No one is having a worse time in pro sports right now than David Stearns and the Mets, and it won’t get better this summer
The New York Mets entered the 2026 season with World Series expectations, but the way things are going, this team will be selling off most of the roster by the time the trade deadline rolls around later this summer.
Three years ago the most hyped hire in baseball was the New York Mets landing former Milwaukee Brewers general manager David Stearns as the franchise’s new President of Baseball Operations.
The Manhattan-born-and-raised wunderkind was coming home to use owner Steve Cohen’s unlimited bankroll to turn the Mets into the east coast Dodgers. The long suffering Mets fan’s dream come true.
But it’s still the f—ing Mets.
I’m a diehard Mets fan. I write about the Tennessee Vols every day, but I live and die with the Mets every night. Ask my family. I’m probably miserable to be around (unless they’re winning, so yeah….mostly miserable)
Anyway, the Mets gave us an incredible summer and postseason run in 2024 under Stearns that I got to enjoy with my then 12 year-old and one-year-old that is forever a wonderful memory (OMG!). The vibes were absolutely immaculate (until the Mets ran into those pesky Dodgers in October).
But since then it’s been bad. Real bad. Sure, it started off great after 2024. The Mets signed superstar outfielder Juan Soto, and they brought fan favorite Pete Alonso back for one more season. The team started off playing well in 2025. But the summer turned south in early June (my family and I saw them play bad baseball in Pittsburgh in person for two nights last summer…great place to see a game, but terrible baseball from the Mets). And it’s been flat-out bad since.
Stearns fired the entire coaching staff after the team’s months-long collapse, but he kept the manager, Carlos Mendoza. Stearns then flipped the roster — by saying goodbye to franchise stalwarts like Alonso and Brandon Nimmo — for a bunch of injury-prone lottery tickets. Stearns destroyed the clubhouse chemistry, and he alienated fans by ditching reliable fan favorites.
And boy has it been bad. The Mets are one of the worst teams in baseball. I’m a sicko. I watch almost every inning of every game. They play bad baseball. There’s no energy or joy. There’s no chemistry. It’s just bad. They’re talented dudes. They could all go on a tear at any point. I’m not disrespecting their talent. But this team plays bad baseball. We see it every night.
Stearns thought he made some genius moves, while many fans cursed him for ditching Nimmo for a rapidly declining Marcus Semien and letting Alonso leave for Baltimore.
It turns out the fans were right.
By the way, those injury-prone lottery tickets? Well, they’re all hurt. The Mets signed Jorge Polanco to play first base and DH. He’s played 14 of 55 games (with two appearances at first base) while dealing with mysterious Achilles and wrist injuries. New York also traded for Luis Robert Jr, an outfielder with elite talent who is almost always injured. Stearns thought he could “fix” Robert by giving him a day or two off each week. But that didn’t work. Robert has already missed 31 games this season with a back injury (White Sox fans are saying, “I told you so”), and he was just recently moved to the 60-day IL, so he’s not coming back anytime soon.
This is a franchise that entered the season with World Series expectations. But because of the poor roster construction, a long list of injuries, a clubhouse with no chemistry, and a manager who almost looks like he’s trying to get fired, the Mets are more likely to be sellers at the trade deadline than they are to be in the playoffs.
Something has to change. The Mets can’t make any big moves right now (big trades don’t often happen in late May). But can you just give up before June 1 with this budget? Because that’s what the Mets are doing if they keep Mendoza around as the manager. It’s the same thing every single night with the Mets — even SNY analyst and Mets legend Ron Darling sees it.
Keeping this manager around, who is clearly in over his head, is crazy behavior by a franchise that’s in an uncontrollable nose-dive right now. It’s the same awful baseball every night.
I’ve been covering sports for 14 years. I’ve seen a LOT of managers/coaches get to hot seat territory. They all get fired. It’s inevitable. The Mets are giving up if they keep him. Are they really going to give up before the calendar flips to June? If so, man, that’s wild.
But it’s alright. We are Mets fans. We are unfortunately built for this. We have no other choice. We know eventually it’ll pay off with a team that has the magic to get it done — just please make it sooner rather than later.
Stearns has really made it way too easy for the lolMets folks this season. They don’t even have to try, they get brilliant new material nightly.