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8/29/20

Reese Kaplan -- Job Number One for New Owners



Mets fans are on the edge of their seats this weekend, but not for the overcrowded subway series with the crosstown rival New York Yankees.  Surely those games carry extra bragging rights for whomever emerges with victories.  That's a fun activity if the Mets indeed are the victors as there's been so little to brag about during this highly dynamic and grossly abbreviated 2020 season.  

No, the real issue on the table is that it's the final submission of proposals to purchase the team from the Wilpon family come Monday morning, August 31st.  So instead of pondering what wild-assed trade transactions may be taking place for the New York Mets in their September wobble towards the wildcard, instead it's time to ponder who might be the new members residing in the owner's box come 2021 and what it means to the future of the team.

Well, instead of pondering on the pros and cons of the virtues of the investors and con men bidding to supplant the Wilpon amateur hour, let's look at what they need to do when the take hold of the reins and start steering the ballclub into a new direction.  Obviously the Mets have been spending oddly, hiring strangely and bidding farewell to some players before it's time while holding onto other long past their expiration dates have arrived.  



The first order of business for the new owners will be deciding the front office.  The Wilpons' decision to hire never-before-GM baseball agent Brodie Van Wagenen to assume this critical role has resulted in typical Mets fashion.  BVW has had some success.  Let's not forget what he's done well.  He promoted Pete Alonso weeks before typically done by most other teams to preserve longterm negotiating leverage and he rewarded his GM with a 53 HR Rookie of the Year season along with a Home Run Derby victory at the All Star Game.  It frankly doesn't get any better than that.  

He also made the decision to hang onto deposed first baseman Dom Smith instead of trading him for the proverbial bag of balls.  For folks who forget his 2019 season, he hit for average, for power, his smile lit up the rest of the ballclub and he was thrust into learning the outfield on the fly to allow him to be in the same lineup as Alonso.

Perhaps BVW's best trade ever was sending three minor leaguers to the cheating Houston Astros to pick up ex AAA batting champion J.D. Davis.  No one knew where he was going to play, but someone he managed to get over 400 ABs and accumulate more than 20 HRs while hitting for a high average at the same time.  

Many of the boo birds who were ready to crucify Van Wagenen for the major trade sending minor leaguers (and salary relief for major leaguers) to Seattle to pick up dual All Stars Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano are pretty much holding their tongues this year when both are playing the way everyone had hoped when the deal was made. 



The problem with BVW is that he's a win-now-at-any-cost type of inexperienced GM.  As a result, he's pillaged the minor league system with little to show for the purge except a lack of depth in the mid to upper levels.  I won't go line by line reciting who has gone and what didn't result from the deals, but suffice to say the Mets are not going to see a lot of personnel from within during the new reign post-Wilpon because there's precious little there.  

Now this past week BVW committed one of the cardinal sins of the front office but leaving his mic on to criticize the behavior of the baseball commissioner.  The Wilpon family came down with both barrels, quickly apologizing to Rob Manfred and jointly throwing their green GM under the bus.  If the Wilpons remained in charge, you'd bet that BVW would be cashing his last Mets payroll check at the year's end.  

The question remains for the new owners is whether or not the unproven GM has done more harm than good.  The new owners probably want to curry favor with Manfred as well, yet they may not want to toss $5 million dollars down the sewer by relieving the man of his two remaining $2.5 million years on his contract.  On the other hand, it's possible they think that the public relations victory by replacing someone who has not done what he was hired to do might make that $5 million a decent investment.  Either way, it appears to be job number one for the Wilpon replacements.  

6 comments:

  1. Yes Mr Cohen please relieve BVW of his duties!!! Hopefully we get the majority vote from the other owners and we got the owner we needed.

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  2. Why is all the talk about our farm centered around the upper levels? The last 2 drafts alone have drawn universal praise, and above those players are names like Mauricio, Alvarez, Vientos, Reyes and numerous others who could be here in 2-3 years. And there's one 21-year-old who is already here.

    What position on the current team is in need of support from the farm in the next 2 years, except Catcher? Other than Cano and Ramos, we have no starting position players over 30, and if Cano falters we've got plenty of potential replacements in Squirrel, Gimenez and Guillorme.

    And there's one 2-word phrase that never fails to make me cringe:"Anyone but...", which is a big part of the ownership speculation here.

    Remember "Anyone but Hillary"? Have you ever known someone whose annoying neighbors sold the house next door to "anyone but"?

    Mr. /Ms "Anyone but" provides hope, but can turn out to be disasters. Remember Miami, whose fans were desperate for "Anyone but", cheered the Jeter group, and watched as their only players with value (Stanton, Yelich, and Ozuna) were quickly exiled.

    As I usually do, I hope for the best when "Anyone but" takes the reins, but I'm not blind to the possibility that "Anyone but" could turn out to be a lot less than expected. 🤞

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  3. It is true about Diaz and Cano, and had they played in 2019 like they are so far in 2020, maybe the Mets and not the Nats win that World Series. Who knew Can would be hampered by injuries (primarily 2 HBPs) and diaz would fall 14 floors below his 2018 pinnacle. That trade might not be bad when all is said and done after all, and it is unclear whether Kelenic would be an upgrade in the OF over Smith, Nimmo and Conforto.

    Prospect-wise, it is too early to tell, but Baty, Vientos, Mauricio, and Alvarez might be future major league position player starters, and JT Ginn, Matt Allan, and Josh Wolf might be starters.

    I did not like the Stroman trade, but no one could have known how the pandemic would play out in his case. If Thor had been healthy this year, and Stroman too, this team would be World Series caliber. That said, I fear that Simeon Woods-Richardson might be the real deal as a starter, possibly better than Stroman. Time will tell.

    I just hope that bona fide prospects (i.e., future impact major league starting players) are not traded for rentals. But the temptation is there - if you get Alonso and McNeil going as they can, and Buffalo and Amed start to hit, this team is very possibly the most dangerous hitting squad they've ever had. Even with the 4 laggards mentioned, they are first in the majors in OBP and second in batting average. Met teams don't do that

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  4. I agree about rentals, unless (like the Dodgers with Betts) you're determined to re-sign them. Stro has said he loves it here, and his lack of a 2020 season doesn't add to his argument for big bucks, so IMO Brodie should lock him up NOW for a 3-year extension.

    If he does, and Stro is the pitcher we expected at the time of the trade, it's a good deal no matter how good W-R turns out to be.

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  5. Van Wagenen isn't "unproven," he's an obvious disaster.

    Take this: "He promoted Pete Alonso weeks before typically done by most other teams to preserve longterm negotiating leverage and he rewarded his GM with a 53 HR Rookie of the Year season along with a Home Run Derby victory at the All Star Game. It frankly doesn't get any better than that."

    In a season where the Mets were very unlikely to contend, BVW threw away Alonso's entire 2025 season in order to get a couple of weeks from him in 2019---just so BVW could try to compensate for his ridiculous offseason.

    As for not trading Dom Smith for the 'proverbial bag of balls,' how is NOT doing something obviously foolish (dealing a kid with real upside, for nothing) an admirable move?

    When you have to go so far as to say not making ridiculous moves is to the GM's credit, it's time to get a new GM.

    As for the new ownership, god help us if it's C-list celebrities and cheats like Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez.

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