Brodie Van Wagenen
Brodie Van Wagenen
Born: March 9, 1974 in Encino, CA
This is the text from the back of his Topps
autograph card (pictured here): "A unique blend of business
professionalism, deep baseball knowledge and a love for the game he developed
as a child, Van Wagenen was a celebrated hire as the New York Mets GM in
2018. Just 44 at the time, Brodie had
been working as co-head of Creative Artists Agency's baseball division, where
his clients included Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Yoenis Cespedes. The Sports Business Journal named the
former Stanford U. outfielder one of the 40 best young talents in the sports
industry in 2012."
My two cents: One massively unpopular trade
and one of the most spectacularly unproductive free agent signings in history
spelled his doom as GM, as soon as Steve Cohen took over the ownership of the
team. The trade, of course, was the one
that brought Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets, at the cost of top
prospect Jarred Kelenic as well as a box full of
spare parts. The free agent deal was for
Jed Lowrie, who cost the Mets 20 million dollars and delivered zero base hits
for them over the course of two seasons.
To be fair to Brodie, he did oversee two brilliant drafts, where he
obtained first-round talents in the second and third rounds, signing pitchers
nobody thought he could sign. Given
time, he might have proved to be a shrewd team-builder, but the Mets' overall
performance for those two years ended up costing him his job, in the impatient
New York climate.
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This
is a list of the cards of this player that I had in my Mets collection before I
transferred the ownership of said collection to another diligent and capable
Mets fan. The cards that are listed in light gray print and struck through are
cards that were sold for charity prior to my divestiture. The cards listed in white text are the ones
that still remained until that final deal. Items listed in green I kept out of the deal,
just so I'd have something to display in my office and den. At the bottom and listed in orange text are
cards that I picked up after the dealing was done, in order
to maintain a certain continuity at this site; that is, so I'd have a
card to show you at the top of the page, and maybe in the autographs and
game-used areas. If an orange card is
struck through, it has also departed the collection. I’m still accepting donations, should you
feel so moved. Contact me by following
this link: NYMHall.
2019 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autographs #FFA-BVW (autographed)
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