Mets: Holy Cow, Where Did That One Come From, Brodie?

Once again, the Mets and Brodie Van Wagenen are the talks of the town. Strike first, figure it out later…mmm…sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Mets fans, as a well as a good portion of the baseball world, are confused. They were sellers – now the Mets are buyers? As we watch Brodie Van Wagenen reach in to snare Marcus Stroman, who was arguably the premier pitcher on the trade market, was that part of “The Plan”?

Or, maybe it was a move designed to at least add some hesitation to their cross-town rivals, who were noticeably in the hunt for Stroman along with other teams not named the Mets. Or was it something else?

The makings of the Mets trade for Stroman confounds all logic. Not the business deal itself which makes sense from a baseball perspective – but the makings of the trade. How did it happen? Who made the first move? When was the first point of contact between the Blue Jays and Mets? And so on.

Remember, supposedly Van Wagenen was tied up in knots trying to find a suitor for Zack Wheeler as a rental, scouring the market trying to decide which team to rape in a Noah Syndergaard deal, and hoping beyond hope there’s a team out there willing to take on Edwin Diaz, whom the Mariners burned to a crisp before unloading him to the Mets in the wayward Robinson Cano deal.

Presumably, that constitutes a pretty heavy workload, even for 16-hr day workaholics like Van Wagenen.

The Stroman deal for two highly regarded Met’s pitching prospects, Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson, begs the question again – is Brodie Van Wagenen addicted to the back pages of New York newspapers?

The gunslinger who comes roaring into town bound and determined to “shake things up a bit,” but with no idea where the nearest blacksmith is to service his horse – because he doesn’t care about his horse?

Van Wagenen – A Master Plan?

Or, is Van Wagenen savvier than he is letting on? Because there’s a deal behind the deal in which Van Wagenen has a plan to trade Stroman during the offseason or in 2020 at the trade deadline when he is in his final months of action before free agency?

More directly, Brodie, just what is The Plan? Few can argue the Mets are not a better team with Marcus Stroman pitching every fifth day for them. But what’s the point?

Where does Noah Syndergaard fit in here? Is he still persona non grata, despite all that potential we drool over? Zack Wheeler? Same thing. And is it possible for the Mets to be buyers and sellers at the same time?

Are you Confused? Me too. And so is Noah Syndergaard.

The arrival of Marcus Stroman in the Mets clubhouse is likely to land with a huge thump. Stroman is a showman who enjoys the spotlight. He practically begged the Jays to trade him to the bright lights of New York. Now it’s done, and here he is, albeit in a different clubhouse than the one he planned on.

Significantly, the Mets are playing good ball since the All-Star break. Hell, even Steven Matz has a complete game win on Sunday. As a whole, the team is coming into their own as a competitive and entertaining brand of baseball. Winners of six of their last eight, the pressure was removed – and now it’s back on?

Brodie, What Did You Do?

Already, the New York Post has at least three stories in it today that mention the Mets “only” need to climb over five teams to grab the final Wild Card spot in the National League. Please.

With an off day today, the entire Mets team (“tradeables” included) flew to Chicago last night, getting out of Dodge as they await the White Sox Tuesday night. By then, the face of the Mets may have changed yet again as Van Wagenen remains on the phones right up until the 4:00 P.M. EST bell on Wednesday.

Brodie Van Wagenen – a wizard or a fool?  Because as things stand now, and as Lucy was so fond of telling Ricky Ricardo in their masterpiece “I Love Lucy” TV series – “Ricky, you’ve got a lot of “splaining” to do.” And so, Van Wagenen, on or about Friday, will need to step up to the microphones to answer the question…”Brodie, what the hell did you do?….

Written by Steve Contursi, Editor, Reflections On Baseball
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