How long is David Stearns’ contract with the NY Mets?

When Opening Day 2026 rolls around, perhaps New York Mets fans will look back at the events of the past week as if it were all a bad dream. Maybe by then, president of baseball operations David Stearns will have added Tarik Skubal and Fernando Tatis Jr. to the roster. Cody Bellinger, too. All will be restored, all will be well in Queens.

But for now, the "it gets worse before it gets better" mantra has only been halfway traversed by Stearns and the Mets, which has left New York's fan base in a frightful state.

With Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Díaz, and Pete Alonso all wearing different uniforms, Mets supporters are incensed with Stearns and club owner Steve Cohen. Naturally, fans are wondering how soon the Mets can stop paying Stearns to make decisions.

New York Mets fans sick of David Stearns are likely stuck with him until 2028

Stearns haters, covers your ears: the 40-year-old executive is under contract with the Mets through the 2028 season. He signed a five-year, $50 million deal with New York in October of 2023, per New York Post's Michael Blinn.

Fans hoping for Stearns' downfall will also be disappointed to learn that his relationship with Cohen is a strong one, at least from the outside looking in. The pair reportedly engaged in a dozen phone calls and four, lengthy face-to-face meetings ahead of Stearns' hiring in '23. They've dined together with their wives. In prior years, Cohen had tried twice in vain to pry Stearns away from the Milwaukee Brewers.

“I think Steve and I do share a vision for what the Mets can and should be,” Stearns said upon being hired by Cohen (per New York Post's Mike Puma). “And I think Steve also understands and (his wife) Alex understands how important my family was to me and this really is a family endeavor.”

Mets fans might as well bite the bullet and throw their support behind David Stearns

Here's a refreshing take out of left field that Mets fans don't want to hear at all right now, but shoud. Stearns isn't going anywhere soon, so the best move is to throw your optimistic faith behind the man and trust that the current storm will pass.

No one knows what kind of moves Stearns has up his sleeve to fix the current mess, but what is known about Stearns is that he's no stranger to front office adversity, nor does he feel foreign to the ebbs and flows of job security.

In Stearns' relatively young career in baseball thus far, his biggest successes have also been attached to failures. Stearns' steady rise to prominense at the helm of the Brewers' operations unraveled somewhat in 2022 after a failed season that many (Stearns included, to an extent) attributed to Stearns' questionable decision to trade Josh Hader.

Stearns' Mets tenure -- though just two years old -- has also been a mixed bag. His debut campaign in 2024 brought with it surprise success attributed somewhat to his savvy, small-scale moves and the heady hiring of Carlos Mendoza.

The momentum and fan euphoria of '24 catapulted the Mets' brand to heights unseen in recent years. Stearns and Cohen winning the Juan Soto bidding war was sort of the culmination of this Mets mania. The franchise and its supporters were on cloud nine entering 2025, but things have gone in the opposite direction since.

Last season was a massive disappointment. Whispers about clubhouse friction have only grown louder in volume. And now, Stearns has presided over a wildly controversial three weeks in terms of roster building, starting with the Nimmo trade and reaching a fever pitch with Alonso's departure for the Orioles.

It feels like Stearns has already completed his rise to glory and fall from grace in 24 months on the job in Queens. What will 2026 bring? That remains a mystery, but everyone's expecting Stearns to get back on the acquisition horse in January, for starters.