The decision to remove Edgardo Alfonzo as the manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones was a controversial one. Aside from the Brooklyn Cyclones winning their first outright New York-Penn League title, Alfonzo was a very popular Mets player. The decision was so noteworthy, reporters would ask Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen about it during the press conference introducing Carlos Beltran as the Mets new manager.

On the decision to not bring back Alfonzo as the Cyclones manager, Van Wagenen said, “Our decision not to bring him back to Brooklyn was a player development decision and we just want to keep ourselves on the path of putting the players in the best situation. We’re focused on his community role going forward, not the player development role.”

With respect to the player development front, it is important to note in his first year as general manager, Van Wagenen entrusted Alfonzo with Brett Baty and Matthew Allan as the team made a push for that New York-Penn League title. Both Baty and Allan were drafted out of high school, and they are considered two of the Mets top five prospects.

During his tenure in Brooklyn, both as a coach and manager, Alfonzo has had a role in the development of current Mets players like  Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, and Amed Rosario. In an interview with MMO, Alonso would say of Alfonzo, “Having him around, being a Mets great, is just absolutely fantastic and being able to pick his brain, and being able to go to the field and go to work everyday was just awesome and just being around them.”

Overall, despite the praise from players like Alonso and the Cyclones winning this year, Van Wagenen believes the organization would be better off from a player development standpoint with someone else at the helm. It will be interesting to see who the new manager will be and what type of impact that new manager will have with prospects in Brooklyn.