The Mets’ President of Baseball Operations met with the press.
Three days after the Mets were eliminated from the playoffs, President of Baseball Operations David Stearns met with the media at Citi Field for a press conference about the 2024 season.
After making some introductory remarks and addressing how proud and happy he was with the deep playoff run, as well as the emotional component of the season, the first question was about Pete Alonso who, coincidentally, Stearns revealed he was speaking to just a few minutes before the presser.
“Pete’s a great Met…I hope we have him back. I think we both understand that this a process and everyone’s got their own interests. Pete deserves to go out into the free agent market and see what’s out there and then make the best choice for him and his family.”
When asked about Alonso’s history with the organization and who he is as a person and whether or not that plays into a free agency decision, this is what Stearns had to say:
“I think all of that is important. Who Pete is as a person is important. What Pete means to this franchise is important. Who he is as a player and what he brings to the team on the field is important…there’s no magic equation to this that spits out what all of that is for us. And so there’s judgment involved, there’s evaluating the market involved.”
Stearns was then asked whether or not he was looking to add a General Manager under him this offseason.
“I’m not eager to do it. I think we’ve got a good team in place here…if someone were to become available that I think would be really tough to pass up, I would consider it, but we’re not going to entertain a huge search process.”
When asked about the state of the roster and the available resources this offseason, Stearns was frank about how much money the Mets have at their disposal.
“We’ve got financial flexibility. It means that pretty much the entirety of the player universe is potentially accessible to us. That’s an enormous opportunity, and I envision us taking advantage of that opportunity and being aggressive in certain spaces. We also have to recognize that we want to set up our organizational pattern so that we can…[have the opportunity to] invest in where we think we need to on an annual basis.”
When asked about the state of the Mets’ farm system, Stearns had this to say:
“I think we continue to progress…I think we are deeper than we were one year ago today. We had a lot of injuries on the position player front, so I’m not sure we saw the amount of position player development at the top of the system that we thought in the beginning of the system…I would imagine a number of those players…have a chance to impact the Major League team next year.”
Additionally, Brandon Sproat, Nolan MacLean, and Blade Tidwell were all mentioned as top level guys. Mike Vasil and Don Hamel were mentioned as guys who need more consistency but are key pieces. “Development is not linear.”
Other key points discussed:
- When asked if there was mutual interest between the Mets and Sean Manaea, Stearns replied in the affirmative and said, “Sean’s been great here, not only on the field but off the field as well. [He’s] Another player that would be great to have back.”
- In regards to Jesse WInker, “Wink did a great job for us…I appreciated the fire, I think our fanbase appreciated the fire…we will certainly stay in touch with [him].”
- “I was pleased by and large the performance of our Major League [coaching] staff” but didn’t have much to say about if they will be back next year aside from that they are doing some internal evaluations.
- Stearns confirmed that the team will be adding multiple starters in the off-season to supplement Kodai Senga and, presumably, David Peterson. Stearns also said to expect the use of a six-man rotation at some point “in just about every year that I am here.”
- In regards to the recovery time for the injured Ronny Mauricio, he is still not doing any baseball activities after almost a year on the shelf. “It has definitely gone a lot slower than expected.”
- In terms of long term goals, Stearns stressed that the Mets have to “[Keep doing the work] to ensure that we have…true sustainable competitiveness that has eluded this team for a long time.”
- Stearns had nothing but positive things to say about first-year manager Carlos Mendoza, who was ‘the same person every day,’ no matter how good or bad the team was doing.
- When asked if the financial freedom afforded him by Steve Cohen makes the team less likely to operate in the trade market, Stearns replied: “No, I like operating in the trade market.”