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

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.

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