New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen sat down with WFAN’s afternoon co-hosts Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts in Port St. Lucie on Friday to discuss the 2020 season (and off-season). Joe and Evan, both staunch Mets fans, wasted little time in telling Van Wagenen that they expect the Mets to be a playoff team in 2020.
Van Wagenen responded by saying the fact that a wild card team, who the Mets were not that far behind in the standings, won the World Series in 2019 “… left a bitter taste in our mouths” and hopes the Mets can close the difference between not only the Washington Nationals, but the two-time defending National League East champion Atlanta Braves as well.
Next, the topic turned to the the Mets managerial search. Both Joe and Evan made it clear that they, and a number of their callers, wanted Joe Girardi to be the next Mets skipper. When asked ‘why not Girardi’, Van Wagenen said:
“There was something we were looking for specifically for this club, we wanted a guy that could clearly be a players’ first manager, somebody that could walk into our clubhouse and connect with the guys, be able to cross cultural lines with our clubhouse, be able to connect with the veterans, be able to connect with the young guys, the American kids, the international guys. And we felt like Carlos, and now Luis were the right fits.”
Van Wagenen wanted a “players first manager” above all else and called the hiring of Luis Rojas a “no-brainer” after the fall-out with Carlos Beltran. BVW was complimentary of Beltran saying how he was impressed by the “little things” Beltran notices during a game, but the Houston Astros scandal made it ultimately impossible to keep him.
When confronted about the Edwin Diaz, Robinson Cano trade, Van Wagenen took a wait and see attitude despite the poor performances of both players in 2019. He told Joe and Evan:
“I hope you guys are talking about that deal a lot during the season this year and I just hope it’s a totally different narrative. These guys, they’ve done it in the big leagues, Diaz – a lot of people talk about the ’18 season, he was good in ’16, he was good in ‘17 he was good in ‘18, he struck out 99 guys in ’19. We gotta get him back on track, but if he’s right we have a chance to be really deep and really good in the bullpen.”
As far as the Mets off-season moves, the tone was more complimentary as the hosts thought the team had a strong winter with the acquisitions of Michael Wacha, Rick Porcello among others. Brodie commented on his approach in the off-season and said:
“We wanted to keep the core of this team together, The young guys that answered a lot of questions we had last year, McNeil, Alonso, J.D. Davis, we got answers about that young core. We didn’t want to trade from that grouping of Nimmo, Conforto and everybody else, but we had to sure up the backend of our rotation and we wanted to do it with some veteran guys.”
When asked about Zack Wheeler, Van Wagenen said the Mets made overtures to signing him, but knew with free-agency, anything can happen. He remarked that the acquisition of Marcus Stroman was in part an insurance policy against losing a Wheeler in the open market. When reminded that Stroman will be a free agent after the 2020 season while Michael Conforto and Noah Syndergaard will be free agents at the end of the 2021 season and if there’s been one-on-one discussions with any of the players, Van Wagenen simply said the Mets were in the process of discussing “internally” the fate of his upcoming free-agents and did not mention if there had been any private talks.
Later on WFAN, Conforto stated there had not been any discussion about signing an extension before free-agency with the team.
The topic of team ownership was addressed and if the ebbs and flows of the tenuous off-season had any effect on his job. Van Wagenen said it didn’t remarking:
“It didn’t really factor in much from my standpoint. We gotta look at baseball decisions, look at the talent that we feel like can help us and that matches up to how we feel their performance is going to project when we give them a contract in years out.”
The availability of Yoenis Cespedes was next on the agenda. Joe and Evan wanted to know if he’d be ready for opening day or even be on the roster. To this Van Wagenen noted,
“If he’s right offensively he has such a huge impact in the lineup that were going to want to get him in there. So there’s excitement because I don’t think any of us thought he’d be this far along in camp.” He noted his ability to run the bases and in the outfield effectively are still a question mark.
Van Wagenen was asked if he is watching any particular player(s) this spring that could possibly be ready for the start of the season on the big club. He mentioned three names: Eduardo Nunez, Max Moroff and Ryan Cordell, who has already made an impact this spring, are all on his radar for the big league roster.
Finally, he was asked about Jed Lowrie and his potential availability in 2020. Van Wagenen said he “hopes so”, and that Lowrie has done everything asked of him with regard to baseball activities. He said that the brace Lowrie wears has to be changed to be more “competition ready.”
When asked if he had any bold predictions or remarks for 2020 similar to the “Come Get Us” cry in 2019, Van Wagnen said no. He simply offered,
“We’re running down a two time division winner in the Braves and we’re chasing a World Series champ, so the mindset we’ll have is that we’ve got to overcome the teams that were better than us last year.”
