Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen sat down with Howie Rose last night to chat about a variety of different topics as the team’s first Grapefruit League game of 2019 is only a day away.
One of the hot topics surrounding the Mets all offseason was whether or not top prospect Pete Alonso was going to be on the big league roster on Opening Day.
Van Wagenen and manager Mickey Callaway have both said said Alonso will have a chance to make the roster, and Van Wagenen said this on Thursday, “The games in April as just as important as the ones in September so we don’t want to miss out on winning the division by one game or two games because we didn’t break camp with the best 25 guys.”
The Mets would gain a year of control for Alonso if they hold him back a few weeks to start the season. In that scenario they would have Todd Frazier, Dominic Smith, and J.D. Davis as options to play first base.
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Alonso, 24, has been applauded by coaches and media for his hard work over the last year or so to improve his defense. The slugging first baseman’s defense has been the long talked about weakness in Alonso’s game and it still a question market going into the 2019 season.
The former second round pick hit 44 home runs and 36 doubles over 580 at-bats between Double-A, Triple-A, and the Arizona Fall League. Included in that total is the towering homer he hit in the Futures Game and the 103 mph fastball from Nate Pearson he turned around in the Fall Stars Game.
When Van Wagenen was asked about the importance of analytics and how they will be filtered down to the coaches, “When I came in and interviewed for the job, there was a commitment from ownership to give me the resources to bolster and invest in our analytics department.”
The former agent also went onto mention new hires quality control coach Luis Rojas and Mike Wickham as people that would help bridge the gap between the analytics department and the coaching staff.
