Mets: Three ways Brodie Van Wagenen can screw up the trade deadline

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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) /

All New York Mets fans can agree on one thing; Brodie Van Wagenen must not screw up this year’s trade deadline.

Isn’t 2020 an interesting baseball season? Only a little over a month into the season, the MLB trade deadline season has arrived. The New York Mets and every else are still very much alive in the playoff hunt. The key now is to add to the roster without losing a trade.

The Mets know a thing or two about bad trades. They have made a lot of them. Current general manager Brodie Van Wagenen has a knack for them as well.

At this year’s trade deadline, it’s important BVW doesn’t come away as the loser with whatever decisions he makes. By taking these three actions, Van Wagenen and the Mets can screw up the trade deadline.

Buying when he should sell

Are the Mets buyers or sellers? It’s too close to call.

I think this is how we’ll feel right up until August 31. Unless the Mets go on an epic streak of winning or losing, we won’t really know for sure one way or another what the right direction to go will be.

Many fans are already set on putting an asterisk on the 2020 World Series. I can’t blame them. It’s a funky season and it doesn’t exactly feel complete.

Nevertheless, it’s important to play competitive baseball and understand where you are in the standings. For Van Wagenen, he cannot force this team into buyer-mode when they look like obvious sellers.

If his trade-trigger-finger gets a little too happy, it’s best if the team doesn’t do anything at all. They can hope all of their pending free agents are enough to get them to the playoffs in 2020 and not cry when it fails.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 12: Marcus Stroman #7 of the New York Mets in action against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field on September 12, 2019 in New York City. The Mets defeated the Diamondbacks 11-1. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /

Another Marcus Stroman-type trade

The moment Marcus Stroman joined the Mets in 2019 there was a debate about the merits of the deal. Did the Mets give up too much to get him?

Well, as it turns out, they did.

Stroman pitched two months for the Mets in 2019. It looked like they would get him for at least two more in 2020 until an injury and an opt-out changed everything. He’s now a pending free agent after this season ends and very likely to find a new home somewhere else.

The strategy in adding Stroman was creative. The Mets looked like sellers in 2019 but decided to buy for the 2020 season in advance. A lot can happen between the end of July and April of the following year. While it’s a risk taken in all trades, I’m not confident this is the right strategy to go with especially with all of the uncertainty in our world right now.

Anything the Mets might do at the 2020 trade deadline should be focused on this year. If they buy, it should be about this year’s postseason. If they sell, it should be about moving players on expiring contracts that they do not believe are coming back in 2021.

This means not overpaying for anything. Regardless of how they feel about the legitimacy of this year’s championship, this team cannot give up too much to try and win now. The rest of the roster doesn’t suggest to me that they have the gusto to pull it off.

And that seems to lead well into our final way how Van Wagenen can screw up the trade deadline. Say goodbye to the farm system!

ALLENTOWN, PA – MAY 02: The Rawlings glove, New Era cap and Keanon sunglasses of Tim Tebow #15 of the Syracuse Mets sit on the dugout step during a AAA minor league baseball game against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on May 1, 2019 at Coca Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

Depleting the farm system further

The Mets minor league system has produced some credible players in recent years. Many of our favorites on the team came up through St. Lucie, Binghamton, and the other longtime cities associated with Amazins’ minor league baseball.

Since Van Wagenen took over as the general manager, he seems to have a mission to deplete the system of some of the best assets.

We know the names. Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn, Anthony Kay, and probably another prospect we didn’t see coming may all have good big league careers. It’s not really whether or not he won or lost those trades involving these players that concerns me. The bigger worry is that the Mets are headed toward a position where they won’t have the arsenal in the highest level of the minor leagues to help them in a pinch.

For instance, this team is incredibly shallow in the outfield down on the farm. Trade away just one outfield prospect and suddenly we’re back to acquiring cast-offs from other franchises to fill in for a month when injuries mount.

I don’t have a problem trading prospects when it helps a team get better. The issue arises when it’s all a general manager does and the team actually doesn’t go anywhere.

I’m confident enough to think Van Wagenen has learned some lessons about what kind of trades work and which ones don’t. Some of the better prospects the Mets can trade are also now his draft picks which can help keep them under the franchise’s control.

Not everyone is safe, however. Before Van Wagenen inevitably loses his job as even the greatest general managers do, I think we’ll see another notable prospect traded away.

Next. Best Mets trade deadline deals in team history

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I just hope we don’t see it happen to a great extent in 2020.

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