Laura Albanese: Fixing Mets requires David Stearns to learn from mistakes
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns speaks to the media at Citi Field on June 26. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It’s not a stretch to conclude that David Stearns isn’t having what anyone would call a “good” time this season.
The Mets’ president of baseball operations wasn’t having fun when Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto took turns getting hurt, or when his starting pitching plan disintegrated into chaos, or when he had the untidy task of dismissing well-liked and well-regarded Carlos Mendoza from his managerial post.
He certainly wasn’t smiling last week when asked during a news conference if he planned to resign. And owner Steve Cohen’s support notwithstanding, it’s probably pretty tough to hear your boss tell a podcast that the team you built is “horrendous.”
But the Mets are, in fact, horrendous: They’re 15 games under .500, and after the off day Thursday, have the distinct displeasure of having to play a four-game set in Atlanta against the best team in the NL East.
Still, Cohen wasn’t wrong to declare Stearns’ job safe Wednesday, and his logic was sound.
“If we’re going to burn and churn, that’s a terrible place to be,” he told “The Show” podcast. “Every time you burn and churn, guess what — the next time, nobody wants to come. Is someone going to put their career in your hands if you’re going to be short-term-oriented?”
It’s more than that, though. Fans may very well want yet another pound of flesh; there was a man holding a “Fire Stearns” sign last homestand, and the request is ubiquitous in online spaces. But this is Stearns’ mess, and with this team going nowhere, he should get a chance to clean it up.
In fact, a reason for retaining Stearns ironically can be found in what likely will end up being one of his biggest mistakes — his nuclear response to the 2025 collapse.
This franchise isn’t known for stability or continuity, and when Stearns overhauled the roster and gutted the coaching staff, he also introduced a new set of variables. It’s gone poorly, and at this juncture, a full-blown identity shift has the potential to set this franchise even further back.
Instead, Stearns has the ability to do what a new face cannot — allow his failures here to serve a purpose. And let’s face it, he’d be hard-pressed to make things worse than they already are.
At the conclusion of the 2025 season, Stearns said he would spend the ensuing months evaluating where things went wrong and act accordingly. Unfortunately for the Mets, he’s acquired even more data to work with — something he acknowledged in the news conference addressing Mendoza’s firing.
Asked if too much change too quickly keyed the Mets’ missteps, he answered, “I certainly think it’s possible.” He also has previously said he intends to look into the front office’s risk assessment — a response to the ill-fated Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. acquisitions.
Cohen also noted Wednesday that Stearns may have put too little stock in the human element of the game. It’s difficult to play in New York, and it’s even more difficult to lose in New York.
Throw other factors in there, too. Freddy Peralta is playing for a contract, is new to New York and spent his entire career with another franchise. Peralta, Bo Bichette and Marcus Semien have been lauded as good clubhouse guys, yes, but you can’t expect struggling players to come into a new environment and lead. All of it has added to this team’s identity crisis and lack of chemistry, and none of it fosters success.
All that is another lesson learned.
To be clear, this isn’t full-throated support of Stearns or the job he’s done. It’s simply a reality: He is the architect of this team and still has the potential to hone his blueprint. After all, many of these poor offseason moves were lauded at the time they occurred.
This does come with a caveat, though. It might be difficult to make things worse, but it’s not impossible.
The Mets’ farm system, which was among the best in baseball at the end of last season, has seen significant regression. While it’s true that graduating players such as Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing weakens the unit, the Mets had only one player in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects this week — Jonah Tong at No. 82.
Cohen is aware of all this, too, and like everything else, it’ll be Stearns’ task to figure it out.
“I’m extremely worried” about the regression, Cohen said. But then he echoed what he’d been told: “Development isn’t linear.”
He has to hope that holds true for his president of baseball operations, too.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
