NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 David Stearns realities some fans won’t admit

David Stearns won over a large portion of the New York Mets population in 2024. How could you not, even with doubts, buy into whatever it is he does? While it’s never a good idea to blindly follow the leader and as a fan you should have your own thoughts and beliefs about what the team should do, some fans are impossible to sway.

Certain Mets fans will walk behind Stearns like the pied piper. Others, living in perpetual negativity after years of abuse by other front office executives and owners, find the worst in everything he does.

The truth is almost always somewhere in the middle. It’s these three that Mets fans might not be willing to admit.

1) David Stearns didn’t have a great first offseason with the Mets

The 2023-2024 offseason was not a perfect one for the Mets. A couple of questionable calls around the bigger ones, most notably the Sean Manaea and Luis Severino signings, helped lead to a slow start to the year. This is a team that began the season with Joey Wendle and Zack Short on the roster. All the while, Jose Iglesias was stuck in Triple-A waiting to be unleashed.

Far more impactful than a pair of infielders who couldn’t hit was the haul of pitchers brought in. Yohan Ramirez was acquired for cash in a trade. Michael Tonkin was a cheap $1 million signing. Jorge Lopez, at twice the price of Tonkin, had a good first month then literally exploded in late May. 

The list of failed Mets pitchers from last season who were new to the team is extensive. Shintaro Fujinami never pitched an inning in the majors. Adam Ottavino was someone they pretty much had to sign because they weren’t playing in the market for better ones. Jake Diekman, outside of a victory against Aaron Judge, spent most of the year throwing balls outside of the strike zone. How can we forget about Adrian Houser who couldn’t cut it as a starter and wasn’t much better in relief?

Waiting out the market for J.D. Martinez worked until it didn’t. We can play a game of butterfly effect with this one. Would Mark Vientos have hit so well immediately or was his humbling demotion a necessity? The same could be said of Harrison Bader who started off well then did nothing for the final weeks.

That’s about 8 players who were brought in last winter who fell flat on their faces. A varying degree of expectations—a guy like Short expected to not last long but someone like Fujinami overhyped more than anyone else in recent memory without accomplishing much—Stearns had an offseason that was far from one to repeat.