MLB News: David Stearns is currently in the middle of his first off-season as president of baseball operations for the New York Mets. He previously held that title with the Milwaukee Brewers but after voluntarily stepping down, spending a year in an advisory role, and letting his contract expire he has moved on to the next chapter in his career.
During his first winter David Stearns has been tasked with re-tooling the Mets. Prior to him arriving they spent big in free agency, but when the team fell out of contention last summer they traded away a ton of talent. One way that he has been restocking the roster is by acquiring former players that were in the Brewers organization when he was there.
David Stearns has made seven former Milwaukee Brewers players members of the New York Mets organization (MLB News).
Here are the seven players that David Stearns has taken the liberty of acquiring. Also shared is how they were acquired.
- RHP Adrian Houser and OF Tyrone Taylor
David Stearns acquired both of these players by trading pitching prospect Coleman Crow to the Brewers. This was the first Matt Arnold and David Stearns trade. Both players will be MLB contributors in 2024 whereas Coleman Crow is recovering from tommy john surgery that was performed in July 2023.
- RHP Jorge Lopez
Lopez made appearances with the Brewers in 2015, 2017, and 2018. He has bounced around the league afterwards which includes big league appearances with three different teams in 2023. With the Mets Stearns signed him to a contract.
- RHP Cam Robinson
Robinson was once a top 30 prospect in the Brewers farm system. He was a Rule-5 draft eligible prospect a season ago and Milwaukee protected him. After he stopped getting results in the minor leagues he was designated for assignment and elected free agency at seasons end. This is when David Stearns swooped in;
- UTIL Cooper Hummel
Hummel has had an interesting journey the past few seasons. Stearns initially traded him from the Brewers to the Diamondbacks in 2021 in order to acquire Eduardo Escobar. The Diamondbacks then traded him to Seattle for Kyle Lewis. Eventually the Mariners placed him on waivers and David Stearns claimed him.
- C Tyler Heineman
32 year old Tyler Heinman was originally acquired by the Brewers in 2017 for a player to be named later. His MLB Debut did not come until 2019 with the Miami Marlins. The Toronto Blue Jays recently just tried to pass him through waivers but David Stearns claimed him.
- RHP Victor Castaneda
Also a former top 30 Brewers prospect, Victor Castaneda signed a minor league deal with the New York Mets. He elected free agency upon seasons end with the Crew.
1 Comment
It’s weird that he’s now with a big market club with a lot more money to spend and is still managing like it’s a small market team that has to eke out career performances from fringe players to contend. There’s a reason that only the first two on this list ever saw regular time with the club (and are the two I hated seeing leave, as Taylor played like an All Star for the last two months and is finally showing his true potential, while Wiemer looks like a bust at the plate, and the team needs starting pitching depth and shouldn’t have let the reliable Houser go). Lopez was just bad the first two times with the club and the third time was his only truly good season in the majors (albeit in only 19 innings, very selective appearances if I recall).
Stearns is taking a weird approach, and his protege got taken in this recent trade.