Mets owner Steve Cohen “lent vociferous support” to President of Baseball Operations David Stearns despite his “deep dissatisfaction” with the current team, saying that Stearns “will not only retain his job, but live out his five-year contract,” according to Laura Albanese of NEWSDAY. Cohen added that he wanted to “give Stearns a chance to turn the franchise around.” He said that Stearns “knows what he’s talking about,” adding that he is only two and a half years into his contract. Cohen: “Does he get any credit for ’24? Does that not count? We almost made it to the World Series and that was just two years ago. It’s a mixed record. I’m not going to say it’s going great, OK? But it’s too early to make evaluations.” Cohen believes that the on-field product is a “result of a confluence of events -- underperformance, injuries, numerous off-season changes, and perhaps an underestimation of the human element of the game.” Albanese wrote those last two “may fall on Stearns,” who overturned the roster, replaced nearly all of Mendoza’s coaching staff and relied on players like SS Bo Bichette and P Freddy Peralta, who have “struggled to adjust.” Cohen said, “If we get to Year 5 and our performance continues to suffer, at that point everything is fair game…We’re going to figure out what changes need to be made, but the change that’s not going to be made is moving David out at this point” (NEWSDAY, 7/1).
WHO’S AT FAULT: In N.Y., Joel Sherman wrote as the Mets roster has become “more that of Stearns, the results year over year are worsening.” There has been “poor use of money and farm collateral,” plus the firing last week of manager Carlos Mendoza, which was the first major move of the Stearns administration. At the beginning of last week, the Mets “had no intention to axe Mendoza.” But the team was swept four games by the Cubs. Then suddenly Cohen was “meeting with Stearns to suggest (order?) that if Mendoza was not going to be extended, why have him twist in the misery of this day-to-day?” Ultimately, it “just felt like a moment that something seismic had to be done.” Cohen “does not believe he is there with Stearns” -- and he “is correct about that.” A head of baseball operations almost always “gets more latitude to exact his vision than a manager does to caretake it.” The head of baseball ops “generally receives a second shot at hiring a manager before the bull’s-eye is totally on him.” Sherman: “And here is the thing: You might think Stearns is a terrible baseball executive. But that is not what the bulk of the industry believes. And if Cohen dismisses him now before an attempt at a vision is totally applied, he is likely to find that he again is reduced to the ‘B’ pool of candidates to hire for this job” (N.Y. POST, 7/1).
