When David Stearns finally made the long-awaited move to the Mets from the Milwaukee Brewers, the intrigue stemmed largely from the payroll discrepancies between the two teams and the sizable difference in the two markets. If he could turn the Brewers into a juggernaut on a payroll that never exceeded $140 million annually, what could he do with a team that cost more than $350 million?
Now in his third season as the Mets’ president of baseball operations, things haven’t gone according to plan. Barring disaster, Milwaukee will cruise to its fourth straight NL Central title this season, the fifth in six seasons. The Mets are 17.0 games out of a postseason spot, heading closer to a mathematical elimination.
The Brewers went to the NLCS last fall while the Mets went to the golf course.
It looked as though the Mets were on their way to becoming the Big City Brewers when they knocked the Crew off in the 2024 NL Wild Card Series, but they were close to being eliminated before Pete Alonso’s heroic homer in the top of the ninth in Game 3.
The Brewers remain a model of consistency while the Mets have mostly been an expensive mess over the last two seasons.
“It’s kind of all facets of the game,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said Tuesday at Citi Field ahead of the series opener. “They’re just a very balanced club.”
Green isn’t wrong. Their lineup may not have the star power of big-market teams, but it’s a top-10 offense, ranked among the best in baseball in nearly all offensive categories, including OPS and average with runners in scoring position.
Their pitching staff owns the lowest ERA in the NL and the second-lowest WHIP. Their starting staff, led by 24-year-old homegrown fireballer Jacob Misiorowski, is tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the lowest ERA, and their bullpen has been almost as good.
Their defense is solid, even if unspectacular.
“They pitch as well as anybody in the game and have for a considerable period of time,” Green said. “Offensively, they’re athletic. They put balls in play, can put pressure on you defensively, and have for the last number of years. They run center fielders out in corner outfield positions as well, so they can defend the field.”
The club infrastructure has remained strong since Stearns left, and choosing former bench coach Pat Murphy to replace manager Craig Counsel in 2024 provided continuity and a familiar voice. Murphy, winner of the NL Manager of the Year Award the last two years, thinks the Mets need something money can’t buy: Time.
“Sometimes on paper you have certain things, and then sometimes it’s not as real as you think because it’s hard to come in and take over a team with such high expectations and do the things you need to do behind the scenes to set things up for the future,” Murphy said. “It’s hard to get those results as quick as you’d like. It’s not as easy as, ‘OK, plant this player in there.’ There’s so much to it. A lot of dynamics when you’re dealing with people…
“But I’m confident David knows how to build an organization from the ground up, and knows the inner workings and the important things within the organization.”
As it turns out, success can’t be bought immediately.
Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman took a route similar to the one Stearns took when he went from the small-money Tampa Bay Rays to the best team money could buy in Los Angeles, but it still took his Dodgers teams five years to win a World Series, then another four more before they’d win another. The Dodgers were already used to winning by that point, having won the NL West in back-to-back years before Friedman arrived.
A culture was already in place, with high expectations and leaders who upheld those standards of play. It’s something that has to be built over time, yet can be destroyed in a second.
“I don’t think there’s a script, and I don’t think you can write down a guidebook or a manual on how to do it,” Murphy said. “I’m blessed with the right people, and thankfully the front office ownership that can put an emphasis on those kinds of people, and try to go compete and not to complain or explain.”
Stearns is still operating as though he’s in Milwaukee, MLB’s smallest market. Other than the 15-year, $765 million contract awarded to Juan Soto, the Mets have been reticent to sign players to long-term deals. The executive’s five-year contract ensures that he has more job security than most of the players he brings into Queens.
In Milwaukee and New York, he has underestimated how important leadership and clubhouse chemistry can be. But owner Steve Cohen recently said he believes Stearns learns from his mistakes, citing that as a reason he plans to keep him in place after this season.
The Mets could eventually become the big-market Brewers or the East Coast Dodgers. It might just take longer than expected, and it might take some change in how the club operates.
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