David Stearns has been leaning into a familiar type of roster construction in Queens, and the Milwaukee Brewers’ October run is a useful reminder of why the idea works when it’s done well. The Brewers have built a group that can move, defend and hit with purpose, and the Mets are beginning to flash some of that same shape with everyday players like Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing.
The basic blueprint is easy to spot. Milwaukee has long made a habit of identifying players other teams have undervalued, then squeezing more out of them once they arrive.
Jake Bauers is one example; after signing a minor league deal, he hit 27 home runs. Andrew Vaughn is another, landing with the Brewers as a salary dump from the Chicago White Sox last year.
Stearns has tried to bring that same instinct to the Mets since becoming President of Baseball Operations late in 2023, especially on the pitching side. The problem is that his biggest swings on project players have been far too expensive for the level of risk involved, and too many of them have gone the wrong way.
That’s where the comparison with Milwaukee gets sharp. The Brewers operate with payroll limits because they play in the league’s smallest market, so their gambles tend to be smaller one- or two-year deals that don’t choke the roster later. Stearns has reached for similar ideas with the Mets, but at a much higher price tag, which is a rough way to spend Steve Cohen’s money.
Frankie Montas and Jorge Polanco stand out as the clearest examples. Montas didn’t have much of a market in the winter of 2024, yet Stearns handed him a two-year, $34 million deal early. It went exactly the way the risk suggested it might: Montas was hurt for most of 2025 and ineffective when he did take the mound.
Polanco came with a two-year, $40 million contract and a plan to use him mostly at first base as a Pete Alonso replacement, banking on the gains he made in Seattle, where he dramatically reduced his strikeout rate. But the Mets brushed past the obvious red flags, especially his injury history. In March, he hurt his Achilles tendon and ended up appearing in just 37 games.
There’s nothing wrong with taking chances, and Stearns has shown he can hit on them. Clay Holmes is the best example. Stearns bought into the possibility that Holmes could start in the big leagues, and the move paid off with Holmes becoming one of the club’s most dependable starters when healthy in 2025 and 2026.
The lesson for the Mets is less about avoiding risk and more about controlling the cost of it. Paying premium money for players who need major repair work is a bad formula, no matter how much financial muscle Cohen brings. The club can survive a few bad contracts, but burning through $74 million on players who barely helped is not how you build a strong roster.
The smarter path is to keep chasing proven upgrades while being selective with the fix-it projects. That kind of bet still makes sense. The Mets just need to stop overpaying for the privilege of hoping they can unlock someone else’s player.
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Mets Could Revisit A Surprising Deadline Decision This Offseason
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Freddy Peralta is one of the more interesting cases because of how things have lined up since the deadline, and Steve Cohens presence at an ALCS game he started only added to the sense that the door is not fully closed. Robert, Peterson, Minter and Peralta all carry different contract and performance angles, which means the Mets could end up revisiting one of the more surprising deadline decisions if the market and their own roster needs point them back in that direction. [Read more 🡒]