3 NY Mets changes we won't see even with David Stearns steering the ship

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We could all use a little change and certainly with the hiring of David Stearns as the first President of Baseball Operations in New York Mets history, we should expect the walls to be painted differently. Stearns will join the Mets ready to make his mark on the organization, but he doesn’t have to gut the entire ball club.

As disappointing of a year as it has been in 2023, we can’t look at the team’s record at the end to evaluate them. They sold at the trade deadline therefore gave up a lot of games they could have otherwise won. This Mets team will be remembered for their poor record when realistically they could have been much closer to .500.

A .500 team still isn’t good enough and Stearns needs to punch out some walls like they do in those HGTV commercials with a sledgehammer. A few areas, however, should remain untouched.

1) NY Mets core will remain the same under David Stearns

This isn’t a situation where the Mets are going to slowly continue to subtract. How could they? Francisco Lindor’s contract won’t run out until we have at least a few more Avatar movies. Brandon Nimmo is staying, too.

The only truly questionable member of the core who could be gone quickly is Pete Alonso and that’s only if Stearns sees no shot of extending him. Even then, carrying Alonso onto the 2024 Opening Day roster is a possibility. The Mets can cut bait with him at the trade deadline if things go south. This plan remains far fetched enough, but at least it feeds this narrative that the Mets will trade the big guy.

Stearns is coming to a premade team with lots of holes to fill, not a piece of scrap paper he saw in front of him during his tenure with the Houston Astros in their pre-recent glory days.

2) NY Mets will stick with spending lots of money under David Stearns

Stearns is going from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Mets and it must feel like wearing a Louis Vuitton after years of having the most stylish knockoff. The Brewers haven’t been completely reluctant at spending money, but the change in market size and length Steve Cohen goes to increase the payroll is going to feel a lot different for Stearns who probably feels a little more hamstrung with the budget than he will moving forward.

We shouldn’t expect the Mets to break their 2023 payroll record next season. Nor should they remain as the most expensive roster in the game. Stearns’ mission will involve clever moves. A successful $200 million team is something to get more familiar with in the first years of his stay.

The ability to spend on free agents, extend your own young stars, and send failing veterans elsewhere for prospects is a dangerous weapon. Cohen put a ton of trust into Billy Eppler. He’s undoubtedly going to give Stearns as much faith to begin.

The Stearns-run Mets won’t always make the biggest offers. They might not even get involved with every free agent fit. They’ll be among those high-spending teams for sure. Just don’t prepare for every free agent of your dream to come true.

3) NY Mets farm system is going to continue building under David Stearns

The best way to lower your team’s payroll is to build up from the farm system. This has been a mission of the Mets under Cohen. It wasn’t until this summer when the team really took a leap forward in terms of young talent under their possession.

The Mets have a shot at owning a top 10 farm system by the time next year begins. Many places think they’re right outside at number 11 or 12. As meaningless as it is to be number 10 instead of 11 on a list like this, it feels good to know the experts believe things are looking up.

Stearns is no stranger when it comes to valuing minor leaguers. He helped reset the Brewers for about a year until they were suddenly competitive again. The 2018 team made it to Game 7 of the NLCS with a roster featuring 30+ home run hitters Jesus Aguilar and Travis Shaw at the two corner infield spots and Jhoulys Chacin as the staff’s ace and lone pitcher to win double-digit games. This wasn’t a team full of stars but it involved a ton of fantastic pickups nobody thought were so obvious.

His biggest move of all came as a direct result of using the farm system to his advantage. The trade for Christian Yelich was a masterclass on asset usage. Yelich would win the 2018 NL MVP and finish second in 2019. Although he slowed down a ton in the years since, the Brewers didn’t give up all that much to acquire him from the Miami Marlins.

A Yelich type of trade feels inevitable during Stearns’ time with the Mets because, after all, not every one of those prospects will have space on the major league roster. Stearns isn’t going to Brodie Van Wagenen the farm system and trade away everyone. It’ll be a slow burn and continued betterment of the prospects even when some subtraction is involved.

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