While there hasn’t been an official announcement yet, the general belief around baseball – as confirmed by several reporters and team sources – is that the Mets’ next general manager will be Brodie Van Wagenen, a renowned sports agent and current co-head of the baseball division with the Creative Arts Agency (CAA).
Van Wagenen, 44, is a Stanford University alum and former member of Forbes’ “40 Under 40” list highlighting talents in the business of sports. While many Mets fans have him on the radar as Jacob deGrom‘s agent thanks to a rather tense sequence of events this past summer surrounding the ace’s future with the team, there’s still much more for fans to learn about Van Wagenen.
More specifically, we should all understand the implications of replacing Sandy Alderson with somebody who, while a noted advocate for players, will not be venturing into the most friendly of confines as he inherits a far-from-perfect Mets’ roster. The elephant in the room and perhaps the most obvious con attached to Van Wagenen is that he has no experience working in a Major League front office.
While it isn’t the most symmetric of examples, Mickey Callaway‘s inexperience, while not a definite testament to his ability to manage a clubhouse, certainly dumped the Mets in a few undesirable situations through their early-summer meltdown. Being a general manager, though not as tough a learning curve as it relates to Van Wagenen establishing relationships with his players, will undoubtedly come with a few hiccups early on. Picking out seasoned, reliable advisors will be a challenge, and the alternative option – keeping John Ricco, Omar Minaya, and J.P. Ricciardi in the boardroom – isn’t all that attractive, either.
By the same token, however, this is not to say that Van Wagenen won’t be trusted to make important decisions and construct a winning ballclub on his own. Though he will have to leave his job with CAA behind and leave his clients in the hands of other people to avoid conflicts of interest, the connections he has built wouldn’t otherwise change. Van Wagenen may still have an advantage if he can vouch for extensions of deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Brandon Nimmo; and free agents who have built professional relationships with him will still have a good sense as to what they’d get into if they were to sign with the Mets: J.T. Realmuto, Adam Jones, Michael Wacha, Jake Lamb, Jean Segura, and Wil Myers are just a few of the many current big leaguers who are clients of CAA and could benefit the team in some way or another down the line.
And while it’s been posited to by some as a detractor given the results the Mets have seen so far, the fact that Van Wagenen encouraged the Mets to re-sign Yoenis Cespedes following the 2016 season and again in 2017 with both Todd Frazier and Jason Vargas is a firm indication that the men upstairs listen to him and are willing to invest resources. And the same can be said for a variety of other teams with whom Van Wagenen has negotiated, such as the Seattle Mariners (Robinson Cano‘s ten-year deal in 2013), Oakland Athletics (Jed Lowrie‘s three-year deal from 2016), and Colorado Rockies (Ian Desmond‘s five-year deal from this past offseason).
Obviously, this sort of dynamic will change as Van Wagenen transitions from performer to judge, instead listening to and evaluating what other agents present him. This switch could present all sorts of conflicts of interest, and has become a cause for concern for a number of players in the league, with MLBPA director (and former Met) Tony Clark articulating their anxiety to a number of sources. Renowned agent Scott Boras said the following on the Michael Kay Show yesterday:
“When you’re fluid and you’re going from agency to management, the fact of the matter is, how does a player know that you won’t make that change at any time[?]… Why would he tell you the most intimate things in the world, knowing you’re going to be negotiating against him?”
“More importantly, the owner that hires someone, how do they know, owner know, while they might be expressing loyalty to you, they also have a group of people that they worked with for a long time who they were loyal to. How do they know that he won’t shift that loyalty from you to the other side?”
If it’s worth anything, however, it should be noted that Van Wagenen drafted this scathing letter accusing Major League owners of collusion just this past offseason. Not to mention, he adamantly challenged the Mets’ brass as recently as July regarding Jacob deGrom’s contract status. Van Wagenen’s timeline of selling a player’s merits, developing a solid network, yet also having the courage to criticize his superiors where necessary bodes fairly well for him as a trustworthy, straight-forward representative that Scott Boras (of all people) may not have the clearest image of.
The frustrating reality is that, as the case was with fellow “outside-the-box” hire in Callaway, Van Wagenen’s credibility is not going to be known for quite a while if he is officially brought aboard. Even when the offseason and spring training come to pass, the team’s performance during the season is going to dictate the decisions the Mets make to either build on success or assume damage control. The Mets are fortunate to have a manager and general manager who players have tremendous respect for, but a lot remains to be seen.
