Hearing Voices

[Centerfield]

Steve Cohen visited the TV and radio booths on Saturday. He told Gary and Howie that they’ll be adding “voices” to the front office. When pressed he said it won’t necessarily be a GM, but someone who can support Stearns in player evaluation etc. 

Stearns has dismissed the idea of hiring a GM every time he’s asked. You wonder if Cohen is now looking to incorporate some checks and balances. 

[MFS62]

I had heard (read?) the the new "voices" may be different than pure analytics -types, but folks with more of a "feel" (the writer's words) for the game. Maybe they realize the approach ( as Edgy refers to it) isn't delivering their anticipated results.

Later

[Edgy MD]

I tend to think Greenie is going back to the front office, and I tend to think he'll get that GM role.

The dismissal of the notion of a GM, I think, has not been about "it's never gonna happen," so much as "it'll happen when it happens, so don't ask me about it."

I'll be happy if they add a bunting coach.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I'd been reluctant to say this till now but Stearns can go fuck off. Imagine acquiring Williams and letting Alonso go in the same offseason. Someone actually did that

[Benjamin Grimm]

Stearns reminds me of Irving Thalberg. Hailed as a young genius, I just see him as the guy who brought the Marx Brothers to MGM and made them less funny.

[Lefty Specialist]

26 minutes ago, Johnny Lunchbucket said:

I'd been reluctant to say this till now but Stearns can go fuck off. Imagine acquiring Jorge Polanco and letting Alonso go in the same offseason. Someone actually did that

Fixed that for you.

[Gwreck]

41 minutes ago, Benjamin Grimm said:

Hailed as a young genius

Stearns was hailed as a “young genius?”  Derivatives of that term are used pejoratively all the time around here but I’m not so sure that’s a fair description of how he was initially percieved

[Centerfield]

For me it was how he doubled down rather than adjust. Doubling down on Mendoza after 2025. Then again throughout 2026 to the point it was laughable. Even Cohen called it a mercy firing. At least a month past the point that it was defensible. Doubling down on the shitty pitchers that ruined 2025 to perform in 2026. Refusing to call up the young pitchers in 2025 while everyone with a brain was calling for it. 
 

I don’t know what pitching philosophies he’s instilled. But the word around baseball was that the Mets ruined Peralta and the Rays would fix him. That’s exactly what’s happened. Peterson has pitched better since the trade as well. 
 

I mean. Perhaps the only thing that could have gone worse for the Mets is if Stearns first choice (Kyle Tucker) would have accepted. 

I don’t know who the new voices will be.  And I reserve the right to revisit once we find out what direction they’re going.  But yeah.  Sign me up for new voices.

 

[Gwreck]

I’ll be curious to see what new voices might bring to the table on major-league player development.  

Over the past three seasons, it seems there’s been a significant lack of development (and/or backsliding in development) for Alvarez, Baty, Vientos, and Mauricio.  Maybe the answer is that none of them are very good — but each (maybe not Mauricio very much) have shown they can been good at times.

[Edgy MD]

2 hours ago, Centerfield said:

Refusing to call up the young pitchers in 2025 while everyone with a brain was calling for it.

I don't remember this.  I do remember accusations here that calling up Tong and was a desperation move that damaged him.

[ashie62]

It's ok to be wrong sometimes but Stearns has been epically wrong several times while being paid big money

His keeping Mendoza as long as he did as manager was mind boggling

Guy gots to go

 

[Centerfield]

I can’t link articles from my phone. But there was lots of clamor to call up McLean or Sproat rather than giving starts to Blackburn and the journeyman. 
 

in his post season press conference Stearns acknowledged he should have been more aggressive. 
 

Tong was not part of that discussion. He was only in AA. By the time he was called up, we were in desperation mode. 
 

I think it’s clear that Stearns never thought the playoff spot was in jeopardy during this time.  
 

 

[Edgy MD]

Blackburn stunk in 2025, but he had only one appearance for the Mets after June 28.

The guys starting down the stretch were McLean/Holmes/Sproat/Manaea/Peterson/Tong.

The first two were good, the last two were very bad, and the guy in the middle was pretty bad too.

The guy who got too much patience was probably Peterson.  Somebody should have replaced him but Sproat and McLean were already up, getting nine starts and two relief appearances between them in September.

Maybe they should have been more aggressive in calling people up in August, but August to me was more about the deadline trades being one clunker after another. 

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Stearns was hailed as a boy genius because of his demonstrated track record of success in a much smaller market. I don't get the hatred. 

People are making it seem like Pete was run out of town and traded like Tom Seaver, who was cast out by a spiteful front office. Pete left because one team offered him a contract that no one else even came close to offering. More power to him. He did turn down a 7-year, $158 million offer from the Mets in a prior year.

I totally get that moves completely backfired. It was a godawful shitty season where everything that could go wrong went wrong. Hopefully this is more like 1983 and it goes better from here. If he thinks added more "voices" to help, go for it. 

 

 

[Edgy MD]

My issue with Williams was not signing him, but riding him out there in the ninth chance after chance after chance, with so many other veteran relievers having great seasons, every lead they had was managed around getting the ball to Williams in the ninth.

Any manager who stops with the VIP treatment for his alleged closer is going to get so many smooches from me.

I don't think everything went wrong, though.  Certainly many or most of the short-term moves did.