For the past few years, speculation has abounded about the future of Brewers’ executive David Stearns. The Mets have made no secret of their affinity for Milwaukee’s longtime baseball operations leader.
New York’s interest hadn’t amounted to much to this point. Stearns has been under contract with Milwaukee, allowing Brewers’ owner Mark Attanasio to block the Mets from interviewing him over the 2021-22 offseason. Attanasio retained that freedom last winter, even as Stearns stepped down from running baseball operations and moved into an advisory role for longtime lieutenant Matt Arnold.
That’s no longer the case. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of the Athletic report that Stearns’ contract allowed him to begin speaking with other teams about a possible front office job following the August 1 trade deadline. Rosenthal and Sammon report that Stearns has already been in contact with both the Mets and Astros (potentially among other teams).
There has been plenty of speculation around the industry about the Mets turning baseball operations over to Stearns once his contract with Milwaukee was finished. Not only is he clearly well-regarded by Mets’ owner Steve Cohen, the 38-year-old executive is a Manhattan native who worked in the Mets’ front office early in his career. While New York signed Billy Eppler to a four-year contract to take over as general manager in the 2021-22 offseason, Cohen has gone on record about a desire to add a baseball operations president to take over above Eppler (who would remain as GM).
It’s unclear how far along talks between Stearns and the New York organization have gotten. Andy Martino of SNY suggests (Twitter link) that discussions have already advanced further than the Mets’ talks with Theo Epstein had two offseasons ago, though he cautions that a deal coming together is not certain.
Perhaps that’s related to the possibility of Houston staying involved. Stearns worked as an assistant general manager for the Astros from 2013-15, the immediate precursor to taking over baseball operations in Milwaukee. He’s clearly familiar with Houston owner Jim Crane, who reportedly showed interest in bringing Stearns back last offseason (but denied in January that he’d requested formal permission from the Brewers for an interview).
The path to running baseball operations is clearer in Queens than in Houston, however. The Astros surprisingly moved on from James Click last offseason despite winning the World Series. They operated without a baseball operations leader until tabbing Braves’ vice president of scouting Dana Brown in late January. While Crane took an unconventional path with Click — with whom he’d reportedly had a frosty relationship despite the team’s success — there’s no indication the now first-place club is considering diminishing Brown’s responsibility after eight months on the job.
That all seems to point to the Mets as the most logical landing spot. Rosenthal and Sammon hear from individuals close to Stearns that he was “re-energized” by a season with less responsibility and is prepared to reassume a key role in baseball operations. (Stearns declined comment to The Athletic.) That’d be a change from last winter, when he said he was “looking forward to taking a deep breath, spending time with my family and exploring some other interests” when stepping down from the president role with Milwaukee.
The NL and AL central are a plucking ground for the west and east… excluding the Rays, Marlins and A’s… they also get plucked like your Thanksgiving turkey
Shut the pluck up.
Ripper – Someone please tell Stearns how wicked nice Boston is this time of year.
… But it’s not nice any time of the year
He’ll go to the Astros who are still a juggernaut and have more control than he would with the Mets
An alternate way to interpret the chain of events in HOU is that Crane had a plan with which Click wasn’t compatible beyond the 1-year extension offered. My guess is that Dana Brown is in partly because he was hired knowing a PoBO was also coming in later. I say that as no discredit to Brown’s own obvious merits in player evaluation.
Brown is a first time GM. If your guess came true, it would hardly be surprising.
He saved the NBA, could the Mets be next?
Wrong person. This is his son. David sterns Jr
Came to comments expecting to see one from retired/advisory role
Cashman will get fired and Stearns will be paid hugely to GM the Yanks. Boone will get one more year and then get replaced by Brad Ausmus. You heard it here first.
Cashman and Boone aren’t going anywhere. It’s more likely Cashman gets a promotion to PoBO and Hal will just hire a new GM. The Yankees also still have former GMs Brian Sabean and Omar Minaya in senior advisory roles.
YBC
I thought Minaya was still an advisor for the Mets or was a MLB Front office guy. I didnt think he went back to the Yankees.. I could be wrong though and please correct me if i am.
youtu.be/5ad2pun9hjM?si=D3Lfk7LIP6HfdrPq
ty for the info .. didnt realize he left the mlb front office.
Cashman won’t be fired, though Aaron F#&kin’ Boone and the entire analytics department should.
Wait the nny have analytics department.
@Chucky Hal has mentioned last week bringing guys from outside the org to overhaul their analytics dept.
Sterns is not going to be any teams GM. He is going to be POBO or retired.
Unless it is a team who doesn’t have a POBO. POBO really is just a fake title promotion that was invented to hire away personnel from other clubs because the rule is you can poach personnel under contract when you promote them.
That means GM basically is an assistant GM, POBO = GM and assistant GM = brings coffee to GM:).
I guess Stearns doesn’t care about the title, he just wants to be the highest ranked person that can make all decision independently (and of course gets paid).
The GM scenario could happen but Brad Ausmus won’t manage the Yankees ever.
I want the Angels hire him to be the POBO to finally right the ship. Better yet, sell the team, Arte!
Selling the team is thw only smart move Arte can make at this point.
Be careful what you wish for.
Money talks. Stearns is about to get a bottomless pot of money to do what he was doing with a shallow pan of money in Milwaukee. $&its about to get real in the NL East.
Kiss my Asstros. Go Dodgers!
Red Sox? To replace Bloom…
go to the Mets and give away one of there best players in a playoff race
ST. LOUIS!!!!
St. Louis!!
(Sorry for the double-post!)
He won’t know what to do with a real payroll or real expectations. The Mets and Astros need to look elswhere.
I’m a Brewer fan, and I don’t get why everyone else in baseball is so hot and bothered about David Stearns? In an era of the NL Central where three teams were bad he made the Brewers sort of relevant? And that looks good because for most of their 50+ years of existence they haven’t been. They now have 8 playoff appearances up from 4 in their franchise history because of him and and additional LCS to their tally.
I’m very happy the Brewers have achieved semi relevancy in baseball again, they are more fun to follow, But you are kidding yourself if you think a larger payroll will hide Stearns’ flaws.
Good luck to him where ever he lands.
He looks good from my perspective, but I don’t follow the Brewers very closely.
As a Brewers’ fan, what do you think his flaws are?
The fact he has made the brew relevant on a shoestring budget is pretty good, as cards fans I always felt like if the brews owner would spend a little more on the team they would have owned the nlc for years
You don’t think an extra $150M for payroll could hide the Brewers flaws? They’re already a good team.
He’s made them consistent playoff contenders AND still has a Top 5-10 farm system, all with a middle of the road payroll. The Brewers are basically the Midwest Dodgers with their level of consistency and player development, which is exactly what the Mets/Cohen want.
notagiantsfan: You’re right. There are six divisions now. Out of 30 teams, how many now make the playoffs each year: 35 or 40?! NL central has been very weak for years, with two of the other four non-Brewers teams hardly ever spending a dime.
Stearns should have won 100+ several times and gotten three or four trips to the NLCS. He’s been a disappointment.
Additionally: he treats his roster not like human beings who have careers to worry about, bills to pay, families to take care of, but rather like inanimate objects. Robots to be outrighted, cut, traded, re-signed, moved around from one position to another ad infinitim, etc.
Stearns, imo, seems like a bit of a disgrace as a human being. Just a suit who cares ONLY about making and saving-up shekels for himself and his corporate masters.
Stearns should have won 100+ several times
=========================
So your point is that Stearns is a genius at putting 100-win teams together on shoestring budgets?
Running a team requires making tough decisions. What Stern’s did in Milwaukee is being done in every MLB city by their GMs. If a team wins, tickets get bought, concessions get sold, ratings go up, and all the other people working for the team, vendors, concession workers, and ticket sellers get paid, and get tips and make bonus. The players are not the sole employees.
When the Brewers hired Stearns at the end of the 2015 season, they had been to the playoffs twice in the previous 32 seasons.
From 2016 until he stepped down at age 37 after the 2022 season they had been to the playoffs 4 times in the previous 7 seasons. They had missed by one game in 2022 because Attanasio asked them to cut payroll mid-season which led to the trade of their closer.
Not hard to see why people think Stearns is a great baseball executive. The bigger question is how you don’t?
Pads: In how many of those previous 32 seasons was there little to no competition in their division? And in how many of those previous 32 seasons was it, thanks to six divisions and a bunch of asinine candy-ass wild card teams, essentially a mere 50:50 coin toss for any team to make the playoffs?!
You tell us since you think you know baseball.
Along the way, tell us how many teams from 2016-2022 made the playoffs 4 consecutive times. How many were in the Central?
Keep in mind that division has the WS winning Cubs who made the playoffs 3 times while he was GM/POBO and the Cardinals who made the playoff 4 times during his tenure and other than this season have been consistent contenders.
BTW, 12 of 30 is not a 50% chance in the real world. That you think it is says volumes.
Maxi-Pads Fans: Any clue what “essentially” means?
For starters……
He will end up with the Mets, This has quietly been in the works for over a year so as to not break his contract with the Brewers making the move really messy, The Mets offer an open checkbook approach for Stearns, something he wished he had in Milwaukee, David is a big city guy and family too. Did he create a good relationship with Counsell to woo him to Mets too?
I think he ends up being the POBO for the Mets. Cohen will have to stay out of his way though, that’ll probably be part of the deal for him to sign on.
I have to think Sterns is going to the Mets and their recent front office/player development firings were with him in mind to take over an almost blank slate and bring his own people in.
Fire Eppler!
I thought he would get the White Sox job. Must not have as much baseball knowledge as Getz.y.
Expect the Brewers to file a tampering charge against the Mets, should Cohen sign the former GM to a deal.
The Mets have been — under both Cohen and Wilpon — too overt about their interest in a Stearns.. it’d be a shame if they’re docked a few high draft picks as potential compensation.
Stearns stepped down as POBO for the Brewers before the 2022 season began because he was stressed out with having to deal with the “”small market” Milwaukee brewers lol. I cant even begin to imagine how “stressed” he’ll be in the same job with huge market NY Mets. SMH
He’s from Manhattan and lives in Manhattan year round. He didn’t step down because he was stressed out. He stepped down because he wanted out. Too many years of having to trade top guys away to save a few bucks.
Nope that’s where your wrong. He stepped down with the brewers because he either didn’t like working for the owner and he told the press at the time he stepped down because he was burnt out with the riggers of the job. He was working for a small market team for heavens sake. He’ll get destroyed with the Mets with the everyday stress with working in the big apple
Stepping down because he wanted out means he didn’t like the ownership just as BIL said. That happens when the owner asks you to cut payroll when you have a 3 game lead in the Central. That didn’t sit well with Stearns and neither did Attanasio refusing to allow him to interview with his childhood favorite team in NYC.
Stearns never bought a home in Milwaukee and Whitney and their kids Nora and Austin live in NYC. His daughter Nora is in 2nd grade at the same school in Manhattan as my granddaughter.
He will excel wherever he works because he is brilliant and a great leader.
Your wrong. No owner worth his salt is gonna ask his POBO to slash payroll with 2 months left in the season when they’re up 3 games at the deadline. And when the player he traded is the best closer in the game. Stearns was burnt out plain n simple
Ataanasio publicly SAID that the team needed to cut payroll. So you are saying he is not worth his salt. I would be willing to bet that after that move that most Brewers fans would agree with you.
At the time of the trade Hader had a serious case of the yips, a 4.24 ERA for the season and a 12.54 ERA in July. He was not the best closer in the game at that point. There were questions about whether his career was over including by McCalvy. He was also about to get expensive by Brewers standards.
But carry on with your stupid comments. It makes the rest of look so much better.
Yes cut payroll at the end of the season NOT at the end of July at the trade deadline when the brewers were in first place by 3 games!!! Attanasio DIDNT tell Stearns to shed payroll by trading the best relief pitcher
Boston media is reporting that Sox ownership has reached out to Stearns also. I expect him to go to the Mets, but either, seems Bloom is dead man walking.
Jays should jump in and replace Atkins