When he first took over the Mets, Steve Cohen pointed to the Dodgers as the franchise he wanted the Mets to emulate. He said:
They have a really strong farm system, they take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace for free agents and trades. I think they run a pretty good business operation, too. So I think that’s one team that easily seems to make the mark in the type of places that I want to do the same.
One thing that Cohen didn’t mention back in late 2020 was that the Dodgers have stability, too. President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman joined L.A. following the 2014 season, while Dave Roberts has been the manager since 2016. When the Dodgers won the World Series in the truncated 2020 season, Friedman had been in charge of their operation for six years and Roberts was calling the shots in the dugout for five seasons.
This past year was the first for both Mets PoBO David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza, which makes their climb to the NLCS even more impressive. This was Mendoza’s first year as an MLB manager. And while Stearns had previous experience running the show in Milwaukee, so too did Friedman, as he spent 2005-2014 running the Rays, winning Baseball Executive of the Year in 2008 when the Rays made the playoffs for the first time, advancing to the Word Series.
Meanwhile, stability is among one of the last words that anyone would use to describe the top of the Mets’ leadership change since Sandy Alderson first stepped down due to health concerns late in the regular season back in 2018. There was the triumvirate of Omar Minaya, J.P. Ricciardi and John Ricco who finished out the 2018 season, then two years of Brodie Van Wagenen, followed by Alderson, Jared Porter and Zack Scott in 2021. Billy Eppler ran the show for two seasons before Stearns took over.
And it’s not much better on the managerial side. Mickey Callaway, Luis Rojas and Buck Showalter each led the team for two seasons before being replaced. If the Dodgers were marked by stability, the Mets were marked with uncertainty.
Shoot, when the Mets made the World Series in 2015, it was the fifth year of the Alderson-Terry Collins team running the show. And no one will confuse me as a fan of Collins.
It’s 100% certain that Stearns will be here for the long run. And it’s probably a pretty decent bet that Mendoza will last longer than the two seasons of his three immediate predecessors in the Mets’ managerial chair. But will Mendoza last the seven seasons that Collins did? It’s my opinion that inertia from Alderson helped Collins last as long as he did. He should have been replaced once his initial two-year contract was finished.
The Mendoza era is off to a terrific start. But so, too, was the Showalter era, which came crashing down the following season. The Mets will enter 2025 with heavy expectations, even if not quite to the degree that they had in 2023 following a 101-win campaign. Still, if the Mets suffer a sub-.500 year in 2025, will Mendoza make it to the final guaranteed year of his contract? Sure, that seems an unlikely scenario right now. But it was unlikely for Showalter at the same point in his tenure. In baseball, you can’t be surprised when something unexpected happens.
Showalter had the misfortune of a new guy coming in above him and if there’s one thing we know, it’s that GMs and PoBOs never miss a chance to replace the manager that the previous guy hired. Mendoza won’t have that same pressure, as he was hired by Stearns. But while he seems likely to be managing the team in 2026 regardless of what happens next year, he likely won’t survive back-to-back sub-par seasons.
Of course, the expectation is that Stearns, armed with a ton of money coming off the books, will assemble a younger and deeper team than Eppler did in 2023. But is that expectation justified? Stearns hit big on his two biggest expenditures, although they were nowhere near the top of the market. Will he have the same success while shopping in an aisle besides the frozen-food section?
It’s reasonable to think that he will; yet, no one should consider it written in stone. And while Stearns made his bones discovering low-price success stories in Milwaukee, the jury is very much out on his work in that department for the Mets. Sure, Jose Iglesias was a HR signing. But Iglesias will be 35 next year and how likely is it that he’ll post a .382 BABIP ever again?
Right now, my take is cautious optimism for Stearns, Mendoza and the Mets. Everything gets a lot easier for the Mets if their top two leaders are at the start of a lengthy stay together. We should all be rooting for Stearns and Mendoza to match the tenure of Friedman and Roberts.
But we should also keep in mind that it took nine years for L.A.’s top two guys to win the World Series in a 162-game season.
I think we are mercifully at the spot where Cohen, Stearns, and Mendoza are going nowhere. If Stearns builds a team that we think he is capable of, there is little worry about whether Mendoza can direct the team in a positive direction. I think the super high quality of the Mets clubhouse and attitude was set by Mendoza. Player love him and he seems to get the best out of people. I like the direction of the team in a big way. Sure it may take time, but if the Mets are constantly near the best in the east, and make more than a WC series, then itll be a win.
Lets not forget, no matter the money Cohen spends, we face the Phillies and Braves as terrific teams with some of the best players on Earth. It should signal that the Mets should be all in for a guy like Soto and a lot more.
As for the hit/miss of FAs. One thing that would be interested interested to know is just what is “great” versus “bad”. Maybe hitting on the number of FAs Stearns signed was great relative to what other GMs do, like hitting .300 means failing 70% of the time.
Good article. One thing about consistency is that the people you are sticking with need to be good! Ask the Yankees how they are feeling about the Cashman/Boone combo today. But looking at teams with the long run of sustainable success in almost any sport, and you’ll find a general sense of consistency both on the sidelines and in the front office.
There is much to like about the Stearns/Mendoza combo, especially the Year One results. Certainly much better than the last time the first year GM got to pick his own manager, that being Al Harazin tabbing Jeff Torborg.
The new duo’s encore season could easily see a regression however, so Stearns needs to get busy.
It is the longevity of the management team and their approach to building an organization that has the fans believing that at some point the Mets could be perennial contenders, versus a good season, followed by a bad season, followed by a good season, etc.
The Mets are far from an elite team in the league, even given how far they made it this season. It seems as far as talent they still trail the Braves, Phillies, Brewers, Padres, Dodgers, and I’m sure there are a few others Just counting the National League.
14 players on the Dodgers roster or homegrown players. That allows them to fill in with free agents while still having a strong base. That’s where the Mets need to get to. Until then, I’d spend Cohen’s money on a couple of strong starting pitchers and a major impact bat and re-sign Severino,
Manaea, and Alonso.
If the Mets had simply played 500 ball in the month of May, they would’ve won the division and had home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. There is always something to aspire to with this team.
Listening to Yankee fans bellyache today, it reinforces how difficult it is to win a World Series. Sure, hang the GM and fire the manager because the best positional player in baseball dropped a popup and the highest paid pitcher forgot to cover 1B. As the sting of the NLCS loss wears off, the appreciation for the 2024 Mets increases. With the pending free agents, combined with the disappointment of most AAA pitching prospects, Stearns has a lot of work to do. However, I see this offseason as both exciting and compelling. As noted, there is management stability…I can’t remember every being happy with the owner, GM, and manager…since Doubleday/Cashen/Davey. All the dead money is gone. The Mets will be players at the high, middle, and low ends of the market. The Mets can be players at any level of the trade market as well. They’ll be some exciting new faces…and we may lament the departure of some guys. There is strong competition in the NL East, but the Mets should be able to go toe to toe. They may prevail, they may fall short, but a season falling short shouldn’t be a five year sentence to baseball purgatory. Gentlemen, light up that hot stove.