NY Mets Monday Morning GM: A David Stearns decision he cannot afford to get wrong

David Stearns’ offseason batting average isn’t a whole lot better than the .084 Bartolo Colon hit in his career. But hey, even he managed to take a James Shield pitch and deposit it over the left field wall. How Stearns built this year’s New York Mets team will remain a subject fans and haters dissect continuously. Fans are still thinking about the team’s lack of aggression at the 2022 trade deadline as well as the swaps made in 2023 during their fire sale.

Stearns hasn’t directed any direct Mets sell-off just yet, lucking into a more competitive team in 2024 and a strong showing from the ball club early in 2025 to make us believe.

This year feels a little different. Non-committal at the moment to buying or selling at the trade deadline, choosing the wrong grail to drink from will have the kinds of consequences Stearns will never live down.

David Stearns will save or obliterate his reputation at this year’s trade deadline

Comparing Stearns’ Mets actions to what he did with the Milwaukee Brewers isn’t fair because history doesn’t always repeat itself. He didn’t tear down the club he inherited. That was already underway as of the 2023 trade deadline and even then no long-term options were sent packing. Although Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander were signed beyond that year, neither was going to stick in New York for long.

Stearns came into a situation where tweaking was one direction he could have gone. The 2024 Mets needed multiple starting pitchers. They chose to sign Sean Manaea and Luis Severino. They also traded for Adrian Houser.

It was easy to buy in 2024 and the Mets do so with cautionary acquisitions. In 2025, they had to once again buy without much thought. This wasn’t like 2023 when the players were trying to convince everyone they were better than their record. Midnight about to strike on buying or selling, Billy Eppler chose the Mets road less traveled. Post-2015 World Series trip, the Mets have been sellers only in 2017, 2018, and 2023. It’s a large percentage with poor results. The Mets bought in 2016 and 2022 and were eliminated in the first round they played in. 2024 is the outlier with advancement to the NLCS. They missed the playoffs entirely in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2025.

The oddity of the choice that lies ahead is if the Mets end up as buyers and come up short, Stearns suffers the most damage. The impact is immediate. Selling ends up “justified” because the Mets have now replenished the farm system in some way. The injury excuse already building in 2026 can buy him another year far more easily than it would to buy and fail.

There has been no indication Steve Cohen is ready to fire Stearns regardless of how this year finishes. He probably gets to see through at least the 2027 season. The organization has been unstable throughout Cohen’s time as the majority owner with multiple managers and executives in the front office.

Stearns came to the Mets with the purpose of using his small market success into big market success because of the added budget he got to work with. Give him some truth serum, would he trade the Grimace run in 2024 in exchange for a chance to fully rebuild the team by selling? The offseason never provides a Cohen-owned Mets to bypass building what looks to be a sturdy team on paper. It’s only ever at the trade deadline, with the excuse of too many losses, that’ll ever give Stearns enough of a reason to do what he supposedly does best.

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