It wasn’t the traditional corporate Christmas greeting or player press conference.
After re-signing Jeurys Familia last month, the new Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen did not hold a conference call with reporters, and he did not drop in on a friendly local sports talk radio host.
Instead, Van Wagenen drove Familia around the Citi Field parking lot in a Mr. Met bullpen cart. An employee filmed. Van Wagenen then announced the three-year deal to bring back the former Mets closer in the video, which he posted to his Instagram account.
“Mets fans,” Van Wagenen said, staring directly into the camera, “he may not fit under your tree or into your stocking, but hopefully, he’ll give you all something to cheer about this holiday season.”
The video went viral, at least among player agents and other baseball executives — Van Wagenen’s past and present rivals.
“I laughed my ass off,” one rival agent said. “We watched it over and over. It was hilarious…..once a salesman, always a salesman. Brodie has always been a bit of a showman. It’s fun now, but how’s it gonna look if the Mets don’t come out winning?”
Van Wagenen doesn’t seem to care.
He’s putting himself out there on social media in a way that we have not seen from a sports executive yet. While there are plenty in baseball, agents and executives, who dismiss Van Wagenen’s social media use as a distraction and P.T. Barnum-like, long-time local media observer and Columbia University professor Joe Favorito is excited about the possibility.
“It’s an area that screams to be engaged,” Favorito said. “From coaches and executives, there are maybe six or seven that really use social media seriously. … In pro sports there is no executive who has really reached out to fans and had a voice on social media.
“For a person or a team that wants to be a disruptor, this can be a great, growing voice. It can’t be just a mouthpiece for the PR department, it has to be authentic and an engaged conversation with the fans. If Brodie can do this successfully, it could change the conversation for sports executives.”
Van Wagenen has been aggressive in his first months since crossing over from the player-agent side to the front office. He’s made trades and free agents signings, reshaping the major league roster and the farm system. He’s rebuilt the front office, and bulked up the scouting and analytics departments.
Van Wagenen has been just as aggressive about engaging in the conversation with his social media use. After an appearance on MLB Network at the winter meetings, Van Wagenen made an on-air plug for his Twitter account, @GMBVW.
It’s an unusually high profile on social media for a sport executive. In baseball, Astros GM Jeff Luhnow (56.6K followers) is fairly active on Twitter and Mariners GM Jerry DiPoto does some podcasts. Sandy Alderson used Twitter for a while, mostly posting pictures of his beloved dog Buddy or plugging team social media campaigns. That stopped abruptly a few years ago, however.
Most baseball executives have anonymous accounts and people on staff to monitor social media for them.
“It’s not my thing,” one National League executive said when asked about Van Wagenen’s Instagram. “I mean I am aware of it and I have people that will let me know if there is anything out there that I need to know. I am not on Twitter or Instagram, so I haven’t seen it.”
Van Wagenen admitted that he is very engaged. When asked about #Metstwitter pushing for him to sign one of the two big free agents on the market, Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, he admitted he takes the pulse of social media frequently.
“Every day,” Van Wagenen said of checking social media. “Every day, throughout the day. As I said before, I am really happy this fan base is not apathetic. And some of their ideas make more sense than others.
“But they are all interesting content, that’s for sure.”
A team source said that social media outrage among Mets fans may have contributed to Jeff McNeil, a fan favorite, being taken out of the deal Van Wagenen made with the Mariners to bring Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets.
“He knew fans were not happy about it,” the source said.
Most old school baseball executives would find that ridiculous. They see social media as a distraction at best, and at worst the place where many of their younger players, like Josh Hader, have found controversy because of stupid comments.
“It will look really foolish if they don’t get off to a good start,” another baseball executive said. “Can you imagine what kind of things angry fans could do with that video. It will become a meme or whatever they call it.”
Van Wagenen, who declined to comment for this article (and ironically, ignored an Instagram message) has taken an opposite approach. So far, he has not gotten caught up in the negativity and viciousness that can present itself on social media, especially Mets social media. He is simply contributing his own Mets content to the conversation.
With 36.2k followers on Twitter and 23.8k on Instagram, he’s posted funny videos like one comparing him driving the bullpen cart to Yoenis Cespedes’ serious stable of vehicles. He’s also given glimpses behind the scenes, like pictures of him getting ready for an appearance on a local TV news show.
It’s different, and in baseball, different is not usually welcome.
“People who are disruptors get a lot of arrows fired at them at first,” Favorito said. “Baseball has its reasons for being traditional, and good reasons. But if you can be a disruptor and successful, everyone will rush to follow you.
“If he’s authentic and consistent, Brodie can open a whole new area for teams and executives to engage. It’s going to be interesting to see.”
