Stearns Hired by Mets

[owbc]

The New York Mets are hiring David Stearns as president of baseball operations, sources familiar with the situation tell ESPN. A monumental addition to the organization, Stearns, 38, will take over officially once the regular season is over. The new era of the Mets begins soon. 

 

[RobDeer 45]

Gross.  If he takes Craig with I will be crushed.  

[markedman5]

Congrats to David……not everyone gets the opportunity to lead the team they grew up rooting for.

 

[dlk9s]

2 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Congrats to David……not everyone gets the opportunity to lead the team they grew up rooting for.

I still have time to become GM of the Brewers.

[Thurston Fluff]

I'm happy with Arnold so it's pretty much an I don't care situation. The only way I'm sort of interested in how he does in that I have a suspicion that the only instance a single person can make or break a franchise is when it's the owner. If Stearns can come in and turn around a pretty terribly run franchise with an egomaniac as an owner I may have to rethink that suspicion.

[areacodes]

46 minutes ago, RobDeer 45 said:

Gross.  If he takes Craig with I will be crushed.  

I don’t think that Counsell is going with him to NYC.

It is either something with the Brewers (manager, front office, etc.) or time off for his family.

[stoutdude04]

1 hour ago, RobDeer 45 said:

Gross.  If he takes Craig with I will be crushed.  

Id guess Craig manages the Brewers or no where at all. But that's just my guess.

[brewers888]

What a shock and not something I said was happening several years ago. I was wrong though about one thing; I predicted 20 million a year and reports have it at a measly 15.

[brewers888]

The big question is how many current Brewers executives he takes with him. I personally hope he fails miserably as I despise Cohen but expect Stearns with an actual payroll to do about as well as Friedman has done with LA.

[Brewin]

2 minutes ago, brewers888 said:

The big question is how many current Brewers executives he takes with him. I personally hope he fails miserably as I despise Cohen but expect Stearns with an actual payroll to do about as well as Friedman has done with LA.

The answer to that is likely zero, despite your conspiracy theory that Stearns has been secretly working for the Mets for years

[Matt]

All I care about is who he's bringing with from baseball ops, and whether or not the Brewers have a good enough infrastructure to handle the blows.

[sveumrules]

First move will be acquiring (2024 NL Triple Crown Winner) Keston Hiura and installing him as the full time DH.

[sveumrules]

Still kind of confused why Stearns was such a hot commodity to begin with.

All he ever did was luck himself into three aces and two elite closers then never assembled an offense to score any runs around them. Couldn't even draft a single hitter as good as Ryan Braun.

[sveumrules]

All joking aside, from 2018 to 2022 the Brewers went 395-315, a .557 W%, 6th best in MLB.

This year so far they are 80-63, a .559 W%, 6th best in MLB.

I think we'll be fine.

[Axman59]

I am shocked. SHOCKED by this signing!

I thought Stearns wanted to spend more time with his family?

[Guest]

No surprise. I think anyone honest with themselves knew this was coming for at least a couple of years. It will be interesting to see what he can do with a payroll 3 times what the Brewers could pull off.

[markedman5]

4 minutes ago, Axman59 said:

I am shocked. SHOCKED by this signing!

I thought Stearns wanted to spend more time with his family?

He did……and he did in 2023…….he never said he would never take another job.

He wanted a break before he moved on…….nothing wrong with that.

 

[Joseph Zarr]

HUGE congrats to Stearns. What an absolute honor for him to be the POBO of the team he grew up listening to in his bedroom late at night while tossing a baseball. Just an incredible story and career trajectory for him - he has earned this opportunity in every sense of the word. He also did right by the Brewers all these years and he did us right by setting up Arnold for success and passing that proverbial baton - at face value it appears to be one of those rare 'win wins' as we certainly seem to be in very good hands. It is going to be really fascinating to see what he can do with the Mets' salary purse. Really fascinating.

As always, in the small Market economy of MLB, the Brewers are going to have to continue to re-invent themselves in certain areas and fine-tune themselves in others. For now, however, I'm just thankful to be in the thick of another bevy of actual and potential playoff runs throughout the organization in mid-September. It's time to really sink in and enjoy the ongoing September pushes within the organization:

• Brewers lead the Division by 3.0 G with 19 G remaining
• The ACL Brewers won the Complex League Championship 
• The Low-A Mudcats Game 1 of the Carolina Divisional League Playoffs is tonight - breaking a 15-year post-season drought!
• The Double-A Biloxi Shuckers are a mere 1.5 GB the First Place Montgomery Biscuits with a head-to-head 6-game series beginning @ Biloxi tonight. HUGE series, to say the least, and the Shuckers are 11-1 over their last 12 games - including a massive 6-0 sweep @ the Cubs' Tennessee Smokies.
• The High-A Timber Rattlers used a very worthy second half (including a closing 4-2 series win over the juggernaut that is the Twins' Cedar Rapids Kernels) to tie for the second-half playoff birth but lose out, ultimately, in the head-to-head series record with the Cardinals' Peoria Chiefs. They finished their second half 36-30 overall. It was a remarkable turnaround to their season and an unfortunate ending.
• The Nashville Sounds remain 5.5 GB of the International League second-half leading Durham Bulls (Rays - I know, shocker) with 12 games to play. They continue to remain competitive despite the loss of many key veterans throughout the off-season and in-season. They close out their season @ Charlotte (this week) and then @ Nashville vs the Marlins' Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. INF Tyler Black was just named their 'Player of the Week' with a 0.630 OBP (!!) vs the Memphis Redbirds. 

There is so much to be grateful for as baseball fans. There is so much to look forward to. And, we can thank David Stearns for his role in helping the organization get here. 

 

[markedman5]

From USA Today…….I would quibble with the wording……Stearns didn’t hire CC in Milwaukee……but the rest is likely well sourced 

 

Stearns is also responsible for hiring manager Craig Counsell, whose contract expires after this season. Counsell is expected to step down as manager, but while there’s speculation he could join Stearns in New York, he likely will sit out the 2024 season to be with his family.

[jerichoholicninja]

He'll be in the same division as the juggernaut Braves, a decent Phillies team, and a up and coming Marlins team. He's also shown he's not very good at spending money when he does. The Mets are a hot mess as is. I think it's going to be at least 2 or 3 years before that team contends for anything.

Counsell aside, Buck is as good as gone right?

[Soupbone]

So seeing as how this is no surprise, why didn't MA trade him to the Mets a year ago?

[sveumrules]

1 minute ago, Soupbone said:

So seeing as how this is no surprise, why didn't MA trade him to the Mets a year ago?

Couldn't agree on compensation, or Stearns just wanted a year off to refresh before jumping into the new gig.

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, brewers888 said:

What a shock and not something I said was happening several years ago. I was wrong though about one thing; I predicted 20 million a year and reports have it at a measly 15.

Dude...EVERYBODY saw this coming. That was NEVER the issue. You had these bizarre and ridiculous ideas that he was in communication with the Mets and that he was sabotaging the Brewers front office and that he COULDN'T BE TRUSTED.

 

The Mets asked 3 times for permission to speak to him. It was the worst kept secret in sports that he was likely to end up there. You don't get to do a "told you so," for THAT, when you predicted so much more beyond that, that was just objectively ridiculous. You couldn't count on him to act in the Brewers best interest because he wanted to go to New York...and as I pointed out then, if he was REALLY just doing whatever it took to get to the Mets, then he wouldn't have traded Hader, he'd have traded our best young prospects to give us a chance to get to the NLCS so he could have left a year earlier. 

 

I'll also add, you made the inference MANY times that the Brewers don't pay their front office well(despite numerous reports to the contrary) and yet they offered Stearns 5.5M to just stick around and be a part time consultant to the Brewers...rather than just effectively taking the year off. 

That's a pretty healthy figure for a guy they're NOT paying to be GM or POBO or director of anything, just to be a consultant. 

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, brewers888 said:

The big question is how many current Brewers executives he takes with him. I personally hope he fails miserably as I despise Cohen but expect Stearns with an actual payroll to do about as well as Friedman has done with LA.

Well...he can take ONE. And it's not going to be Arnold, we know that already. 

 

So...worst case, ONE. One player.

 

24 minutes ago, jerichoholicninja said:

He'll be in the same division as the juggernaut Braves, a decent Phillies team, and a up and coming Marlins team. He's also shown he's not very good at spending money when he does. The Mets are a hot mess as is. I think it's going to be at least 2 or 3 years before that team contends for anything.

Counsell aside, Buck is as good as gone right?

I do not agree with this. The Mets are in a good position right now as they decided to sell off at the deadline. They have a very good farm system, they're young, still have a nice core and his "not good at spending money," is the product of what? Cain and I guess Yelich?

Cain signed for a similar deal as Marte did and that hardly puts a dent into the Mets finances. Yelich wasn't a great signing, but he was coming off 2 back to back MVP caliber seasons and I don't think you can blame him for that.

 

Beyond those two he went after Yu Darvish hard and reportedly offered a contract that at least was comparable to the Cubs, he just had very little interest in coming here. That's proven to be a good deal. 

Small market "errors," and Cohen market errors are two wildly different things. The Mets have probably spent more on 10 players last 2 years than the Brewers have ever paid a player in a single year(or close to it). 

And now he's not going to have to be sifting through Free Agency dumpster diving hoping he can come up with a little pile of copper, he's going to be able to shop wherever he wants. 

He can add the Brewers entire payroll in free agency this year PLUS probably Ohtani and still be fine and within their payroll. 

 

I think it will be very similar to Friedman in the Dodgers. I DON'T know that it'll be enough to beat the Braves in the short term as they've just built such a massive stable of horses who are locked up for their entire primes and given themselves room to just focus on pitching(primarily). 

[Playing Catch]

I realize that big-markets have gone all analytical before (Astros), but I do fear that the days of the Rays (and Brewers) being competitive by these means are numbered. Baseball really needs to figure out if they want to be the NFL, European (and Saudi) soccer, or a pleasant mesh in-between in terms of competitive balance.

I hope we are able to keep most (all?) of the scouting staff.