Former Milwaukee Brewers front office member David Stearns is looking for a new general manager for the New York Mets after Billy Eppler resigned on Thursday. Eppler resigned because of a potential MLB investigation. The Mets, ever since 2018, have had five different general managers.
They were Brodie Van Wagenen, Jared Porter, Zack Scott, Sandy Alderson, and Billy Eppler. This will be the sixth general manager that the New York Mets will have in a span of six years. The Mets need stability, and this is a franchise that has not gotten out of its own way. Owner Steve Cohen is going to be entering his fourth season as owner next season, and so much for his World Series title in his first five years prediction, and it has been 37 years and counting since then.
Former Milwaukee Brewers front office member David Stearns must hire a general manager for the long term, and he also needs to hire a manager for the long run. The New York Mets need to go into complete rebuild mode and not even think about going into win-now mode. Who are some of the candidates that Stearns can hire as the next general manager for the franchise, considering the fact they haven’t won a World Series Title since 1986 against the Boston Red Sox in seven games?
The Best Possible Hire For David Stearns, the Former Milwaukee Brewers front office member, would be James Click
Click was the Houston Astros general manager during the 2022 World Series title. James Click was also with the Toronto Blue Jays as the vice president of baseball strategy for the 2023 season and went there last February. Click was the general manager for the Houston Astros for a couple of seasons and was hired in 2020 because of the sign-stealing scandal.
Andrew Tredinnick of NorthJersey.com wrote about James Click:
“The Yale graduate wrote for Baseball Prospectus before being hired as the Rays as a director of baseball research and development, rising to vice president of baseball operations in 14 years in the orginization.”
The New York Mets farm system got better this year because former general manager Billy Eppler made trades to improve it, but they have a long way to go with drafting and developing homegrown talent. The scouting department also needs a boost.
This is why David Stearns was hired by the Mets to fix this mess. He did a tremendous job with the Milwaukee Brewers during his time there to fix the farm system, and Milwaukee has been one of the better teams in baseball over the last 5-8 seasons because of it.
Randy Flores
He is 48 years old, and Flores has been an assistant general manager for the St. Louis Cardinals since 2018. He has overseen the Cardinals scouting department and amateur draft as the team’s director since the fall of 2015. The St. Louis Cardinals are the Milwaukee Brewers’ rivals, and David Stearns has seen how good St. Louis has been.
The Cardinals did not have a very good year a season ago. This could be another good hire by the New York Mets.
Ben Sestanovich
Sestanovich has been in the Atlanta Braves front office and has been the assistant general manager of player development since 2019. Atlanta has won the last several NL East titles, and before the New York Mets can become the East Coast Los Angeles Dodgers, they need to compete with the Atlanta Braves in the NL East division first.
The Mets organization needs to take a mastermind from the Atlanta Braves front office and can win another title for the second time in three seasons. Atlanta had the best record in the MLB this season. If in order for the Mets to beat the Braves, why don’t they just join them? That means hiring one of their front office members and becoming like them. That would be great for former Milwaukee Brewers front office member David Stearns and the New York Mets franchise in order to turn things around.