New York Mets’ general manager Brodie Van Wagenen is not a typical GM.
From his ‘omnipresent’ style of managing to his “come and get us” bravado, Van Wagenen has taken New York by storm and with the retirement of David Wright, has become the face of a proud franchise. He will brashly proclaim to the nearest microphone the numerous virtues and deeds he accomplishes and expects to be accomplished in one minute and then in the next humble himself by saying that he “wants to surround himself with people who are better than me, smarter than me, more experienced than me.”
He has not shied away from the media and seems to make a headline nearly everyday. He is a polished, confident, intelligent, well-versed man who, if he realizes his goals, will become a Met legend to a fan base that is more accustomed to front office failure than success.
It has been well documented that Van Wagenen was a successful agent prior to being hired as a Met. Among his clients were Jacob deGrom, Robinson Cano, and Yoenis Cespedes. He also was a fine athlete who, if it were not a serious shoulder injury suffered while playing baseball at his alma mater Stanford University, might well have made a career as an athlete not as an agent.
So the question is how did this man transition himself from athlete, to young agent, to star agent to Mets general manager? Baseball America talked with the owner and COO of the Mets, Jeff Wilpon, and others, to explain his rise and his journey to the front office of a major franchise without a scintilla of experience.
” I had my eye on trying to do something a little out of the box and doing something that hadn’t been done before. At least exploring the options throughout our process of putting a number of people that might have not been on the radar before.” So are the words of Jeff Wilpon when asked of the appeal of Brodie Van Wagenen during his interview process. Wilpon clearly wanted to impress the fan base by thinking outside of the box as he mentions this frequently throughout the interview.
Wilpon wanted a new kind of general manager. He grouped potential candidates into three “molds”. The first was the old school GM who focused on scouting and player development but not in analytics. The second was the new school GM who believed in analytics and finally the last mold which was a hybrid of the first two: a manager who can embrace the best parts of both philosophies. Perhaps surprisingly, Van Wagenen was not the only agent Wilpon considered for the job.
“Nobody had ever thought about a player agent at (the) time, and I did speak to more than one player agent that we considered. And I did speak to player agents that have turned and gone onto the team side from other sports as well.” Wilpon’s desire to be different was very clear.
As far as Van Wagenen’s vision for the team, Wilpon was impressed, “I liked when I asked him, ‘Can we do something that will be sustainable and repeatable over the next 10 years?’ and we look back after 10 years and say, ‘Wow, the Mets really have had a great run.’ That’s what I wanted. I didn’t want him just coming in here trying to make deals to get his next contract. I didn’t want him coming in here just making deals to try and prove he can do it and push things to a point where it would leverage the future. So everything he’s done in his plan from the beginning after we spoke about that really hit on all those topics of, ‘OK, we want to get better now, we want to get better in the future.’ How do we do that and how do we balance that?”
After explaining his vision for the Mets it appeared that he was the front runner in Wilpon’s mind. When asked why he ultimately chose Van Wagenen, Wilpon did not tip his hand about thinking outside of the box and stated there were three finalists. Although he admitted that any of the three would have been excellent choices, it really boiled down to this, “We just thought, where we sort of looked at it at the end, this was out of the box, this was something a little different, and we thought that might entice the fan base and be best for the organization. The fans could get behind him. He would be a great spokesman for the team, and something that we could rally around and move forward for long-term success.”
Welcome to the Mets, Brodie Van Wagenen.
As far as his performance in the first few months of his new job, Wilpon said about Van Wagenen that he is impressed by the intelligence of the man: someone who comes to him and gives him something before he even asks for it. Wilpon continues, “but I think one of the smartest things he did is a great trait that you see from good leaders and great leaders—he’s not scared to surround himself with just as smart people and willing to learn and listen to others around him, and he’s built out a great front office for us.”
As far as Van Wagenen himself, this quotation he gave to Baseball Almanac sums him up nicely, “What I am is, I try to outline goals. And once the goals are identified, I try to build a gameplan to achieve those goals. When I was going through the interview process I had outlined what I thought could be a successful plan for the club, and that plan was sort of focused on build not rebuild. And building upon the talent that existed on the roster, in particular on the starting rotation. Once I got the job, I really identified the areas where we could be most positively impacted and then set out a gameplan to try to go fill those areas of need. I think the first deal that was made was a byproduct of that and everything sort of fell in place after that.”
October 29, 2018.
That will be a date that is either a mere footnote in Mets’ history or a date that is celebrated forever by generations of Met fans. It is the date that Brodie Van Wagenen was hired to become the general manager of the Mets. He has added pieces to a mosaic that includes players, scouts, front office staff, and even some dugout help for manager Mickey Callaway. He has added depth to nearly all phases of the organization and exudes confidence at every turn. One can only hope, that once the pieces are all in place and functioning smoothly, the mosaic turns out to be a precious piece of fine art.
Be sure to head over to Baseball America to check out more on the topic.
