Brodie Van Wagenen: “Sale Is Not a Process I’m Involved In”

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mets General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen said he could not provide an update on the groups involved in the bidding process for the sale of the team, in part because it is not a topic that has come across his desk.

“Truthfully, it’s not a process I’m involved in,” Van Wagenen said. “For me and the baseball operations department, it continues to be business as usual. I anticipate it remaining that way until there is, or if there is, a change.”

Although it would be surprising if he is not being kept abreast of the latest developments, Van Wagenen insinuated that his interactions with the current ownership have been solely focused on baseball matters.

“Jeff [Wilpon] and I are still in constant communication on every aspect of the day-to-day operations,” Van Wagenen said. “Fred [Wilpon] and I are in regular communication about our team and the decision-making, and we’re collaborating in the same way we always have.

“You’d be surprised,” he added when prodded further. “We aren’t talking about it as a baseball operations group. Our focus is on what I just described, which is to win and it’s to try and win going forward.”

Here are some other noteworthy tidbits from Friday’s presser.

Brooklyn Site to Open Soon

Van Wagenen said he expects the Mets to open up MCU Park in Coney Island for training in the coming days, perhaps as soon as the start of next week.

Team officials recently did a walk-through of the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, which is constantly lauded as one of the best facilities in minor league baseball.

Van Wagenen also said that he expects multiple players to be added to the organization’s Player Pool (which currently has nine open spots) soon, which would allow for workout groups to be divided among the two sites.

Cano’s Absence Confirmed

Van Wagenen confirmed that Robinson Cano has not been present at workouts over the past few days but did not provide a reason for his absence.

“As it relates to player communication and daily updates, you can count on us to continue to provide daily updates on all players and their on-field activities, all players on any health-related issue from an on-field activity, but once players leave the ballpark, we’re not going to provide updates there,” Van Wagenen said.

“There’s a variety of reasons why players are or aren’t here on a given day and we’re going to protect the players’ rights to keep those reasons quiet.”

Lowrie’s Status Seems to be Improving

“We’re starting to get more answers to the questions we had when we entered camp,” said Van Wagenen with regard to the status of Jed Lowrie.

The 36-year-old infielder doubled and scored against Jacob deGrom in a simulated game on Thursday.

“Jed, a little like Yoenis [Cespedes], is demonstrating that the quality of his at-bats has not declined with his layoff,” Van Wagenen said. “We saw that yesterday with his double off deGrom on a 3-2 count, and then he worked a walk off another 3-2 count in his second at-bat.

“As he progresses, too, we’re going to continue to learn more about his explosiveness and his ability to run with effectiveness and also play defense with effectiveness. But the energy level and the effort that he’s shown early in camp has been encouraging.”