Showing Zack Wheeler the door and 3 other Brodie Van Wagenen decisions continuing to age poorly

2) Non-tendering Wilmer Flores

Knee issues for Wilmer Flores had the Mets thinking twice about tendering him a contract for the 2019 season. Perhaps the most beloved player in Mets history who was never a regular player, Flores has continued to prove those injury concerns false.

Once a free agent, Flores signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In a part-time role, he batted .317/.361/.487. Only the slugging percentage, which was a point shy, didn’t end up as the best of his career at the time.

Flores has aged quite gracefully. Long gone are his days at shortstop. However, in his last four years with the San Francisco Giants, Flores has played plenty of second base and third base in addition to first base. His bat has remained very much alive. In 2023, Flores batted .284/.355/.509 with 23 home runs and 60 RBI in 454 trips to the plate.

By the time the 2024 season is through, Flores may be thought of as more of a Giants player than a Mets one. He’s only 110 games shy.

It’s hard to tell how Flores could’ve fit in with the Mets over all of these years. Chances are he might have left at some point, but the decision to non-tender him over injury concerns is laughable especially when we consider Van Wagenen would end up paying Jed Lowrie $20 million for two years to do nothing but pinch hit a few times and strike out in the majority of them.

Blame Level for BW: 10 out of 10 – Going from Wilmer Flores to Jed Lowrie is the icing on the cake and for the reason to be injuries, we get a cherry on top.

3) The Jake Marisnick trade

Van Wagenen had an obsession with trading players for fifth outfielders. For the 2020 season, it was Jake Marisnick who would fight for that role. Unfortunately, the shortened season and an injury to Marisnick limited him to only 16 games. He did hit well, slashing .333/.353/.606 for the Mets in limited action. Unfortunately, he was only a rental. Marisnick was gone before we even realized he was here. 

Now a journeyman outfielder who has played for six different teams post-Mets and appeared in only 176 games over those three seasons with a batting average under .230, we know things would’ve gone worse with more games.

The Mets gave up two players in this trade. The first, lefty reliever Blake Taylor, managed to piece together two very productive years out of the Houston Astros bullpen. A 2.18 ERA in the shortened 2020 season proved to be more than a fluke when he had a 3.16 ERA in 2021. He did struggle in 2022 and spent all of last year in Triple-A. Now a member of the Texas Rangers, we’ll have to see how much more this loss continues to hurt.

Not finished yet, the Met also surrendered Kenedy Corona in the deal. An outfielder who’ll turn 24 later this month, he’s a rising prospect in the Houston system. He hit 22 home runs and stole 32 bases in the minors last season with a .251/.331/.458 slash line. 

Corona was just a pup at the time of the trade with one year of professional experience. Do we hold it against Van Wagenen? Someone needs to be blamed. Corona finished last year as the 11th ranked prospect in the Astros’ system. Ouch!

Blame Level for BVW: 6 out of 10 – Who knew Blake Taylor would be so effective so quickly and Kenedy Corona would turn into a legitimate prospect? Apparently, the Astros and not Van Wagenen.

4) Focusing the entire 2019 MLB Draft on Matt Allan

This is going to be a low score but it still needs mentioning. The Mets focused their entire 2019 MLB Draft on having enough bonus slot money to take high school pitcher Matt Allan. Something out of everyone’s control, Allan has been perpetually hurt throughout his professional career.

The bold strategy has been a major bust thus far. Brett Baty in the first round has potential. Second-rounder Josh Wolf at least helped the Mets get Francisco Lindor. The rest of the draft didn’t even include any surprise hits along the way. Although some of the players taken remain with the organization, there is no diamond in the rough about to emerge.

Allan has appeared in only 10.1 innings since getting selected by the Mets. These unforeseen injuries don’t fall solely on the lap of Van Wagenen. What it does do is provide a little bit of irony considering the two players he did let leave, Wheeler and Flores, weren’t invited back in part because of their health.

Blame Level for BVW: 2 out of 10 – Something about putting all of your eggs into one basket and the handle of said basket breaking.

A bonus wag of the finger at Brodie Van Wagenen

What about Travis d’Arnaud? Non-tendered by the Mets early in 2019, he has proudly worn a chip on his shoulder ever since. The blame level here is non-existent. d’Arnaud had years to prove himself and never could stay on the field or productive enough to satisfy the need behind the plate. In this instance, we can really only throw our arms up and wonder whose amulet Van Wagenen broke to get cursed for that move.