Sunday, November 11, 2018

Van Wagenen Los Angeles to MLB New York Mets - Citi Field




The New York Times confirms, Brodie Van Wagenen will be the new General Manager for the New York Mets. Van Wagenen is moving from Los Angeles and will call Citi Field his new home. Van Wagenen was introduced by the Mets and interviewed at Citi Field and humbly stated, “I recognize I am not the path of least resistance.” He also further explained, “but I’m confident that Mets fans will understand and believe this will be a great partnership going forward, and we can bring a championship not only now but in years to come.” After structuring a marquee $100+ million contract for Ryan Zimmerman, Van Wagenen could not have been at a better point in his career. Ken Rosenthal called Van Wagenen the “best in the business.” He is often touted for his creativity and ability to present deals with the best of them. Ken has been following Van Wagenen for 10+ years and has seen him structure a lot of deals. When all is said and done, it makes sense why the New York Mets wanted Van Wagenen. He has honed his skills and has an ability of making things happen. A native of the Los Angeles area, Van Wagenen has lived in California most of his life. He played baseball on a full scholarship at Stanford University. He started at right field his final two years and is best remembered as a culture carrier for the team. Van Wagenen went straight from university to working with the Chicago Bulls during Michael Jordan’s years. Brodie has an ability of being in the right place at the right time. He then went into the agency business and excelled at negotiating and building relationships with the players and also the teams.



After a few years in the business, an opportunity arose for Van Wagenen to move home to the Los Angeles area and work with CAA. Over a few years he would end up being promoted to co-head the baseball division of the firm. Van Wagenen’s first big time contract was with Ryan Zimmerman. Ryan and Van Wagenen worked together closely for years and structured a six year $100+ million contract. Van Wagenen spent years on Ryan’s deal and later revealed having thousand of calls of hundreds of proposals to structure the deal. The deal was structured and agreed upon before the last day of the year thanks to Van Wagenen. Ryan has publically spoken very highly of Van Wagenen and the work he did for him. From there came Robinson Cano’s $260 million contract and many more. This led to Van Wagenen being recognized by Forbes as a member of the “40 under 40.” One of the defining moments of Van Wagenen was the chance he took on Tim Tebow. He brought Mr. Tebow from a starting quarterback role in the NFL to the New York Mets. Tebow has been getting better each game and taking strides toward his goal of being brought up onto an MLB team. The Mets are getting a real winner in Brodie Van Wagenen. The man is well tested and knows what it takes to succeed in business. Many, including Ken described Van Wagenen as a detail-oriented individual that will do whatever it takes to get the job done. Although Van Wagenen lacks the experience of the front office of a MLB baseball team, his ability to develop relationships and structure deals will come in handy when he’s doing his day-to-day work.

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