The aforementioned Travis 'Babe' D'Arnaud with 3 HRs for the Rays tonight to singlehandedly win in Yankee Stadium, the Mets even get mocked after Yankee losses now. The timeline here since Boy Genius Brodie took over:
11/6/18: "One additional note on the catching market: Brodie Van Wagenen says he reasonably expects Travis d'Arnaud to be good to go by Opening Day. That would be 11.5 months post-Tommy John surgery, but the Mets believe he's on the proper track."
- re-signed by NY Mets 12/22/18 for $3.5M (avoided arbitration)
(Also remember this decision to keep D'Arnaud and also sign Wilson Ramos for 2/18 pushed Devin Mesoraco into retirement after Brodie wouldn't release him from playing in AAA, total dick move that is almost always acquiesced to when requested by vets. All Mesoraco was was just the catcher of choice for DeGrom in his dominant Cy Young season that just ended, well done all around)
Then the Mets gave Neo-Babe a whopping 23 ABs and released him on April 28 (still on the hook for his salary), the Dodgers picked him up for a few days but they have tons of catchers already, and the Rays picked him up in early May in a catcher shortage crisis and he has been their main guy even with Zunino back. Amazingly after the game tonight he said "when I got to 50 ABs, he's not sure why but something clicked." Again, the Mets gave him 23 after waiting on his talent for years. Good call, Brodie!
Really if you had a time machine, went forward half a season to see exactly how guys developed, then went back and tried to make the worst possible moves you could given that knowledge, you would not end up with much of a worse offseason than Brodie has ("Jed Lowrie just disappears into the Ellsbury Triangle? Need to remember to sign him over LeMahieu").
Although recently as far as Brodie's potential paths from here, I have been thinking about how AJ Preller also absolutely tanked his first year for SD disastrously, and then had the self-awareness to change tactics and he has built an incredible system since then. BVW came into a tough situation, with Atlanta so well positioned with young studs, hitters/pitchers both, NatsTown loaded as usual, and the Phillies spending wildly to try to get in there too. I don't know what the answer is (besides get the Wilpons to sell) and the Wheeler news today is another likely blow, but if I were BVW, I (would not have taken the job) would definitely be seeing how much I could get for Syndergaard, I think you could maybe get a bidding war going and get quite a bit. I think he is right back to an ace on a real team, certainly a big improvement for anyone's top 4.
Although if I were a Mets fan (as my brother inexplicably is, despite growing up a Yankee fan and marrying a hardcore Sox fan), I would be scared shitless of any deal Cashman and Brodie agreed on. Cashman does to DiPoto routinely what DiPoto did to Brodie in the Cano/Diaz deal (on a much smaller scale admittedly).