NY Mets Monday Morning GM: Brewers World Series trip barely buys David Stearns vindication

True: David Stearns had a heavy hand when it came to building the current Milwaukee Brewers. He hired staff. He drafted players now starring. He grabbed a shovel to establish the framework around making them a well-ran franchise that didn’t rely completely on spending cash. Removed from the job for several seasons and attempting to do a lot of the same with the New York Mets, their 2026 trip to the World Series barely vindicates what he’s trying to accomplish in Queens.

Stearns has a way of doing things that isn’t completely unique and yet can feel so because Mets fans simply aren’t used to seeing the club run like a small market club. Sure, in the leaner Wilpon years they behaved like it at times. That was more so going after B or C-tier free agents. They usually spent money with the exception being the immediate Madoff aftermath.

Since joining the Mets, Stearns has made moves that show he hasn’t completely changed while also giving the fans the more immediate satisfaction with moves like signing Juan Soto. His problem has been missing on the expensive yet undesirable free agents. Players like Frankie Montas and Jorge Polanco were huge whiffs. Countless trades have backfired.

Stearns’ Milwaukee process is paying off years later with his name in the credits. In New York, he has operated with a bigger payroll therefore, not similarly enough.

David Stearns deserves credit for helping to build the 2026 Brewers, but it does little to assure us the Mets are on the right path at the moment

The Mets aren’t stale or driving off the road. They did well at the 2026 trade deadline to give us confidence in the near future. The issue with the ball club this past year was keeping the wrong players and letting still useful ones go. It was too much of a renovation project with more than the incorrect paint chosen.

Milwaukee had a slow burn with almost immediate success in the regular season. He took over a 68-win team after 2015 and got them to 73 and then 86. In 2018, they won the division with 96 victories. The Brewers went on their best playoff run of the Stearns era, landing in Game 7 of the NLCS.

His Mets path has been far different. A half-hearted attempt to rebuild the club for 2024, a single victory gave the Mets the final playoff spot and a chance to go on an impressive postseason run themselves. It began by taking down the Brewers followed by a win against the Philadelphia Phillies. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team the Mets managed to defeat twice in the NLCS, stood in their way.

Stearns’ fingerprints are all over the 2026 Brewers. The system they had in place, he helped to create, and the contributions from a variety of people all helped him build up his resume to become the top target for the Mets’ President of Baseball Operations position. It’s amazing to think how only a short three years ago how popular of a choice it was for the Mets to hire him. How could someone as successful as him, on a tight budget, not do better in New York with Steve Cohen’s financial support?

That’s because no matter how good or bad Stearns is at his job, it takes a lot more than one person to pick players. Brice Turang is becoming a star on offense and defense. A first round pick by the Brewers in 2018, it took years of minor league development, the right coaching, and the players’ will to succeed.

Jackson Chourio was signed as an international free agent in January of 2021. Stearns gets credit for the greenlight. What about the scouting, coaching, and whoever put together the spreadsheet with the right data to get Stearns to agree?

Mets fans are caught in a constant battle of Stearns’ genius and arrogance. For every horrible move he has made for either ball club, you can find a successful one. That’s kind of just what happens over time.

A large part of the Brewers playoff roster were Stearns additions. Kudos to him. This doesn’t tell us much at all about what the Mets will eventually achieve. It only proves two things. First, he’s no dummy. Second, it takes time and input from some other voices.

This is neither a case of “the Brewers are better off without Stearns” nor is it an example of “the Mets are guaranteed a pennant.”

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