Hours after becoming Mets new owner, Steve Cohen fires GM Brodie Van Wagenen, entire front office
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is starting over.
The organization announced on Friday afternoon that it was parting ways with general manager Brodie Van Wagenen as well as the rest of the front office.
BREAKING: Steve Cohen cleaned house.
Brodie Van Wagenen and his inner circle are gone. pic.twitter.com/pzyCOS14wB— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) November 6, 2020
It came less than two hours after the ownership change was made official. Cohen, who asked Mets fans for feedback last week, tweeted the news Friday that the sale of the team had closed. The team released a statement regarding the transaction around 1:30 p.m. ET and president Sandy Alderson — a former Mets GM brought back into the fold under Cohen — announced the personnel changes around 3:15 p.m.
Mets part ways with Van Wagenen after two seasons
The departing group consists of special assistant to the general manager Omar Minaya; vice president and assistant general manager for scouting and player development Allard Baird; assistant general manager of systemic development Adam Guttridge; and executive director of player development Jared Banner.
“I want to thank Brodie, Allard, Adam and Jared for their contributions over the last two years,” Mets president Sandy Alderson said in a statement. “I especially want to thank Omar for his long and distinguished service to the Mets in many important capacities.”
The firing of Van Wagenen, 46, was anticipated once the team changed hands. He was hired in October of 2019, leaving a career as a prominent baseball agent with CAA Sports. His contract ran through 2022.
The Mets went 86-76 in 2019 and missed the postseason after Van Wagenen’s infamous “come and get us” call. They went 26-34 during the shortened 2020 season, finishing tied with the Washington Nationals for last place in the NL East. Van Wagenen was widely panned for the trade that brought Robinson Canó and Edwin Díaz to Queens, but gave up ascendant prospect Jarred Kelenic.
The Mets last made the postseason in 2016 and last won a postseason series in 2015, when they lost the World Series to the Kansas City Royals.
Minaya’s third stint with Mets comes to close
Minaya was in his third stint in the Mets’ front office. He was a senior assistant to the general manager from 1997 to 2002, when he joined the Montreal Expos and became the first Hispanic GM. He returned as GM from 2005 to 2010, when Alderson took over as general manager until 2018. Minaya came back again in 2017.
Alderson is also on another stint with the franchise, coming back to the Mets in September as president under Cohen’s leadership. He will now be tasked with assembling a front office to operate in the new era of Cohen’s Mets ownership.
More from Yahoo Sports:
