02/03/16 yeonis cespedes press confrence at citi field queens ny sandy alderson talks to the press photos by sportsdaywire
Shortly after Steve Cohen assumed control of the Mets with his $2.4 billion purchase of the team it was announced that Brodie Van Wagenen and others including Omar Minaya would be leaving the organization. We also found out that the rumored hire of Sandy Alderson as Team President was a reality and now Sandy will try to fill out the organizational depth chart that will be plotting the team’s off-season plans.
Sandy made the announcement by saying, “I want to thank Brodie, Allard, Adam and Jared for their contributions over the last 2 years. I especially want to thank Omar for his long and distinguished service to the Mets in many important capacities.”
Van Wagenen leaves the Mets after 2 years in the position of GM and to me his legacy will be a mixed bag as he did bring in some players who performed like JD Davis, Justin Wilson, Wilson Ramos (in year 1) and executed 2 outstanding player drafts bringing in a bunch of top level prospects with very shrewd use of the draft.
But most will point to his deal with the Mariners that brought back Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano. Both of those players had subpar initial seasons and rebounded well in season 2 this past year. He also did a great job developing the 2019 season of Pete Alonso putting him on the major league level a year earlier than most experts thought he should and the young Met had a legendary record breaking season.
He also signed Jacob deGrom the sports best pitcher to a long term deal that will keep him in a Met uniform for years to come and the development of Dom Smith, David Peterson and Jeff McNeil took place under Brodie’s watch. I firmly believe he leaves Sandy with a very good core roster and did all that he did with VERY limited resources. I would have loved to see Brodie have an unlimited budget like his successor will have,
Personally, I would have preferred the Mets to retain Brodie who could have been helpful in the transition process but they decided cleaning the slate was a better way to re-build the organization. The off-season is upon us and the free agency marketplace is starting to be shaped right before our eyes.
And unless Sandy decides to assume the GM role the clock is ticking and the team will not be able to conduct a prolonged search as the Hot Stove season is already upon us. I am sure Cohen and Alderson discussed this at length already and hopefully they have narrowed down choices to a select few.
The other thing to consider is the future of Luis Rojas whom I think did a good job in the pandemic season and deserves to be manager in 2021. But a new GM may have other ideas wanting to bring in his own manager and that is clearly something to watch.
Steve Cohen is now in charge and has named Sandy team president giving him the resources to re-build this franchise. I honestly think the new GM simply can not be someone who wants to strip this roster and start from scratch. I say that because Cohen wants to make a splash here and you do that by signing key free agents and trading for players that supplement the good core of players already on the roster.
Clearly, the choice of general manager needs to be done with the speed of light but also can not be done recklessly. It is a fine line to walk but it is the first big decision Sandy must execute in the Cohen era. It will be very interesting to see how quickly that process evolves.