New York Mets GM David Stearns knows he won't be getting a "mulligan" for one of his worst moves.
New York Mets GM David Stearns made some disastrous moves last offseason, but few had the magnitude of letting first baseman Pete Alonso walk in free agency. That bad move got magnified when Alsonso returned to Citi Field with the Baltimore Orioles for a late-season series, and the first baseman wound up destroying the Mets with a home-run barrage as the O’s swept the series.
“Fire Stearns” was the second theme of the week, with chants to that effect breaking out constantly and banners popping up everywhere, and the GM addressed that during his postseason press conference, saying he knows he doesn’t “get mulligans” in his job for the Alonso move.
He added that he recognized that Alonso had a great year, and Stearns added that the “totality of our production” at first base for the Mets wasn’t good enough.
This is a pretty good example of how Stearns gets himself in trouble when he talks to the media. He’s prone to making flip comments about things like “mulligans” that sound catchy in the moment, and Stearns also excels at burying common-sense phrases like “not good enough” with obscure verbiage about production that comes off as corporate speak.
Stearns also added that he would probably be retiring the phrase “run prevention,” which was corporate speak for sending out offense to get back defense.
Nearly all of the players Stearns got back in those moves either underperformed or couldn’t stay on the field, and as a result the Mets were out of the running and open for business for a fire sale at the trade deadline.
None of this may matter going forward, however, because Stearns won’t be doing the job alone next season, and behind the scenes he may not be doing it at all. The Mets hired former Minnesota Twins GM Derek Falvey in an executive role to work with Stearns, and Falvey might in fact be Stearns’ boss for all we know.
This is how owner Steve Cohen rolls. He doesn’t like to fire people who are underperforming until he absolutely has to — think former manager Carlos Mendoza here — so his typical approach is to hire more people and create more layers to bury whoever's on the wrong end of this.
Will any of this stop the Mets from making bad decisions about players like Alonso? Nope. Most of the better organizations in baseball have one clear voice at the top, and a stable infrastructure that enhances player development to help make solid baseball moves. That’s the opposite of what the Mets do, but hey, at least they’re bad in an entertaining way.
