New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen spoke to the team’s media corps ahead of the Mets’ second-half opener versus the Marlins in South Florida.
The first-year GM has been made unavailable to the press in recent weeks, with the only buzz coming out of the front office being Van Wagenen’s well-publicized chair-throwing incident last week.
Heading into the home stretch, the Mets are 40-50, 13.5 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves in the National League East and seven games behind a wild-card berth with ten teams between themselves and the top of the list.
Calling back to Van Wagenen’s pre-season proclamation of “come get us”, Brodie poked a little fun at himself, telling reporters, “they came and got us” (quote via Tim Healey, Newsday).
After a series of odd trades and even odder additions this offseason, Van Wagenen owed it to the media, as well as the fans, to show a little accountability on Friday (video via Deesha Thosar of the NY Daily News).
“We are incredibly disappointed […] This season has not gone the way we wanted. It certainly hasn’t gone the way our players wanted and, most importantly, it hasn’t gone the way our fans wanted.”
“We recognize that the Mets are part of the community. Families, friends come together in good times and bad times to watch our team and I’m sorry that we haven’t been able to give fans more to cheer about this year. We’ve got to do better.”
Van Wagenen’s offseason additions of Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia, and Jed Lowrie have played out as poorly as possible so far. J.D. Davis‘ production is a good sign, as are Wilson Ramos‘ offensive contributions, but, overall, Brodie hasn’t picked many winners,
“This past offseason I talked a lot. I shared as much information as I felt like I could about our needs, our holes in our roster, and how we were going to go about addressing them.”
“From the priorities of bolstering our bullpen, increasing our run production, and creating more versatility and depth on the roster, those were the priorities. We were pretty aggressive in going out there and trying to address those needs.”
As for the upcoming July 31 trade deadline, Van Wagenen told reporters (quote via Tim Healey, Newsday that “moving expiring contracts” — such as Zack Wheeler, Jason Vargas, and Todd Frazier — is where the team’s focus will lie, adding he “expects [Noah Syndergaard] and [Jacob deGrom] to remain Mets”.
Mets skipper Mickey Callaway got a vote of confidence from Van Wagenen, telling the press (Healey) he “absolutely” anticipates the second-year manager remaining at the helm through season’s end, adding “I think Mickey has done a difficult job very well”.
We’ll see how the rest of the season — as well as the upcoming offseason — plays out, but Friday’s serving of humble pie was a nice change of pace from the blind optimism we’ve been hearing all season.
We’ll keep you abreast of any other developing news.
