Since becoming the GM of the Mets Brodie Van Wagenen has made some good and some bad moves. While the Mets have brought aboard Edwin Diaz, Robinson Cano, Jeurys Familia, Wilson Ramos, Rajai Davis, Gregor Blanco, Keon Broxton, Walker Lockett and J.D. Davis, they’ve lost a ton of talent from their farm. See below as the Mets have said goodbye to seven players from my Top 50.
Jarred Kelenic, OF (#3) – Met fans will bemoan the Cano trade for years if Kelenic develops into any sort of starting caliber outfielder. Based upon his first half season, Seattle has plenty of reason to hope for more. Kelenic showed tremendous offensive potential and the physical ability to play anywhere in the outfield. Van Wagenen was forced to give him up to keep Diaz from winding up with a divisional rival but I’m not sure it was worth it.
Justin Dunn, RHP (#6) – The Mets farm system was bolstered when the Mets traded Asdrubal Cabrera and got Franklyn Kilome but Dunn was both healthier and better performing. Based upon his numbers it appeared that his future lay as a #3 starting pitcher with potential to be a solid #2 or to be transferred to the bullpen. Dunn’s inclusion in the deal hurts far less for now because we still remember his awful 2017.
Gerson Bautista, RHP (#29) – Bautista has some raw stuff but looked awful when he got his promotion in 2018. His fastball may be fast but it also seemed pretty darn hittable. There was a chance that Bautista could still develop into a star reliever but that didn’t seem to be too likely.
Bobby Wahl, RHP (#20) – One of the better trades this offseason the Mets give up Wahl, who may or may not succeed as a reliever for Keon Broxton who has seen major league success in his time in the majors. Wahl seemed to struggle in translation from AAA to MLB but seems likely to be a major league caliber middle reliever in the making.
Felix Valerio, 2B (#46) – Don’t lie. You didn’t know about Valerio and you don’t really care about a 5’7” middle infielder who hasn’t played in the US. He showed good speed and hitting in his DSL debut season but is mostly a lottery ticket for his new team.
Luis Santana (#14) – Maybe I like Luis Santana too much. The 5’8” tall middle infielder had a great year for Kingsport where he managed a .917 OPS showing off some speed, some power and great eye. He had only progressed as far as Kinsport but I’m not sure what value J.D. Davis has and don’t like trading prospects for bench players when better bench players are available through free agency.
Ross Adolph (#43) – I probably ranked Adolph too low or at least should have swapped him with Jose Miguel Medina but this five-tool outfielder likely only factored as organizational depth anyway. Still don’t understand trading valued prospects for players who you don’t want in your starting lineup.
As a fan of the minor leagues, I have not liked the tenure of Brodie Van Wagenen so far.
I disliked the Cano trade, really liked the Ramos and Familia signings and I was okay with the Broxton trade but I hate the Davis and Plawecki deals. Brodie seems like Jerry Dipoto lite.
I grade as the following:
Cano/Diaz Trade: C- (Should have found a solution that didn’t involve Kelenic)
Familia signing: B (Good value and gives depth to a shallow bullpen)
Ramos signing: C+ (With other avenues not working it was the only option)
Broxton Trade: B+ (We have a bunch of relievers like Wahl and needed OF depth)
Plawecki Trade: C- (Giving a team a player that they need for pieces that our team essentially doesn’t, doesn’t make any sense.)
Davis Trade: D (Trading prospects for players who look like potential washouts or bench players is not a recipe for sustained success)
Why such a low grade for Ramos? I had zero interest in trading Nimmo for Realmuto and Ramos at two years at nineteen mil seems like a bargain to me.
Neither did I but Ramos signing doesn’t improve our defense or offense significantly and still exposes significant injury risk.
Mets got a .652 OPS from their catchers last year while Ramos had an .845 OPS and a 130 OPS+ – I get your point about injury risk but that’s a significant offensive upgrade if he can catch around 120 games.
As for BVW – I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he doesn’t like prospects. A new guy comes in and isn’t married to the guys from the old regime and he trades them. Certainly we saw Omar Minaya do this when he came aboard with the prospects from Steve Phillips and Jim Duquette. It’s just that Van Wagenen is so focused on the present that anyone with a time frame of two years or longer isn’t being properly valued.
With the possible exception of Kelenic, I’m not upset that he traded any of the guys that he did – I’m upset he didn’t get what I would consider fair value.
Plawecki was league average but Nido and Lobaton were abhorrent and killed the team.
Ramos’ signing should improve the Met team ERA solely on the basis that he won’t be killing Met pitching as a member of an NL East opponent. Thatvin abd of itself may be worth $9 million a year.
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The Mets had a proven utility player and fan favorite in Wilmer Flores with a .265 career average. ThHey don’t resign him and trade three prospects for a player not hitting .200 in majors.
How can you call a guy a “Utility Player” when he can’t glove a single Position???!!!
He hasn’t been signed yet, and you don’t hear a word about him…. he’s a nice kid. He needs to find someone who will just let him hit—but he’s not such a good hitter for being a guy who cannot do another thing on a baseball field.
I’m rooting for him to find a place and prove it all wrong…but there’s a reason for where he’s at.
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Backman isn’t exactly a baseball savant and Wilmer’s numbers in late and close were nothing special. I love Wilmer for his love of the Mets and his walk off vs the Nats in the magical 2015 season, but it is time to move on.
Catchers are 110-130 game guys…and I feel they’re now thin there. Can Travis throw or swing the bat? I’m an admitted KP booster, but healthy and cheap and young MLB Catchers are important pieces—they must really love Davis!!!!
Besides for Sal Perez there’s really very few catchers that play 130 games there is lots of timeshares.
Familia and Ramos signings were great. Cano/Diaz trade good, Kelenic could be a star but more likely a solid ML OFer. They dumped Bruce and Swarzak. Like the Broxton,Davis pickup, low risk possible good ML players upside.
Time will tell, my friends. All this is just an endless debate. The GM is a bold guy just what we’ve all been asking for, so he shook the bottle and out comes a group of guys with some interesting possibilities.
The team plans are just about drawn up so let’s sit back and wait and see what happens sometime in the near future.
Endess debate, yes. But concerning at this stage of the game. Not so much as to whether the new GM got back ewual value or got hosed. Moreso on how he will close the “win” gap, between the Mets and their NL East rivals, by opening day. Using hi-tech algorithms or objective naked eye assessments, the Mets are currently the 3rd or 4th best team in the division, and somewhere around 4-5 wins behind the Nationals and Braves. The Mets may or may not be done, but the same can be said for their competition. If the Nats retain Harper, it will be hard for even optimistic Met fans to see the Mets as reasonable challengers, reduced to hoping for injuries/meltdowns for division rivals. The Mets need another impact move or two to go with these upper level depth additions in order to justify their claims that they are going for it in 2019 and can be seen as division favorites.
TJ, sadly, the Mets are done. Their funds are depleted. Welcome to the battle for the wildcard.
According to Puma, the Met’s remaining Budget “….isn’t much”.
Marwin G @ 10 ish…that “isn’t much”
BVW is living in the “shade” of somebody else’s tree….I’m giving him a chance. It’s a better team than they finished with in ’18. Healthier…Deeper…more upside.
David, according to Kiley McDaniel at Fangraphs, the Mets don’t even scout the short season leagues and thus have no clue about players down there.
Every time we want to feel a little better about what is going on in Queens – like the bold BVW hiring – it seems cold water is thrown at us from all sides. As you know, I’m not a Luis Santana guy per se, but I’d like to know that my team is making an effort to be their best and isn’t handicapped at such. Hearing that they still don’t have an analytics department, that they’re out of money even though the payroll is less than last year’s, and hearing that they didn’t pay any attention to a segment of the minor league system is very troublesome. These Wilpons like to play us for suckers but that’s our own fault may not last too much longer across the landscape.
I understand they want to prop up the AAA team since they now own it, but do they think Syracuse will be more of a return than the NYC team would be with a better player or two?
I’m not a Harper/Machado booster as some others are, and when has a “top” free agent been available the Mets fans have been logical about it, but I don’t like being laughed at from around the league as the Wilpons act like a pauper at a poker table pushing into the middle goodwill and heartfelt promises.
With KP and TDA both out of options, we were forced to trade one. I still don’t see the logic in tendering TDA. Now he’s an injury prone backup who will earn ~3.5mm. I’d have DFA’d him with Flores and kept Plawecki as our much cheaper and less injury prone (though slightly inferior) backup. And that notion of TDA as a utility player is preposterous. Couldn’t you picture him falling in the outfield, suffering an injury in his first inning out there? You have to assume either he or Ramos will be on the DL at some point and we have to cross our fingers it doesn’t happen at the same time. Brian has argued that Nido is solid defensively and calls a good game (I don’t see it) but he has not shown he can hit Major league pitching. As long as BVW is bulking up depth, I’d like to see us grab another veteran catcher willing to take a minor league deal. That period last season when we were trotting our Lobaton and Nido was a disaster.
I wish we could have gotten a sturdier backstop like Realmuto or Grandal, but the asking price was way too damn high. Ramos is a good catcher – the best we’ve had in many years – when healthy, but he requires a strong backup.
Gus…If this is The Honeymoon……..
Can you guys at least wait until March 1st….
Brian… shut this down,.,.,,it’s the only way!!!!!!!!! 😉
JK…let’s go Gus!!!…Lets go Mets!!!!!!