If we evaluated Brodie Van Wagenen as a general manager in the same way we look at poker players, the early read on his approach would be he hunts for the biggest strike, the biggest play, the big hand. He hasn't demonstrated interest yet in grinding out small bits of value in each hand -- something the Dodgers' Andrew Friedman tends to do with each element of his roster -- but maybe that comes later.
For now, Van Wagenen is going all-in with his early moves. Despite a free-agent market flush with relief pitchers, he targeted the best available closer, Edwin Diaz, with his electric slider; it might well be that in addition to having the best starting pitcher in baseball, Jacob deGrom, the Mets also have the best reliever, in Diaz.
There are a bunch of unsigned second basemen, everyone from DJ LeMahieu to Brian Dozier to Ian Kinsler, and the Mets went into the offseason positioned with a second baseman of at least some promise, Jeff McNeil. But Van Wagenen bypassed those solutions and went for the second baseman with the Hall of Fame-caliber résumé, Robinson Cano. The big play.
Now Van Wagenen is looking for a catcher, and yes, he's going for the guy who was the best catcher in the big leagues last season, J.T. Realmuto.
The Nationals were very interested, before filling the catcher spot with Kurt Suzuki and Yan Gomes; the Astros have talked to the Marlins, and so have the Dodgers. The Braves had many conversations with the Marlins about Realmuto before signing Brian McCann to complement Tyler Flowers, and Realmuto is so good that even if the Braves could find a trade fit now, they would revisit the conversations.
Because of that demand, the cost of Realmuto will inevitably be high, and so it's not surprising the Mets have at least explored the idea of extracting the needed value from a Noah Syndergaard trade to give the Marlins what they need to get in a Realmuto deal. Other teams continue to say the Mets absolutely are willing to talk about Syndergaard in the right trade.
And the time seems to be right for the Mets to pursue Realmuto, given the perception of some other teams that the Marlins are more flexible in their asking price for the catcher. For the past year, the Marlins have presented high demands for Realmuto and indicated they would simply keep him if no one gave them what they asked for. But now, in a shift, teams say Miami's front office seems to be pushing to make a Realmuto deal, even if it gets a little less than what it asked for over the past year.
Van Wagenen could go elsewhere for catching help. Martin Maldonado, an excellent defender, is a free agent. Van Wagenen could trade for the Pirates' Francisco Cervelli, who had a good season in 2018. He could keep his trade assets and target Yasmani Grandal, a free agent tied to draft compensation after the Dodgers extended a qualifying offer. Grandal struggled in the postseason, but during the regular season, he was the second-best catcher in baseball, based on fWAR.
But Van Wagenen is going for the best guy, Realmuto. He is going for the guy who might have the highest impact on the 2019 Mets.
So far, rival executives and agents give Van Wagenen high marks for the manner in which he does business -- how direct he is, how open he is, how inclusive he is. They see no misdirection, no deceit, no smoke-and-mirrors.
He's going for the biggest pile of chips, through the best available players.