OT: NY Mets 26-27 Offseason Thread

gmay8 said:

I'll never forgive Stearns for letting Alonso, my son's favorite player by a mile, walk.. The only thing that will allow me to forgive Stearns is a world series championship within the next 3 years. If he can't do that, he should never be allowed back in the state of NY.

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This is something the new aged analytics fans miss with baseball- and you hear so many of the baseball greats, including guys that are not all that old talk about- Baseball is the only sport now driven almost 100% by analytics and non-human factors. And the weird thing about the sport, is that the love for it came from the non structured things about it. Football/basketball- there have always been games with strict time factors- baseball- you play until there is a winner. Just so many things- and the feelings of fans- drove the sport.
Stearns actually made up ways to make Pete look bad - and forget about this war crap- his own teammates on the infield loved him at 1B. A bad year is 35 HR/90 RBI - and he loved the fans and the city.
He is home grown, chasing history with the 300-400-500 and maybe HOF. And if he did that as a lifelong Met, then it is something that current 10 y/o's talk about to get their kids and the grandkids excited.

Baseball is one of those sports- And now- I bet, like myself- you have a ton of NY Met fans looking at Baltimore box scores every single day.

The only thing positive Cohen can do this off season is get rid of Stearns but he just isn't going to do it

RUnotentertained said:

Says Rojas will be added to 40 man to be protected from rule 5 and others like Voit don't have to be. During lockout 40 man roster can not be associated with team while others can still play minor league ball if lockout drags into season

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Yes, that is unfortunate but correct. The ironic thing is that with the lockout, there may not even be a Rule 5 draft this year. But the Mets cannot assume that there won't be. If there is a Rule 5 draft, Rojas will surely be taken if left unprotected.

Others in the same boat among the top 20 prospects are:

Jacob Reimer - #6 prospect
Jack Wenninger - #8
Ryan Clifford - #14
Gary Gill Hill - #16
Chris Suero - #17

My guess is that they protect the pitchers - Wenninger and Gill Hill. Everyone else, I think they take their chances.

Interesting Athletic article about the lockout. It said that the critical date is the 60 game mark, around the end of May.

Here's why. As you might guess, it is all about $$$$.

The current MLB media contracts expire at the end of 2028. MLB expects that the new agreements will be WAY more lucrative. However, if the lockout results in the cancellation of at least 60 games, then the current contracts are automatically extended through 2029. They would have to wait another year for the big bucks.

Why is this significant? Because:

* It provides a strong incentive for the owners to get a deal done in time for a late May restart, thus ensuring than less than 60 games are lost.

* However, if they don't get the deal done in this time frame, the owners might say f-it and blow off the season, figuring the economic damage has been done.

We shall see.

Is that a Mets cap PCA is wearing during his post game interview Wednesday night?
He was 0 for 7 with 4 Ks over the two games.

So Metsy

Colbert17! said:

Is that a Mets cap PCA is wearing during his post game interview Wednesday night?
He was 0 for 7 with 4 Ks over the two games.

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Yes, that is definitely a Mets cap! And definitely weird, considering he was never a Met, unless the St. Lucie Mets count.

Maybe he felt that he was not worthy of wearing a Cubs cap? Or maybe wearing it was his way of doing penance, like a medieval hairshirt?

How much of the Brewers success is because of Stearns? If this dude came from any other organization, I would totally get firing him now. But the Brewers are a well-oiled, regular season winning machine. What parts of this machine were created by Stearns direct action?

redking said:

How much of the Brewers success is because of Stearns? If this dude came from any other organization, I would totally get firing him now. But the Brewers are a well-oiled, regular season winning machine. What parts of this machine were created by Stearns direct action?

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The Brewers were certainly NOT a well-oiled machine before Stearns got there. Stearns' tenure began after the 2015 season, when the Brewers went 68-94. They improved to 73-89 in 2016, then 86-76 in 2017. Except for the 2020 COVID year, they've never been below 86-76.

We all know that correlation does not imply causality. But the correlation between David Stearns and success (at least with the Brewers) is very strong. I suspect that Stearns had a lot to do with that success. I also believe that the Brewers' continued success reflects very well on Stearns. He built something to last.

None of that is meant to excuse the Mets subpar performance during his tenure.

gmay8 said:

I'll never forgive Stearns . . .

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gmay8 said:

The only thing that will allow me to forgive Stearns is . . .

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. . .

Doctor Worm said:

The Brewers were certainly NOT a well-oiled machine before Stearns got there. Stearns' tenure began after the 2015 season, when the Brewers went 68-94. They improved to 73-89 in 2016, then 86-76 in 2017. Except for the 2020 COVID year, they've never been below 86-76.

We all know that correlation does not imply causality. But the correlation between David Stearns and success (at least with the Brewers) is very strong. I suspect that Stearns had a lot to do with that success. I also believe that the Brewers' continued success reflects very well on Stearns. He built something to last.

None of that is meant to excuse the Mets subpar performance during his tenure.

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The Brewers are interesting...The always seemed to hover around that .500 mark in the years before Stearns with a random bad season and a random good season every once in a while. So- they were not really a bad team. They had their big star - Braun...Stearns did a good job of building a process and their farm system and hit on a few good trades and somehow did not make too many horrible trades.
Now- knowing what we know about Braun - it is interesting that a few of the trades where guys came in, somehow had big years when they got there- makes me question it a little. But again- Stearns won more trades than he lost but also made very few "block buster" moves.

Which leads me to ask- why has he made so many horrible trades since coming here when he is the one with full control? It makes me ask- in Milwaukee, were the trades more of a group decision with Stearns getting great advice? Because, when he got here and it is either his voice or what seems to be "yes men" he can't get a damn thing right.

It reminds me of a couple of companies I have worked at where we had an SVP of sales who was great at putting sales operations in place but really didn't know how to manage the day to day challenges or how to assist in closing deals. That person should have been the VP of Sales Operations and brought in a real Sales Manager for everything else. But since they didn't- the whole process fell apart.

I think Stearns strong suit is drafting and developing players hence why the Brewers have been good at replacing players once they leave free agency. And yes the Brewers are perennially very good in the regular season but can't get it done in the playoffs. We are starting to see it with players we have drafted a home grown pipeline is brewing.

His weakness is picking the right free agents and he underestimated that some players cannot handle NY. I would prefer to move on but his $20MM owed and if the minors starts producing solid major leaguers he will stick around but I am not so sure he can get us over the hump to a championship.

redking said:

How much of the Brewers success is because of Stearns? If this dude came from any other organization, I would totally get firing him now. But the Brewers are a well-oiled, regular season winning machine. What parts of this machine were created by Stearns direct action?

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Seemingly everyone had only good things to say about Stearns during his Brewers tenure, and I can't imagine he wasn't a main driving force behind a lot of their success, but man, they sure haven't missed a beat since he left. Definitely makes me wonder how big a role his former deputy Matt Arnold, who runs the show in Milwaukee now, had all along.

Toddwills00 said:

I think Stearns strong suit is drafting and developing players hence why the Brewers have been good at replacing players once they leave free agency. And yes the Brewers are perennially very good in the regular season but can't get it done in the playoffs. We are starting to see it with players we have drafted a home grown pipeline is brewing.

His weakness is picking the right free agents and he underestimated that some players cannot handle NY. I would prefer to move on but his $20MM owed and if the minors starts producing solid major leaguers he will stick around but I am not so sure he can get us over the hump to a championship.

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RU0917 said:

Seemingly everyone had only good things to say about Stearns during his Brewers tenure, and I can't imagine he wasn't a main driving force behind a lot of their success, but man, they sure haven't missed a beat since he left. Definitely makes me wonder how big a role his former deputy Matt Arnold, who runs the show in Milwaukee now, had all along.

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Both hit the nail on the head...Stearns has a place, but he does need help. President of Baseball operations- may be his best role but he needs a great GM that is given full autonomy.

yesrutgers01 said:

Both hit the nail on the head...Stearns has a place, but he does need help. President of Baseball operations- may be his best role but he needs a great GM that is given full autonomy.

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Organizationally, I don't see how that would work. In organizations that use a POBO plus a GM, the GM is clearly the second in command. The GM may be handling most of the day to day activities, but the POBO would still have total responsibility for approving and/or vetoing all significant decisions. Otherwise, there would be no need for the POBO.

Stearns will be getting help. He now has Derek Falvey, his personal Consigliere, his Genco. Hopefully his advice will be sound and will not fall on deaf ears.

Doctor Worm said:

Organizationally, I don't see how that would work. In organizations that use a POBO plus a GM, the GM is clearly the second in command. The GM may be handling most of the day to day activities, but the POBO would still have total responsibility for approving and/or vetoing all significant decisions. Otherwise, there would be no need for the POBO.

Stearns will be getting help. He now has Derek Falvey, his personal Consigliere, his Genco. Hopefully his advice will be sound and will not fall on deaf ears.

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How it would work and maybe total autonomy would not be what the GM gets but the GM gets to be the spearhead of the major league roster. Stearns and Cohen would then, only have to give final signoff, but the GM gets to build the major league team and pipeline to the team how he sees fit. Stearns just can't be the person doing the trades and FA signings anymore. He just isn't good at it

Arizona Fall League starts today. Mets have sent eight players, most of whom missed significant time this year due to injury:

Cole Mathis - 1B/3B (#13 prospect)
Bruin Agbayani - SS/2B (#28 prospect)
Boston Baro - IF
Brendan Girton - P
Peyton Prescott - P
Irving Cota - P
Ryan Lambert - P
Calvin Ziegler - P

To me the most interesting are:

• Prescott - A former big time prospect who had TJS in 2025, his last year in college. Mets drafted him anyway, buying low on him in the 5th round. Would likely have gone much higher if healthy, which he finally is now.
• Lambert - A highly rated prospect going into the season, who many (myself included) expected to be a key bullpen contributor. Didn't happen due to injuries and wildness. Averaged a walk per inning last year, yuck!
• Ziegler - A 2nd round pick in 2021 who due to injuries has only thrown 20 innings in four years! He has a long hill to climb.

I don't think the AFL matters as much as it used to. But it still matters. Last year Nick Morabito had an AFL OBP of .450, which helped get him protected on the 40 man, and eventually make it to the majors.