New York Mets Get Their Man, Land David Stearns To Lead Baseball Ops

After enduring a disappointing season that will leave them well short of the 2023 post-season, the New York Mets took aim at the future Tuesday with the long-rumored hiring of erstwhile Milwaukee Brewers executive David Stearns.

Like former Mets executive Sandy Alderson, Stearns is a Harvard graduate who is highly regarded in baseball circles.

At 38, he also brings much-needed youth to a team top-heavy with aging, over-the-hill veterans at the start of the 2023 season.

According to multiple media reports, Stearns has agreed to a five-year contract to become the team’s first president of baseball operations.

He and Mets owner David Cohen have courted each other for years but Stearns was under contract to the Brewers and therefore not free to return to his native Manhattan.

Cohen, a billionaire hedge fund operator, bought the Mets in 2020 and built the ballclub into a juggernaut that won 101 games, narrowing missing the National League East title, last year.

After adding free-agent pitcher Justin Verlander, who had just won the American League’s Cy Young Award, the Mets had the two highest-paid players in the game (Verlander and fellow pitcher Max Scherzer) plus the highest total payroll ($377,078,333, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts).

Injuries and age intervened, however, and the team suffered all summer, actually landing in the divisional basement for several days before acquiring and promoting several promising rookies.

Entering play Tuesday, the team had a record of 65-78 that left it 28½ games behind the front-running Atlanta Braves and 10 games behind in the race for the third NL wild-card.

The Mets have not won a pennant since 2015 or a World Series since 1986 but Stearns is expected to change that record of mediocrity.

Both he and Cohen, who has millions to spend on baseball, were fans of the Mets growing up and share the same dream of resurrecting the team.

The team is expected to make a formal announcement on the status of Stearns after the season ends Oct. 1.

Stearns actually worked for the team before, as an intern in the front office then headed by general manager Omar Minaya.

Following a path similar to Theo Epstein, the youthful executive who won world championships for both the Red Sox and Cubs, Stearns gained experience while serving in various capacities for Major League Baseball, the Cleveland Guardians and Houston Astros before arriving in Milwaukee.

In his new role, Stearns will have to decide whether to keep incumbent general manager Billy Eppler and manager Buck Showalter, both of whom are still under contract.

The contract of well-respected Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell is expiring, however, and there’s a chance Stearns could convince him to come to Queens. The Stearns-Counsell tandem went to the playoffs four years in a row from 2018-21.

This season, Stearns served the Brewers as a special adviser.

The Mets have been searching for a president of baseball operations for several years but never found the right person.

The team fell apart early this season when star closer Edwin Diaz suffered a serious knee injury, then got off to a slow start when Verlander and Scherzer failed to deliver as advertised.

After falling sharply in the standings during the month of June, Cohen okayed the trades of both pitching stars plus fellow veterans Tommy Pham, Eduardo Escobar, Mark Canha, and David Robertson as a way to restock the farm system with quality prospects.

Among those acquired was infielder Luisangel Acuña younger brother of National League MVP favorite Ronald Acuña, Jr. He has a chance to reach the major leagues next season.

The Mets have already promoted promising prospects Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio, and DJ Stewart and received a strong performance from rookie pitcher Kodai Senga, signed out of the Japanese leagues.