The Mets made an out of the box decision in the hiring of Brodie Van Wagenen as their next GM, and I think it will work fine for a number of reasons signaling a change in the decision making for the organization.

I have sat back and listened to all the concerns about hiring an agent to make the decisions that attempts to establish the Mets as a playoff contender in 2019 and most of them are really ridiculous. I will admit Brodie would not have been my first choice but in speaking to him over past few years he is an intelligent, honest professional whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration for in the way he went about his job as an agent.

The life of an agent in terms of free agency and trades is very similar to the life of a general manager. They are trying to get the best deal for their player while the general manager is trying to get the best deal for their organization. He must try to create competition in marketplace to get the best deal and that skill could be huge for the team in settings like The Winter Meetings or Trade Deadlines.

He certainly needs to show he can develop his ability to manage a farm system, combine scouting efforts with analytics and yes–deal with ownership. Omar Minaya can be a huge help in all of those areas. Lets not forget–Van Wagenen is a man who convinced Jeff Wilpon to spend money on a number of free agent deals and I think that ability will be very helpful in his new position.

I also believe this is a man who readily understands there is a core of players on this roster that are key to the team contending in 2019 and I highly doubt he would have been offered the job if he did not concur with that assessment.

We all know the conflict of interest theories that Scott Boras put on the table last week but to me that is a bunch of nonsense.  Successful agents always have multiple players competing in the same marketplace for free agent contracts and yet they negotiate for both players–sometimes with same teams. Boras has been in that situation and for him to poke holes in this hire for that reason is so Boras-like.

Now the big question in the room is will Brodie be able to swing Met payroll upwards? I am not sure about that but Omar Minaya did once he was hired back in 2005. I know that was pre-Madoff time but I must believe this was discussed in his interview with both Fred and Jeff. I really do not expect a foray into the Harper/Machado stratosphere but I do think he will be want to severely upgrade the bullpen and add a right handed bat or 2 as well as improve the overall defense of the team especially in center and behind the plate.

If I were him, I would ask for a $190 Million payroll to do that–which I think is representative of what a NY team should spend. There are enough low salary players that will contribute on this team like Rosario, McNeil, Conforto and Nimmo that makes it possible to attract 2-3 arms in BP plus add a bat to what I feel is best starting rotation in the division.  And Cespedes could be a “huge mid-season upgrade” once he is healthy.

What do I think will happen? I am far from a fortune teller but if that $190 Million payroll is signed off on by the Wilpons  we may be discussing 12 months from now how foolish it was for anyone to have turned down the chance to interview for this job in 2018.