Honestly, who cares. If he was so great, the Mets wouldn't have waited years to get him. If he was so great, he probably would have figured out how to take a team that won 95+ and was one game away from the World Series to the second level of the playoffs again. Yet, here we are half a decade later...happy to win a single postseason game before getting bounced. He has failed for years to make an offense not be so embarrassing, yet here we are...still sucking. Never used prospect capital to really add much and sucked at spending money in FA.
A winning culture he may have built and a consistent competitive team. That culture can survive way past him if you know what you are doing. It is probably a good thing he is gone and passing on the torch. His value to the franchise clearly maxed out and plateaued. Not saying he is bad or didn't dramatically changed Brewers baseball...but Stearns isn't a magically holy grail. He is quite replacable.