5 Mets manager replacements if Buck Showalter doesn't return in 2024

Craig Counsell would be an excellent addition to the Mets with David Stearns

Those who drive baseball operations decisions choose the managers that best fit their game model and roster. In this sense, if David Stearns comes to the Mets as President of Baseball Operations, it stands to reason that he could bring Craig Counsell with him.

Counsell, current manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, would be a free agent after the end of this 2023 season. Counsell led a basement team like the Brewers to four consecutive postseasons (2018-2021) and is struggling to get there again in 2023.

Counsell is a consensus top manager in baseball. Craig Counsell is a young manager, despite his nine years of experience leading the Brewers, who have an advanced analytical background that could be combined with the new level of baseball analytics that the Mets are developing.

Counsell's contract with the Brewers was made by Doug Melvin when he was GM, but a short time later Stearns took over, making the Stearns-Counsell duo one of the longest until Stearns resigned in 2022. With Stearns as POBO and Counsell as manager, the Mets could achieve the sustainability that Steve Cohen has discussed so much of developing talent along with the acquired one and commanding them in the best way on the field of play.