NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 24: New York Mets General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen gets set to introduce new manager Luis Rojas to the media at Citi Field on January 24, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
The Mets have moved on from Brodie Van Wagenen with new ownership in place.
The New York Mets officially have a new owner in Steve Cohen, and that meant changes were in order.
The billionaire wasted no time as the news came down that there will be a front office overhaul. Most notably, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen is “leaving the organization” in what is a nice way of saying he is fired. He isn’t the only one either.
Mets getting a fresh start
The former agent took over the GM job following the 2018 season and did not lead his team to much success in his short tenure. He took on Robinson Cano’s giant contract, which he helped negotiate as an agent, and also had a disastrous deal with Jed Lowrie. To be fair, he was trying to help his team win.
The entire front office is cleared out and in an interesting twist, Sandy Alderson will return to the organization as a president. He left his post as GM in 2018 and is getting a new chance to turn the Mets around under new ownership.
Having a former agent run a front office is always a bit controversial, and it became clear Van Wagenen may have needed some more experience. He also joined at a tough time for the franchise when ownership was trying to sell the team.
The Mets went 86-76 in Van Wagenen’s first season and missed the playoffs. That resulted in the Mets firing manager Mickey Callaway and hiring Carlos Beltran. He was then forced to leave due to fallout in the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, and Luis Rojas got the job. He went 26-34 but so far has survived the mass firings Friday.
Van Wagenen may have more success being a full-time agent once again and can avoid the stress of people calling for him to be fired on a daily basis if things aren’t going well.