David Stearns spent Monday doing what he can’t do on the field or in the front office: facing the mess head-on.
The Mets’ president of baseball operations said he has learned plenty from a season that went off the rails, and he made clear that the 2025 offseason left the club exposed. The damage, in his words, came from choices that left the roster with “the potential for almost an uncapped downside scenario.”
“We and I made a number of decisions that created the potential for almost an uncapped downside scenario,” he said at his Citi Field postmortem. “I think we try to learn from everything, and I think the entire offseason last year was a learning experience for me.”
Stearns, who often comes across as calm and controlled, did not sound shaken Monday. But he did spend more than a half hour owning the failures, and he laid out the areas he believes need to change.
The Mets need more from first and second base. They plan to add at the top of the rotation.
He wants more roster flexibility. And while the organization still wants to build a sustainable winner through its prospect pipeline, he said there will also be big swings in free agency.
“There are going to be selective, very aggressive pursuits [in free agency]. We have complete ownership support."
He also said his view has shifted on something that has long hung over the Mets: some players simply don’t handle New York the same way others do.
“I think [my opinion has changed], yes,” he said. “When you live it and you see player reactions, both when they come here and when they leave here and you hear them talk about some of the differences that they experience here - I do think it’s important to have players here that lean into that and that enjoy it, because it’s unlike anywhere else.”
He continued: “When you win here, it’s the greatest thing in the world…It’s equally extreme when things aren’t going well and I do think certain players struggle with that.”
That lesson applies to executives, too, and Stearns is the one taking the heat now. The call not to bring back Pete Alonso in free agency last offseason will hang around him for a while, and the question is no longer just whether players can thrive in New York. It’s whether Stearns can.
He didn’t try to dodge the reality of the collapse, either. He called the experience of the team’s recent stretch in Washington miserable.
“[What we] experienced this past weekend, that we just experienced in Washington, where you are literally playing out the string - it’s miserable,” he said. “That’s a miserable experience for players, for coaches, for executives. So I think we have an extraordinarily motivated organization from ownership on down to ensure that never happens again.”
The challenge ahead is obvious. This offseason was supposed to be difficult; the next one may be worse.
The free-agent class is thin. A lockout looms that could cut into the 2027 season.
A new collective bargaining agreement is coming. And the Mets are trying to recover while carrying the weight of another failure.
Still, Monday offered at least a sliver of optimism. Stearns said the organization has a real foundation to build on, and he pointed to Andy Green’s addition as a source of continuity. The young players he brought in also give next season a different feel.
“The disappointment of our season is very true and real,” he said. “We, as an organization, feel that.
Our fan base feels that. There's no denying any of that.
There is also the real foundation here for the level of success and competitiveness that we expect to have."
Stearns cannot rewind the last year. He can only hope the lessons from it keep him from repeating the same mistakes. Whether that makes him the right man for this job is the question that will follow him into whatever comes next.
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