Mets: Brodie Van Wagenen may never see the effects of his draft picks

Many believe New York Mets General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen has done well in both MLB drafts where he picked but he may never get a chance to see many of them reach the big leagues.

By many accounts, the New York Mets did pretty well in the 2020 MLB Draft. They also got mostly positive reviews for what they did in 2019, the first year when Brodie Van Wagenen was in charge.

Nobody really knew what to expect from BVW in the draft. Without a history as a general manager, every time he does anything it’s a first.

As baseball often goes, there’s likely a day when Van Wagenen gets fired. Maybe he walks away. Maybe it’s a mutual parting. Whatever the case is, he’s not the Mets general manager for all of eternity. One day someone else will take over and unfortunately for Van Wagenen, they will probably reap the rewards of any success his draft picks may have.

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We saw it before and we see it all of the time. A general manager gets run through the wringer and then the team has some success with homegrown talent. Because the general manager prior picked those players, the now-former GM gets a lot more credit just in time to enjoy it wherever he has found a new job at.

During his short time as the general manager in Flushing, Van Wagenen has faced plenty of criticism. A lot of it is warranted. Many of his trades and free agent signings have been terrible.

However, some have worked out well. The J.D. Davis trade looks like an absolute steal. Likely at least one of the moves he made between 2019 and 2020 would have worked out well, too.

It’s Van Wagenen’s draft picks which are most intriguing. The payoff won’t take place until several more years. When it does, I cannot see Van Wagenen working as the general manager. The team is up for sale and if he’s not getting great results, he’s probably out of here.

We can’t really great Van Wagenen’s draft choices yet because other than a half-season in 2019, none have had a chance to do anything. Scouts have awarded him with praise for his aggressiveness and success in getting what he wanted. Last year’s target was Matthew Allan, but the team also got two other notable prospects before him, Brett Baty and Josh Wolf.

This year’s draft had J.T. Ginn going to the Mets in the second round. According to many, if not for Tommy John Surgery, he would have gone much higher in the draft.

Van Wagenen may have had two of the worst drafts in Mets history. He may have also put together a pair of draft classes we’ll look back at a decade from now that helped re-shape the organization.

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Whatever the results are, he’s not going to get a championship ring for it. That’s one of those tricky parts of being a general manager in baseball. You can draft the next franchise great nobody saw coming and still land on the unemployment line.