The Mets are staring at a messy season, but David Stearns still has a case to make for himself.
Steve Cohen gave the president of baseball operations a reprieve after the club moved on from Carlos Mendoza last month, and that buy-in matters because Stearns is the one who built the roster that has fallen short for more than a year. Cohen has pointed out that Stearns deserves more credit for the 2024 team that came within two wins of a pennant, and there’s truth in that even if the recent results have been rough. Stearns also played a role in selling Juan Soto on the Mets’ long-term vision, a pitch that helped land him in Queens.
Still, if you strip away the noise and look at the best work Stearns has done since arriving in Flushing, a few moves stand out.
The bullpen rebuild has to be near the top of the list. Losing Edwin Diaz looked like it could wreck the back end for years, especially after the Mets let the game’s best closer walk to chase a ring with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Instead, Stearns pieced together one of the league’s stronger relief groups. Devin Williams and Luke Weaver have locked down the late innings, Brooks Raley and A.J.
Minter give the Mets four dependable options, and the finds have kept coming with Austin Warren claimed off waivers and Huascar Brazoban getting more runway. That depth has also created trade pieces for deadline upgrades.
The best in-season deal Stearns has made came in the summer of 2024, when he brought in Jesse Winker from the Washington Nationals for pitching prospect Tyler Stuart. Winker gave the lineup a needed boost, helped in the clubhouse during the Mets’ improbable second-half surge, and then delivered in October by hitting .318 with a 1.136 OPS in 10 postseason games. His back injury in 2025 later became part of the Mets’ lineup problems, but that doesn’t erase what he provided when the team was climbing.
Another sharp move came well before the 2024 season even got going. Stearns signed Jose Iglesias to a minor league deal, and that low-risk flier turned into one of the defining stories of the year.
Iglesias got hot early, came back up in June to take over as the utility infielder for Joey Wendle, and quickly became the face of the OMG Mets. He hit .337, played excellent defense around the infield and finished with 3.1 Wins Above Replacement.
He also became the spark that fueled the turnaround, which made his one-year deal with the Padres the next year sting for plenty of fans.
Stearns also used the 19th pick in the 2024 draft, his first after taking over in the front office, on Oklahoma State two-way player Benge. The Mets moved him to hitting full-time once he entered pro ball, and he climbed quickly through the system.
Benge got into the mix for a late-2025 call-up before winning a starting job on Opening Day in 2026. After a short adjustment period, he has settled in as the leadoff hitter and looks like a real foundation piece.
Then there’s Clay Holmes, the move that raised eyebrows from the start. The Mets signed him before the 2025 season and decided to turn a dominant reliever into a starter, a gamble that carried obvious risk because he hadn’t started since his minor league days with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Stearns’ faith in the plan paid off. Holmes became the Mets’ most reliable starter in 2025, going 31 starts with a 3.53 ERA over 165.2 innings, and he delivered a huge outing in Miami in late September when the Mets needed to keep their playoff hopes alive.
A comebacker fractured his fibula earlier this season, but that doesn’t change how well the move worked.
For all the frustration around the current state of the club, Stearns has still put several important pieces in place. The Mets need him to fix the mistakes now, but the hits are there too.
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