What’s the Next Step For David Stearns at GM?

With the recent news that Billy Eppler resigned as the general manager of the Mets amidst some controversy, new president of baseball operations David Stearns has a whole new issue to address. As it was, Stearns was already looking to hire a manager and make some other critical, essential hires in the analytics and scouting departments to modernize the Mets. With this new development, however, he is left looking to hire a new general manager and a new manager while keeping the Mets competitive. While Eppler was a holdover from the previous regime, it was to be believed that he and Stearns would be able to work together to implement his vision – but that has now changed. That poses a big question but also may have an easy answer – what if David Stearns just handled the role of general manager?

If Stearns assumed the general manager job without a title, it would allow him to control acquisitions directly. While this may be a lot more work, Stearns would have full autonomy over the roster without worrying about hiring a new general manager and then have him familiarize himself with the Mets’ entire roster in an offseason. Stearns was the general manager of the Brewers from 2015-2019, then was promoted to the POBO position as well as GM. He relinquished the GM position in 2021 and let Matt Arnold handle that solely. At the end of the 2022 season, Stearns stepped down as POBO for the Brewers and moved to an advisory role.

However – this may be the best chance for Stearns to achieve synergy between the general manager and the manager by hiring them both in the same cycle, ensuring that his manager will play the team that the general manager helps develop that Stearns oversees. This could be an opportunity for the Mets to hire a forward-thinking, analytic-minded GM who can help Stearns execute his vision. The biggest challenge this offseason won’t be fielding the competitive roster – but having the entire front office work as a team and not having any disconnect in communication between all levels of the franchise. Ideally, the new general manager would have a good understanding of what the Mets’ strengths and weaknesses are in the minor leagues and how to leverage that into creating the most competitive MLB team while setting them up for a run of success by keeping the minor league pipeline of talent flowing.

If Stearns didn’t have enough to do this offseason – this leaves him two choices, and he may be prepared for both. It ultimately will come down to – if there is a good candidate for general manager that agrees with his vision, Stearns should hire him. However, he shouldn’t hire someone just because he feels he has to fill the position. The Mets are in the unique position where they have a chance to clean the slate regarding their front office, and they should be diligent in who they hire to be the general manager, as they were when they waited to hire David Stearns.