If David Stearns is this so-called “smartest guy in the room,” then how and why did the Mets underperform this past season — and not by a little, but by a lot? The reality is that there are many things Stearns could have done in the off-season to strengthen the Mets. Did he do them? No!
I rarely listen to WFAN or ESPN Radio 880 for sports talk anymore. Most of the “talkies” are not only terrible at their jobs, but they are also shills for the teams they talk about. The only sports radio host willing to call teams out is WFAN’s Joe Benigno, a part-timer who the station won’t retain after December. It will be a loss for New York sports radio once he’s gone. He is the last remnant of what used to be excellent about sports radio in town, so appreciate him while you can.
We will miss Benigno’s insights, such as outing David Stearns as a fraud. He has never been a fan of the Mets’ president of baseball operations, and he is the only media member in town who will go after the Mets’ baseball boss. He has mocked Stearns for thinking he is the smartest man in the room.
Benigno accurately describes Stearns. There’s something about this person that I really dislike, and this season proved my point.
It began in the offseason when the Mets’ president of baseball operations took no action to improve the team. You say Juan Soto signed with the Mets? Well, that was Mets owner Steve Cohen who did the work, not Stearns. You say Pete Alonso came back? If Stearns had his way, the Mets star would not have come back.
David Stearns (photo Reddit)
There’s more. Stearns did not get a bona fide starter in the rotation this offseason, and the Mets needed one desperately. Stearns should have known Kodai Senga is injury-prone based on the two seasons before this year. Worse yet, Sterams did not get a reliable starter to replace Jose Quintana, who was not signed this past offseason.
He thought Griffin Canning, Frankie Montas, and Clay Holmes would excel in the rotation due to the exceptional pitching lab he had created. However, things did not turn out that way.
–Canning did okay, but then he suffered a ruptured left Achilles injury on June 26 and was out for the season the following day. Even before the injury, hitters hit him well. Canning is a journeyman. He has never been ace-worthy, and teams would figure him out one way or another.
Frankie Montas (photo amNY)
–Montas stunk, and then he was done for the season after suffering a UCL injury in his right elbow. He also has been injury-prone in recent seasons, so it’s interesting Stearns thought it was a good idea to throw $34 million away for him. Talk about a waste of money. It was about buying high on a starter because Stearns thought he could get value from him. That’s plain hubris. Whether it’s good news or bad, Montas may not be able to pitch in ’26.
–Holmes did well, but Stearns had to know his innings would catch up to him since he never pitched above his limit. This is why it was a risk to sign him as a starter. However, this is a case where Stearns believed the pitching lab could improve his pitching technique.
By thinking he can fix everybody, Stearns is building a poor baseball team, and getting to the playoffs in ’25 involved relying on three young rookies — Nolan MacLean, Brandon Sproat, and Jonah Tong — who were learning on the job. Only MacLean flourished.
The Mets missed the playoffs because they lacked depth in their starting rotation, and it didn’t help when Sean Manaea and Senga struggled after returning from the injured list.
Stearns should have focused on getting a starter at the trade deadline. Instead, he acquired several relievers, hoping they would compensate for the lack of starting pitching. Furthermore, it wasn’t like the relievers were anything special. Tyler Rogers, Gregory Soto, and Ryan Helsley flopped for the Mets.
So far, I’ve discussed players. Let me turn to the club’s culture.
It seemed like there was a disconnect in the clubhouse this season. The guys didn’t seem that motivated to play this season, unlike last year, when they had something to prove. It’s fair to wonder about Stearns’ impact on this. It seemed that some guys were bothered that Stearns did not appreciate their contributions, thinking they could be replaceable.
Let’s look at Alonso. Stearns thought the Mets could get decent production at first without overpaying for the Mets’ star. This is where Alonso probably felt insulted by it, and it made him wonder why he would play hard for a baseball boss who clearly did not appreciate him. If he feels that way, you can bet his teammates would feel that way, too.
Pete Alonso (photo courtesy NY Post)
I am not even sure if Stearns wants Alonso back next season. This guy talks about run prevention as a code for saying the team has to focus more on saving runs than on scoring runs. Sorry, but my take is that it would be a mistake if Alonso were gone. Who will replace his home runs and RBIs? If Stearns thinks he can get better results with an efficient player, he’s delusional.
Stearns has to understand the heartbeat of the clubhouse. It’s not about spreadsheets and data. It’s about knowing what he has in the players firsthand and through his interactions with them. He needs to know them better. Being aloof with his players helps explain the disconnect the team has experienced this season.[/beautifulquote]
Seeing coaches leaving on their own is also an indictment of Stearns. It seems he did not appreciate them, and he was micromanaging what they did. Mets bench coach John Gibbons clearly had had enough, so he left. We’re talking about a baseball lifer who enjoyed being around the game, and now he has left because he had had enough. That’s troubling.
Then, there’s Desi Druschel, who decided that he missed being with the Yankees so much that he decided to come back rather than work with the Mets for another year. How about Antoan Richardson leaving because the Mets did not value him? All he did was build a rapport with Juan Soto, and he had these guys stealing bases. This idea that he wanted money is bull. The Mets can pay up if they want to. Instead, they did not think he was worth what he’s getting.
So what we have here is this: Stearns thinks players and coaches are interchangeable. That’s not a good way to build a working relationship. If Stearns is not careful, then he could be looking for work next season.
And another thing he should stop is this “I’m the smartest guy in the room” act, which was old a long time ago.
