Pockets of New York Mets fans were left annoyed or downright angry after team owner Steve Cohen said on Wednesday that he was “committed” to keeping team president of baseball operations David Stearns despite the fact that the last-place club began Friday with a record of 58-70.
The woes the Mets have endured since this past spring can be directly linked to many of the controversial roster moves Stearns made during this past offseason. In a piece published on Thursday, Will Sammon of The Athletic explained why Stearns is seemingly more popular within the organization than he is among many paying customers this summer.
Steve Cohen does not view David Stearns as “inflexible”
“People in high-ranking positions within the Mets front office, who…spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, generally enjoy working under Stearns,” Sammon wrote. “Cohen does not see him as inflexible. After two straight disappointing seasons, however, the Mets need to strike a better balance of leaning into what they’re good at and adapting elsewhere. For instance, the Mets excel at reading markets but sometimes could be better served splurging on a player they want, market be damned.”
Stearns has a reputation for being opposed to locking down any starting pitcher via a long-term contract. Such a strategy helped the Mets complete a trip to the 2024 National League Championship Series, but it also was one reason the club suffered a summer collapse en route to missing the playoffs last year.
Stearns not “splurging” to hold onto slugger and current Baltimore Orioles first baseman
Pete Alonso seems to be quite a big mistake as of the first season of the five-year, $155M contract that Alonso signed to join the O’s. While Alonso began Friday with 29 home runs and 82 RBI this season, the Mets’ Jorge Polanco experiment has thus far been nothing short of a disaster.
Is the help David Stearns could need already working for the Mets?
Some have suggested that Cohen and/or Stearns could add a general manager to the front office to help with the franchise’s ongoing roster restructuring. Stearns has operated without a general manager since he took over in his current role in October 2023.
“In conversations about the Mets,” Sammon added, “league executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely cite adding more ‘baseball people’ as potentially helpful. To them, that means someone in a leadership position who knows how players and coaches think through solving problems. Other examples could include someone who challenges projections from the models that modern organizations are often tethered to.”
As Sammon mentioned, interim manager Andy Green could fit such a role. Green was serving as the Mets’ senior vice president of player development when Cohen/Stearns fired then-manager Carlos Mendoza in late June, and the Mets expect Green to return to the front office this coming fall.
Then again, Cohen may hope that Green will interview for the full-time managerial job if the Mets continue playing well through late September. From Aug. 4 through Aug. 20, the Mets went 11-4.