An easy way David Stearns can help appease fed up NY Mets fans

New York Mets fans got an ugly reminder of David Stearns's worst tendencies when Pete Alonso crushed his 300th career home run at what used to be his home ballpark. Alongside celebrating an old friend's milestone accomplishment, Mets fans chanted "FIRE STEARNS" throughout the evening as they finally gave voice to their fury over the president of baseball operations' mishandling of the polar bear, which led to him signing in Baltimore last offseason.

Whether fans would actually like to see Stearns canned or not, Steve Cohen has backed Stearns up and made it abundantly clear that he isn't going anywhere. Even if his job is safe at the moment, however, Stearns needs to make regaining the fan base's trust a top priority this offseason. There may be no better way for him to accomplish that than by working out a long-term extension with rookie Carson Benge.

David Stearns can prove his loyalty to Mets fan favorites by locking up Carson Benge

Benge may not be favored to win the NL Rookie of the Year award thanks to a banner year from Reds infielder Sal Stewart, but he's turned in a brilliant rookie campaign nonetheless. His defense has taken a big step forward during the second half this year, and on offense he's just two homers and a double shy of a 20 homer, 20 double, 20 stolen base season. That's a great start to Benge's career, and his OPS after the All-Star break is nearly 50 points higher than it was in the first half.

Given the upwards trajectory of the youngster's season, it would make plenty of sense for the Mets to see if they can lock him up with an early-career extension. These sorts of extensions have become increasingly common around baseball in recent years, though the Mets have largely avoided participating in that craze to this point. Stearns would do well to change that going forward.

The obvious question, then, is what a Benge extension might actually cost at the moment. Fortunately, there's been plenty of other young outfielders who have signed big-time extensions in recent years. The most obvious comparison that might spring to mind for fans is budding Red Sox star Roman Anthony, who landed $130M over eight years in Boston last year.

Fortunately for the Mets, Benge shouldn't cost that much. Anthony's numbers (led by an .859 OPS) in his rookie season were much stronger than Benge's have been, and in addition to that Anthony was also the consensus top prospect in baseball ahead of his debut. While Benge did well in prospect rankings himself, he doesn't come close to that sort of pedigree. A better comparison can be found out west, where the Athletics have gone on an extension frenzy in recent years.

That flurry of deals includes two young outfielders, right fielder Lawrence Butler and left fielder Tyler Soderstrom. Butler's seven-year, $65.5M deal would surely be an appealing comparison to Stearns, but Butler lacked pedigree as even a top-100 prospect prior to his breakout as a rookie, not to mention the ability to play a passable center field the way Benge can. Perhaps Soderstrom, who landed a seven-year, $86MM deal, is a reasonable middle ground.

Soderstrom is a weak defender in left field, but he has a much bigger bat than Benge. He crushed 25 homers and 34 doubles while maintaining a .346 on-base percentage in the year prior to his extension, which covers his age 24-through-30 seasons and also contains a club option for his age-31 campaign. If a hypothetical Benge extension followed a similar track, he'd remain in a Mets uniform through 2033, with an additional club option on the 2034 season.

That's the sort of long-term commitment Mets fans need to see from Stearns in order to buy that he won't make the same mistake he made with Alonso when it comes to the up-and-coming core, led by Benge and righty Nolan McLean. The decision to let Alonso go cannot be walked back, so the best thing for the Mets to do from here is learn from their mistake and show a little more loyalty to homegrown stars in the future.

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