Putting a damper on an already dreadful start to the team’s series against the Phillies, during the middle of last night’s game in Citizens Bank Park, Mike Puma of the New York Post released news from an industry source that Mickey Callaway has not had full autonomy when making managerial decisions for the Mets.
The source claims that General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen has communicated orders to the Mets’ support staff multiple times during games this season, and cited a specific example that took place on June 1 in the club’s 2-5 loss to the Diamondbacks. The first-year executive was allegedly watching the game from his home when he directed the team’s skipper to pull Jacob deGrom from the game in the seventh inning where he sustained a right hip cramp, despite the pitcher’s protests.
Following the outing, deGrom explained that his hip cramped up briefly but that all discomfort was gone by the time he was taken out of the game, according to Tim Healey of Newsday. He expressed that: “It’s a tough loss for us tonight and I wish I could’ve stayed out there.”
After the game, Callaway defended the decision to remove the reigning National League Cy Young winner from his start.
“We can’t leave him out there with anything bothering him,” he said. “He’s too important to this franchise.”
At the time the managerial decision by Callaway was criticized by the public, but with recent news of Van Wagenen’s alleged meddling, questions regarding the sovereignty of the team’s manager have been raised due to the uncommon nature of the situation.
“Hell, yeah, it’s unusual: Sending word to the dugout, telling the manager what to do? I have never heard of that before,” the source said, according to Puma.
In Major League Baseball’s 2019 Edition of Official Baseball Rules, Section 4.02 states: “The manager may advise the umpire-in-chief that he has delegated specific duties prescribed by the rules to a player or coach, and any action of such designated representative shall be official. The manager shall always be responsible for his team’s conduct, observance of the official rules, and deference to the umpires.”
Brodie Van Wagenen has never been officially delegated to a specific role regarding in-game baseball operations.
The GM denied these claims after the Mets 13-7 loss in Philadelphia. “It’s not true,” he said. “No in-game decisions are ever called down to the dugout. … We’re not doing that.”
The executive did not explicitly address the specific incident in Arizona, but commented that: “I can tell you that we do communicate with the training staff and the training room when there is a player that suffers an injury.”
While he is allowed to be in contact with the training staff, Van Wagenen is not allowed to communicate decisions to anyone about whether or not a player should be removed from a game- regardless of injury.
Callaway later defended Brodie’s denial to the allegations.
“We got information from all parties, and we made the decision to take care of our ace pitcher that’s going to be here for a long time,” the manager said. “We all thought it was prudent at that point.”
While Van Wagenen’s reported directive to pull the ace may have been against Major League Baseball’s rules, it wouldn’t be as big of a story if it weren’t for the team’s current chaotic state of affairs. These allegations, along with Sunday’s clubhouse mayhem -when Callaway cursed out a reporter for being “an antagonist”, and Jason Vargas had to be restrained from coming after said media member after threatening to assault the him- highlight increasing tension -that has been developing over the past sixteen years- due to a culture problem within the Mets’ organization.
It’s not a secret that the Mets’ ownership is notorious for its micromanaging and meddling in day-to-day baseball operations. There is an entire catalog -a 55 minute read- posted online by Medium writer ‘Good Fundies’ that documents: “A Complete History of Media Reports Chronicling the Wilpons’ Meddling in New York Mets Baseball Operations.”
The article details accounts by several media outlets from 2003 to 2019 outlining the club’s toxic culture that seems to stem from ownership.
In 2003, Joel Sherman of the New York Post gave insight on New York’s endemic problems while speculating the soon-to-be-fired Mets’ General Manager Steve Phillips’ dismissal. Sherman wrote: “It will be another member of middle management sacrificed to take heat off Fred Wilpon and his son, Jeff… You would have to be naïve to think Wilpon’s role in player acquisition ended with OK’ing the budget… If you love the Mets, stop hoping the GM will be fired, because that is going to happen- and it will change nothing. If you love the Mets, send mirrors to the Wilpons so they can see the problem more clearly.”
In 2009, ESPN.com’s Peter Gammons told 1050 ESPN Radio that “Omar [Minaya] isn’t the General Manager, Jeff Wilpon is… Omar’s the one out there to take the heat,” per Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.
In 2010, Sherman cited a baseball executive in regular contact with the Mets’ perspective that: “Jeff is the problem with the organization, and he is never going to realize that. He cannot help himself. He has to be involved. He will never hire anyone who will not let him have major input. He will not hire anyone who does not run every personnel decision through him.”
Not only media members, but even former Mets’ players have also reported on the Wilpon’s excessive interfering with baseball operations.
In his book, “Pedro,” Pedro Martinez describes a situation in September of 2005 where Jeff Wilpon made the decision for him to make a start against the Marlins star lefty Dontrelle Willis in order sell tickets-all while being aware of the righty’s lingering toe issue. Then Manager Willie Randolph had already shut down Martinez for the season but according to the pitcher, Wilpon ordered him to take the mound -despite the injury- stating: “While I’m the boss here, you’re going to have to do what I say.”
It certainly sounds like the Mets front office trend of micromanaging has continued into the 2019 season and it’s starting to get ugly, quick.
