Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 positive assumptions about David Stearns we can make

2) David Stearns won’t be stubborn enough to stick with the original plan

All offseason it was pitched to the fans that this year was about learning what Brett Baty and Mark Vientos would do. The DH plan was for Vientos, DJ Stewart, and Starling Marte to share duties. How quickly that changed when J.D. Martinez was willing to lower his demands.

This doesn’t feel as much like Stearns admitting his mistake as much as it was the POBO seizing an opportunity. Stearns may have been completely okay with the team going into the year with the originally proposed DH plan. When the ability to snag Martinez for only $12 million total with a large portion deferred popped up, it was too irresistible.

The Mets didn’t fully waver from the offseason plan only because they needed something from the onset of the winter. Short term additions was the primary goal, but let’s not forget they did pursue Yoshinobu Yamamoto and surely would have done so if a similarly available free agent was out there. The problem with the Mets was their greatest need was the starting rotation and after Yamamoto it was players in the Luis Severino and Sean Manaea category or ones looking overpriced like Blake Snell.

No one likes a stubborn baseball executive. This isn’t a trait of Stearns he has shown thus far.

3) David Stearns isn’t going to settle with tapping into the depth

The Mets starting pitching depth was called upon before the year even began with Tylor Megill getting the nod for the Opening Day roster in lieu of Kodai Senga landing on the IL. When Megill followed, what did they do? They looked outward.

The Mets were unable to recall Jose Butto before April 12th with the exception being his usage as the 27th man during the team’s doubleheader. Joey Lucchesi wasn’t a satisfactory enough choice nor was the use of an opener.

Instead, the Mets signed Julio Teheran to a major league deal. A target of theirs during spring training and even before he signed what turned out to be a temporary deal with the Baltimore Orioles, Teheran will now be tasked to give the Mets a solid outing every five or six days. His stay might not be so temporary with the ball club’s desire to use a six-man rotation at times and the absence of Senga and Megill already.

A hat tip should go out to Steve Cohen who gave approval for the Mets to pay more into the luxury tax with this addition. We’ll get our look soon at Teheran and learn whether or not he was worth it.

Regardless, Stearns hasn’t settled for the team’s depth options. Instead, he has continually added and we should expect him to remain on the prowl.