Report: Brewers Will Deny Permission to Interview David Stearns

Updated – Nov. 4, 09:30 ET

According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, “all signs” point to the Milwaukee Brewers denying teams the ability to interview their former president of baseball operations David Stearns.

Stearns made the decision to step down as the Brewers’ POBO last week and announced they he would stay with the team as an advisor. The Mets were denied last offseason when they asked to interview Stearns to become their top baseball decision-maker. The New York native is entering the final year of his contract with the Brewers.

The Mets look like they will enter an important offseason with GM Billy Eppler at the top of their baseball operations.

Original  – Oct. 28, 12:00 ET

The biggest news on the baseball front from Thursday was the announcement that David Stearns was stepping down as the Brewers’ president of baseball operations. It’s substantial news, because it tells you that Stearns will not be in Milwaukee after his contract expires next year. That will certainly have teams excited at the opportunity of getting one of the more highly regarded minds in baseball.

However, the question becomes, does Stearns really want to step back a bit from the everyday stress of being a top baseball executive, or was this just the best move for him to get into a new organization this offseason?

Stearns held a press conference on Thursday to talk through why he made the decision to step down and what the future might look like for him. “This is a job that requires complete and total commitment,” Stearns said. “When I began to hesitate about whether I could make that commitment, I knew it was really time to contemplate a change.”

After thanking Brewers’ owner Mark Attanasio for allowing him to live out his childhood dream, Stearns said he was going to use this time to take a deep breath and spend more time with family. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be here in Milwaukee,” Stearns said.

It’s no secret that the Mets have long wanted to bring back the Manhattan native to New York and have tried to do so in each of the last offseasons, but they have been denied the opportunity to talk to Stearns. The Mets had Stearns as an intern way back in 2008 before he left to work in the MLB Central Office. After a stop in the Cleveland organization, Stearns was then hired to be the assistant GM of the Houston Astros. A few years later in 2015, Stearns at only 30 years old, was named the GM of the Brewers. In 2019, Stearns was signed to a contract extension and promoted to president of baseball operations.

The Astros note is particularly important to Mets fans hoping that this will finally be the offseason that Stearns comes home to be the top executive of the team he grew up cheering for. The Astros begin playing in the World Series on Friday, but their GM, James Click, is not under contract after this season. They would be an obvious suitor for Stearns if he decided to change teams this offseason. Whitney Ann Lee, the wife of David Stearns, is a Houston native and the couple was introduced to each other by Astros owner Jim Crane.

Let’s say the Mets and Astros do decide they want to pursue hiring Stearns to be their top baseball executive this offseason, there are a couple of important pieces to note. First, despite Stearns now being in just an advisory role, the Brewers can still technically decline the request to talk to him, though that seems far less likely this offseason. Secondly, the Brewers would still likely be looking for compensation in the form of player(s) from the team that would hire Stearns.

One last piece to all of this is that Mets owner Steve Cohen has said multiple times this offseason that GM Billy Eppler is in charge of baseball decisions. “Billy [Eppler] is in charge. We’re focused on other things right now,” Cohen said to Andy Martino of SNY. I don’t think there’s much you can deem from what Cohen said or from what Stearns said about not going anywhere, because what else would you expect to say in each of their situations right now?

It’s no secret that the Mets have wanted a big-name baseball executive since Cohen bought the Mets, and not to belittle Eppler, but he doesn’t fit into that mold. Stearns certainly does among people in the game. I also don’t think Stearns would pose a threat to Eppler. In fact, it’s been reported that the two are good friends, and having both in the front office would certainly be a good thing for the Mets organization.

Sandy Alderson stepped down in September as the Mets team president, and many in the game saw that as the final hurdle the team had to get over to attract a big fish to run the front office. Maybe David Stearns ends up being that catch.