Mets: Brodie Van Wagenen will be defined by the infamous Mariners trade

Brodie Van Wagenen’s legacy as New York Mets General Manager will be defined by the results of the trade he made for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz.

Fair or not, New York Mets General Manager Brodie Van Wagenen’s career with the club will be defined by one decision. It was his first major trade and the early results have not been promising.

About a month after officially becoming the team’s GM, BVW swung a deal with the Seattle Mariners for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz. In return, he dumped some bad payroll dollars on the Mariners while also surrendering two of the club’s top prospects, pitcher Justin Dunn and outfielder Jarred Kelenic.

Dunn and Kelenic are both far from Hall of Fame status. With promising careers of their own possibly in the not-too-distant future, the worst part of this trade so far has been the poor results from Cano and Diaz.

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Cano and Diaz both underperformed in 2019. Early results in 2020 are promising although Diaz now looks more suited for a setup role instead of closer.

One transaction shouldn’t define how fans feel about a particular member of the front office. Van Wagenen also managed to steal J.D. Davis from the Houston Astros and ensure Dellin Betances would be a member of the team for 2020. He has made good moves whether some fans want to admit it or not.

Regardless of how well those decisions turn out, Van Wagenen’s legacy will be linked to how the Mariners trade turns out.

The trouble with this is that we won’t fully know the results until Van Wagenen is likely long gone from the Mets. Cano and Diaz could outlast him in Flushing while Dunn and Kelenic rise over in Seattle. How those two perform will have a lot to do with the way we perceive BVW years from now when he’s a past GM and not the guy currently occupying one of the best parking spots at Citi Field.

Most general managers are remembered for their mistakes. It’s a big part of sports. We know the umpires who do a bad job yet have no clue what the names of the best ones are because of how few errors they make compared to their colleagues.

All general managers eventually have too many mistakes catch up to them and it leads to their ouster. Only a small number get to leave on a horse riding into the sunset. Many have to awkwardly slink out and hire a service to pack up their office—at least this is how I imagine it gets done.

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The chapters in the baseball biography about Van Wagenen are still getting written. His time with the Mets will begin with the trade he made with Seattle. It may have a championship along the way, but it’s that one move fans will never let go.