New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen says he learned from the challenges in 2019 and is ready to win.
New York Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen is in Port St. Lucie as the organization gets ready for spring training. He spoke to the media on Wednesday about how far the Mets have come since last season, what the future is going to look like, and how they will plan for it.
He said he realized how the tiniest of details can end up having the biggest impacts on entire seasons.
He said, via the New York Post, “In the first half of the year we lost so many games by small margins and reflecting on how correcting those little details can entirely spin the season.” He says that, for the Mets, “It’s the matter of being able to combine the focus every day to win games… no question I learned a lot…one of the learning lessons from last year was the importance of identifying problems before they happen is so key… ”
Van Wagenen is coming off his first season as the GM of the Mets. He was a prominent agent of many players before accepting this position. Van Wagenen had his moments, but his rookie year did not go as many, including himself, had hoped.
From these comments alone, it is quite clear that Van Wagenen has been humbled and has grown to understand dreaming of the World Series is not how you get there. He elaborated quite a bit about how focusing on the small things is most important and, if the Mets had done that, they could have made the postseason.
It sounds like he has grown to appreciate the process of baseball, that taking it game by game is critical. His confidence in the players and the talent they have is unwavering, but he now sees that winning takes more than just skill. Being able to bring it all together every single day is the most difficult yet most important part of the game.
Van Wagenen did not impress Mets fans as much as both he and they hoped, but he really seems to have grown from his experience in 2019. The Mets organization and fanbase will hope for the best in 2020.
