kept his promise to Pete Alonso and kept him in the majors from day one last year, rewarded with a Rookie of the Year Award; he signed Jacob deGrom to a long-term deal that will keep him a Met for the entirety of his career (an article that I will be posting in the very near future); he maximized their draft position 2 years in a row to “steal” extra players in the second, third and supplemental rounds that good financial management of the draft allowed him to have enough money to land these talented kids with; and he has hired an excellent front office staff after coming onboard with a shortfall of talent and a lack of a properly-sized workforce.

We know that being a GM in MLB these days means having to wear so many hats at once, and it takes a group of experts in areas like player development, financial management, scouting, analytics and marketing to be overseen by someone who has put great thought and time into each of these disciplines. To his credit, BVW has done just that – he’s brought on board talents like VP/A-GM Allard Baird, A-GM Adam Guttridge, Special Advisor David Wright, Special Assistants Omar Minaya and Terry Collins, Senior Director- Baseball Operations Ian Levin, Executive Director, Player Development Jared Banner, Exec Director, Business Intelligence & Analytics John Morris and Manager Business Intelligence & Analytics Jon Cokorinos, amongst many others. 

Each of these hires (possibly with the exception of Terry Collins) have been great moves, as BVW had the difficult task of redoing an entire organization on the fly, without many existing contacts due to his prior career as an agent and without the insight that comes from moving up within the ranks of a baseball front office. Again, to be fair, BVW took the shortcomings that many pointed out when he was first appointed and turned them into strengths by surrounding himself with the right team. Regardless of the moves that he made, anything less than a World Series victory meant that his however-brief honeymoon period was over, and no, we have not reached that hallowed ground yet.

This brings us to whether or not BVW should be replaced. We know it’s YOUR money on the line, and you’re going to have the urge to possibly break up these departments and put your own team of leaders in place. No one would blame you, but we’d urge you, as your (so far) unpaid consultants to consider leaving this team of hard-working, intelligent people in place for at least another season, as you learn their skillsets and styles of business, and they yours. As we have seen too many times in sports, and in the business world, change for change-sake too often ends in less-than-desired results. 

And to be fair to BVW, it’s NOT like he’s ever had a budget to work with that a New York team both deserves and would seemingly require to be on top of the most demanding market in the country, in the world. What could he do if he had the money to extend a Zack Wheeler, to sign Marcus Stroman long-term, to go after JT Realmuto this offseason – wait, we are getting ahead of ourselves here, because we WILL offer a brief overview of prospective offseason moves to make this team better. In the meantime, we have to wonder what the team and organization would look like IF BVW had the right amount of money to work with from day one. So, our recommendation would be to at LEAST give BVW and team another year, with a real budget, before bringing in anyone else to lead this organization.

Now, should you decide NOT to wait, and you wish to move forward with someone, we have one recommendation to make – David Stearns of Milwaukee Brewers fame!

Let’s look at Stearns, and Brian Cashman of the Yankees to gain some perspective. First, some Yankee history. Back in 1964, a young Bronx ballplayer by the name of Rodney Carew, 3 years since moving from Panama to NY, was scouted by the Minnesota Twins. He was brought to Yankee Stadium when the Twins were in town, and their lead scout had him get dressed in the uniform of a young Cuban player, one Tony Oliva, who would go on to become the Rookie of The Year.  Carew was about an inch shorter and a few pounds lighter, but they had to resort to this subterfuge because the Yankees had a reputation for signing every player that wasn’t nailed down, and filling their minor league teams with so many talented young players that many never had a chance to show off their skillsets unless they were traded elsewhere. 

That was something the Yankees were known for, too – trading away tons of bodies for major leaguers they wanted, like Roger Maris, mostly with the then-Kansas City Athletics (an organization some kidded were their Major League Farm-Team) but also with other teams. Even into the Gabe Paul-led 70’s, think back to the huge deals that brought players like ChrisChambliss and Graig Nettles to the team!

Thankfully, Carew was indeed signed by the Twins, mere hours after his graduation day, and as we know went on to an amazing Hall-of-Fame career with the Twins and Angels. The chase for Carew and the tactics used were emblematic of the way the system was screwed up, so much so that thankfully a major league draft was implemented the very next year. And that brings us to one Brian Cashman. Cashman has been with the organization for 30 plus years, the lions-share as their GM. While he inherited both an amazing talent-base at the major league level and a whole host of talented executives, the farm system he was presented with was less-than championship caliber. 

He had to buy his way through it, and the team spent literally billions – with a B- of dollars to constantly import great talent as their once-divine right of being in nearly every World Series was restored to the organization, if for only a half-dozen or so years. That showed both the volatility of the draft and young talent as well as the lifespan of dynasties in an MLB that is much more even-keeled in it’s power-base.

Fast forward a number of years, and a lot of losing and years without World Series appearances later, and we find that the current Yankees team is an amalgam of both fantastic home-grown players (Aaron Judge, LuisSeverino, Gary Sanchez, Brett Gardner) and expensive free agents and trades (Aroldis Chapman, Gerrit Cole, Zack Britton, DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton) that, combined with a farm system that has and continues to bare great fruit has kept the Yankees at the top or near top of their division for a very long time. The Dodgers, upon ownership change, did a speed-version of the Yankees current philosophy, over-spending to contend then focusing far more heavily on what is now an amazing farm system to continually deliver top-notch players. 

The main similarity between these two, very successful organizations??? MONEY!!! Lots of it, sometimes TOO much of it, but we know that in order to be successful in today’s MLB, in spite of the current CoronaVirus-necessitated changes, you need to spend big money to make it. Nowhere in the world is it more imperative than in New York, and nowhere is it more important than in Queens, providing a fanbase, once and for all, with the resources it so richly deserves.

Cut back to BVW for a moment – if you think that, either with or without a huge cash infusion, that he’s NOT the right person to lead this organization, then there IS one man whom we’d love to see you bring in; he’s someone that – hopefully like you- has been a Mets fan since birth, an already very successful major league GM (actually President of Baseball Operations/GM) with the Milwaukee Brewers, one David Stearns!! David (great name, by the way) has already led the under-budgeted Brewers to some prominence, as he’s been smart in acquisitions (Christian Yelich!!!!!!), strong in player development (Josh Hader) and excellent in drafting young talent. 

The Manhattan native actually started in the Mets front office, right out of Harvard, and went on to make his mark with the Cleveland Indians and working for MLB as well. He’s young (35) and smart, well-liked within the game and possesses all of the qualities you look for in hiring someone to hopefully steer your organization for the next 10 years or more. It’s worked across town, it’s worked in Texas with another Mets-fan, Jon Daniels, and there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work in NY with Stearns, as LONG AS he’s given the right amount of money to spend, not just on the big leagues but on the amateur draft and international marketplace. 

Both the Dodgers and Yankees have practically “broken the bank” when it comes to signing international players, so much so that now, when great players are recognized in places such as the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, their first thoughts are to try to sign with these teams as their paydays and paths for advancement have been proven time and again. Now the Mets haven’t exactly been wallflowers in this department, but wouldn’t it be nice to know that the Mets became the number one destination for both international prospects and major league free agents to want to sign with??? THAT would be an ultimate sign of accomplishment!!

With David Stearns behind the wheel, and again, we still think BVW deserves at LEAST one more year to prove himself, but with Stearns behind the wheel we think you would really be on your way to building a first class organization!!

In Part Two of our Operations Manual, we will take a look at the next, critical parts of your new team: the state of the current roster and minor league systems. Until then, get some sleep, stay hydrated, and start transferring over some of those millions to the team’s coffers – they’re going to need them!!!