Mets fans from Long Island say David Stearns deserves most of the blame for club's failures

Three Mets fans from Floral Park were out in the parking lot, enjoying their tailgating time together before heading into Citi Field to watch their team face the Royals.

What could be better?

Well, if the Mets hadn’t begun Tuesday night with the NL’s second-worst record, that would’ve made it much better for these friends in their 60s, John Re, Larry Lentini and Steve Caridi. If the Mets hadn’t then lost 16-12, that would’ve been better, too.

Who’s to blame for the mess? These fans pointed to David Stearns, the president of baseball operations, the man owner Steve Cohen said last week will finish out his five-year contract that runs through 2028.

“I think that’s wrong,” Re said. “I think he should have been fired before (Carlos) Mendoza.”

Andy Green became the interim manager after Mendoza was fired on June 26 with the Mets sitting at 13 under .500 at 34-47.

“Stearns, in general, put together a terrible team and unfortunately Mendoza took the hit on it, was a scapegoat,” Re said. “(Stearns) signed whatever free agents were available and then wound up having guys playing out of position half the season.”

The Mets had a very productive first baseman who was loved by the fan base. But they didn’t make an offer to Pete Alonso as a free agent in the offseason, and he went to Baltimore.

Lentini pointed to Stearns letting Alonso go as a key element in the downfall.

“He got rid of the heart and soul of the team,” Lentini said. “You pull the heart out of a body, you’re not living.”

The Mets had won their previous two to get to 38-53 before first pitch for this homestand opener against a Kansas City team that arrived with the second-worst record in the AL.

“I’m very disappointed,” Lentini said. “We’re not what we expected. After last year . . . even though we had a bad ending, you still felt it was going to be positive until we found out all these moves that they made and how they didn’t come to fruition.”

Cohen didn’t escape criticism, either. Mention was made about the casino being built here.

“In a nutshell,” Caridi said, “all Cohen’s worried about is the casino, bottom line. Not worried about the fans.”

Another fan in another section of the lot wasn’t critical of Cohen, but he was certainly no fan of Stearns’ work.

“I’ve lost quite a bit of confidence in Stearns, and I didn’t really have a ton coming in,” said Tom Fostvedt, a 46-year-old Huntington resident who works in wealth management. “So he was always on a tight leash.

“. . . Unfortunately, Mendoza’s head had to roll because he was the guy in the dugout, but you can only do so much with what he’s put together here.”

Fostvedt said it reminded him of when Daniel Snyder was the owner of Washington in the NFL and brought in a lot of big names “and never won anything.”

It will be on Stearns now to try to find a way out of this. Fostvedt didn’t sound too optimistic.

“I don’t blame Cohen,” he said, “because he’s spending money. His job as the owner is to write the checks. He’s not telling how to spend it. It falls on the GM. This has been a terrible experiment that’s gone horribly wrong.”

“I give Steve Cohen the credit for taking us out of the cheap-owner business,” Fostvedt added, “putting us in the real conversation for a guy that truly believes that he wants a playoff team every year. He made a bad hire. He’s made bad hires in his business probably, and he probably cuts bait from those hires quicker than he’s done this.”