Mets hire David Stearns as President of Baseball Operations
After over two years of courtship, the Mets have finally gotten their man according to reports.
Ever since Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets in the summer of 2020, it has been a well-known goal of his to hire a top-of-the-line executive to run their front office.
In the three years that have come since, New York has tried and failed on a handful of occasions to find that executive. In 2021, especially, the Mets engaged in several interviews but ultimately did not move forward in their search for a new President of Baseball Operations for a myriad of different reasons. And while there were always plenty of different names that were thrown around since then, one name in particular has always managed to circle back around.
Well, after nearly three years of courtship, the Mets have finally gotten their man as they have hired Milwaukee Brewers executive David Stearns to become the organization’s new President of Baseball Operations, according to Jeff Passan. Stearns’ contract with New York will be for five years.
This becomes a seismic day in the history of this Mets franchise as they now finally have a man at the helm of this team that they believe can lead them to where they want to go. While things have changed significantly in the way this organization operates since Cohen’s ownership has begun and they are coming off of a 101-win season just one year ago, the Mets have still been operating without the architect that they envisioned taking them to the next level.
Rather than jumping the gun and hiring whoever would take the job back in 2021, the Mets remained patient and pivoted their search to hire a general manager, preferring to wait it out until the right person became available for the job. For Cohen, that person always appeared to be Stearns who was unable to take or even interview for the job because of his contract with the Brewers. Milwaukee could have allowed Stearns permission to interview for the Mets job, but they ultimately declined.
Ever since purchasing the team, Cohen has always spoken about the “Dodgers model” and wanting to emulate what they have done in Los Angeles over the last decade-plus. We are still in the early days of this ownership as we finish up season three, but the Mets have already mirrored what L.A. did following their ownership change. While slowly building their farm system back up, they have used their newfound financial prowess to commit to high AAV, short-term deals while bringing in other superstars on long-term contracts. They have also used that flexibility to even bolster their returns in trades, something the Dodgers did when they acquired Adrián González for minimal prospects because they took on the Red Sox’s unwanted contracts of David Price and Carl Crawford.
The Dodgers also brought in Rays executive Andrew Friedman to steer their organization to where they ultimately wanted to go, which is what the Mets believe they have now done by hiring Stearns. Clearly Steve Cohen was not kidding when he spoke about the Dodgers, because he is following their blueprint down to the finest of details.
Stearns, 38, is from Manhattan and grew up as a lifelong Mets fan. In 2015, Stearns succeeded Doug Melvin as the Brewers general manager, becoming the youngest GM in baseball history. Four years later, Milwaukee promoted Stearns to be their President of Baseball Operations. Since that promotion, the Brewers have gone 379-310 and have made the postseason in two of five seasons and are on track to make it again this season with a three-game lead in the National League Central.
This post is being updated as news comes in…