Mets hire Russell Carleton, Andrew Perpetua for analytics department

Brodie Van Wagenen is keeping his promise to invest in and bolster the Mets’ analytics department — understaffed and under-resourced for years — and he’s not done yet.

The Mets hired Russell Carleton, a longtime Baseball Prospectus writer, and Andrew Perpetua, a researcher who previously worked with a new Mets executive, the new analysts announced Thursday. The Mets confirmed the hires. And, a source said, the club is planning to add a couple of additional analysts in the coming weeks.

In Van Wagenen’s first offseason as general manager, he has made beefing up the front office generally and the Mets’ analytics efforts specifically one of his goals. That includes his inner circle of executives (Adam Guttridge, assistant GM of systematic development) and the major-league field staff (quality control coach Luis Rojas, a conduit between the front office and dugout).

Carleton wrote for Baseball Prospectus, a source in recent years for major-league teams looking for analysts, for almost a decade. He also authored “The Shift: The Next Evolution in Baseball Thinking,” released last year, and consulted with several major league teams. He has a PhD in clinical psychology from DePaul University.

For Perpetua, this marks the second time in a year that he has been hired by Guttridge. Last April, he joined Guttridge’s company, NEIFI (Normalized Empirical Individual Forecasting Index), as a researcher/analyst. Perpetua also created xStats, which uses Statcast data to evaluate and project performance, and has written for Rotographs, The Hardball Times and Mets Merized Online, a Mets fan blog.

Under former GM Sandy Alderson, the Mets had a three-man analytics department: director of baseball research and development T.J. Barra, plus Joe Lefkowitz and Christopher Pang. The Yankees hired away Pang in recent weeks.