David Stearns vows to fix Mets after 'tremendously disappointing' season
A “failure,” said Brandon Nimmo. “Unacceptable,” said owner Steve Cohen. “Tremendously disappointing,” said president of baseball operations David Stearns.
While 12 teams prepared for a playoff run, the Mets instead busted open the metaphorical thesaurus for the various ways to describe one of the worst collapses in franchise history.
And Monday, less than 24 hours removed from failing to clinch a playoff berth, Stearns faced the media at Citi Field for what amounted to a 30-plus minute mea culpa.
“I’m the architect of the team [and] I’m responsible for it,” Stearns said before fielding a single question. “We came into this year with deservedly high expectations, and we didn’t come close to meeting them and I’m keenly aware of that…We’re going to work really hard to fix that going forward, learn from this and do a heck of a lot better.”
For a team that often this season had little answer as to why a star-laden, $340 million roster was underperforming, Stearns finally laid out his observations:
1. They failed at run prevention, first by not fortifying a pitching staff against a rash of injuries, and then due to poor defense that did less than nothing to compensate for the deficiency.
2. He could have been more “proactive” in addressing needs, though he declined to specify the types of transactions he was referring to.
3. The front office needed to “create a better roster that fits together better,” something that includes a more balanced offense, and a defense that could be relied on to work in tandem with the slew of contact pitchers on their roster.
Stearns said that was on him, not manager Carlos Mendoza, who will be retained for next year. The rest of the coaching staff didn't get the same assurance.
“I believe Carlos has all the same traits and assets that I believed in when we hired him over two years ago and I think over the course of his tenure here, he has demonstrated that,” Stearns said. “We had a tough year this year, there’s no question. We are all disappointed. We’re all frustrated, Mendy as much or more than anyone else, but I still believe he’s a very good manager.”
He also addressed the trade deadline that was at first lauded, then lambasted, and the front office's conservative approach to acquiring pitching.
“The moves we made at the trade deadline, or at least a subset of those moves didn’t work and in certain cases, made us worse,” Stearns said. “And frankly, that too is on me and us. When we bring players in here, we’ve got to set up an environment to allow them to succeed…Clearly, at the deadline, we were unable to do that.”
Of the four players acquired on or around the deadline, only one — Tyler Rogers — was anything more than a liability.
Stearns also said the organization was amenable to reevaluating how it builds a rotation, but remained committed to the idea that the Mets were better off developing front-line starters than acquiring them. This year, the team tried to float by on a patchwork pitching staff that unraveled spectacularly down the stretch, both due to injury and ineffectiveness. In the final month, their only reliable starter was rookie Nolan McLean, with occasional help from a heavily taxed Clay Holmes.
“I think we have to be open to everything,” Stearns said. “My continued emphasis is doing everything we can to support our development infrastructure and developing starting pitchers. Ultimately, that is where we’re going to have sustained success…but going into this offseason, I’m not going to take anything off the table.”
Stearns added that the Mets intend to be “open minded about our position player grouping so that we can improve our run prevention” — a sign that he's at least open to shaking up their core.
“Does that mean there are robust changes?” he said. “I don’t know. Does it mean people will be playing different positions? Maybe. Does it mean we ask people to play different roles? Maybe.”
As for Pete Alonso, who Sunday confirmed would be exercising his player option, "We'd love to have Pete back," Stearns said, cautioning though that it depends on how the offseason shakes out. He declined to expand on whether the Mets would pursue Edwin Diaz if he elects to opt out of the rest of his contract, adding that he wants to wait to see what the closer decides first.
In the end, though, Monday was a psychological hangover rather than a champagne hangover. And that was all that mattered.
“I owe you an apology,” Cohen wrote to fans on ‘X,’ “You did your part by showing up and supporting the team. We didn’t do our part. We will do a postmortem and figure out the obvious and less obvious reasons why the team didn’t perform up to your and my expectations. We are all feeling raw emotions today. I know how much time and effort you have put into this team. The result was unacceptable…”
Added Stearns: “I either make or delegate every decision that’s made here. So [if] you point to a decision that didn’t work out, I’m responsible for it. We have all the resources we need. We have tremendous ownership support. We have tremendous fan support. And clearly, we had segments of our team that were not good enough.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
