NY Mets News: 3 things we'd like to hear at the David Stearns introduction

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The David Stearns introductory press conference will take place at noon today. New York Mets fans are already planning their lunch breaks around it to get a first look at the first President of Baseball Operations in club history.

How will things go? New York sports fans have been treated to a variety of introductions. Will it be cheesy like when the New York Yankees introduced Gerrit Cole? Will it be weird like the time when former New York Jets coach Adam Gase was looking all over the place?

We want some sense of normalcy and I do expect Stearns to be a guy who brings it. Aside from being genuine, human, and intelligent, there are a few things that we should look for from Stearns.

1) We want David Stearns to remind us how true NY Mets he really is

The Mets hiring Stearns was no accident. He worked for the Mets previously but the promise some saw in him wasn’t recognized by others. The Harvard graduate would circulate his way around several organizations before finally the Milwaukee Brewers saw a gem and elevate him through their organization.

But it’s the Mets, Stearns’ hometown club, where he always belonged.

We need a reminder of this. All of them. And don’t go the Cole route with some sort of childhood relic. Know the history of the club. Get a little personal but remain in control. The press conference doesn’t need to be all about the love of Mike Piazza or whoever it was he enjoyed most as a kid.

Keep it simple. Mr. Met doesn’t need to step onto the stage and then remove his head to reveal Stearns is inside. Let’s class things up.

2) We want David Stearns to re-raise our NY Mets offseason expectations

The past is something I’d like to hear about from Stearns. His time with the Mets and other organizations. What he learned. What he has been doing this past year. We probably won’t get much intel. That’s okay. We need to know more about the immediate future.

Max Scherzer lowered our offseason expectations when explaining why he decided to waive his no-trade clause. Well, it’s up to Stearns to re-raise them.

Stearns doesn’t have be wild or tell us that Steve Cohen is giving him a blank check to sign whoever he’d like. Stearns doesn’t nor should he set a standard that 2024 is a championship or bust campaign. Give us some sort of a notation that this offseason will focus heavily on improving the club immediately.

Stearns cannot and will not get too specific in this regard. Where Pete Alonso fits into the picture is of concern for most fans. That’s the kind of question to save for another day. Let the man adjust to Eastern Standard Time again.

Very little about what Stearns’ offseason plans are will be revealed in his introduction. In fact, I don’t expect it to be all that memorable. His work will do better talking than he ever could.

3) We want David Stearns to address the manager situation

We won’t get a great answer and the reason for firing Buck Showalter technically does fall on Billy Eppler. Of all the chances Stearns will make with the Mets, this is the one we already know is guaranteed to happen.

There are plenty of hoops to jump through in this regard. If Craig Counsell is his guy, he can’t really say much until his contract expires in Milwaukee. All Stearns can really do is praise the work Showalter did and that’s a must in this press conference.

For as poor as the results were under Showalter, he was well-liked by the players and fans. Hopefully Stearns’ degree from Harvard gave him enough knowledge to know he shouldn’t ignore the topic entirely.

If open for questions, this is the biggie for Stearns to skate around. Even if we don’t get much, how he handles the media will be important. He’s not in in the Midwest anymore. Welcome back to the jungle called New York.

Stearns has the benefit of coming to the Mets with high stakes but also a lot of love. He’ll get the benefit of the doubt not everyone has in the past. Fans will, for the most part, buy into anything he sells us. And we should until he proves otherwise.

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