With the Winter Meetings kicking off, Brodie Van Wagenen held his first presser on Monday night, answering questions on everything from player acquisitions to the new potential Mets owner.
With Zack Wheeler signing a five-year, $118 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies, many Mets fans were disappointed with the team and their lack of interest in the veteran pitcher. They reportedly didn’t even make Wheeler an offer, despite him circling back to the Mets.
For Van Wagenen, the July trade for Marcus Stroman was already the Mets replacing Wheeler in the rotation. Thus, Van Waganen sounded focused on getting depth to add to the Mets rotation and not a 4-WAR type pitcher like Wheeler.
Last season, Stroman put up a 3.22 ERA and 4.1 bWAR in 32 games pitched between the Mets and Blue Jays. The Mets traded two of their top pitching prospects in Anthony Kay (made his major league debut in 2019) and Simeon Woods Richardson to land Stroman.
Wheeler put up a 3.96 ERA and 4.1 bWAR in 31 games for the Mets in 2019. It was the second straight season of being at least a 4.0 WAR player for Wheeler as he entered free agency at 29 years old.
Stroman, 28, is under contract for the Mets through the 2020 season and is projected to make $11.8 through arbitration.
The Mets finished the 2019 season with a rotation of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Wheeler, and Stroman.
