The response around the league has been nearly unanimous.
Executives around baseball have heaped praise on David Stearns, who has reached an agreement (that has not yet been announced) on a five-year contract that will make him the Mets’ new president of baseball operations.
But what about the response around clubhouses?
What do players who have worked under Stearns in the past think about the former top executive of the Brewers?
“I was excited when I saw the news [of the hire],” Mets catcher and former Brewer Omar Narvaez said Wednesday. “To me, he was one of the best GMs that I’ve had in my career.”
Stearns’ Brewers landed Narvaez in a trade with the Mariners in December 2019.
Narvaez, who already had played in the Rays and White Sox organizations, had one of his worst offensive seasons of his career in the shortened 2020 campaign, posting a .562 OPS in 40 games.
Stearns showed faith in Narvaez, who returned to the Brewers in 2021 and emerged as an All-Star.
“He just gave me the confidence that at some point I was going to get out of my funk,” Narvaez said before the Mets played the Diamondbacks at Citi Field.
Stearns will be the biggest hire of Steve Cohen’s reign and become a new face and the franchise’s most crucial decisionmaker.
The 38-year-old grew up on the Upper East Side and was a Mets intern multiple times — once during a summer as a Harvard student with the Brooklyn Cyclones and again after graduating with the Omar Minaya-led Mets, which did not grow into a full-time role — before beginning a career that took him through the MLB office, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros and the Brewers.
As Brewers general manager, he traded for Christian Yelich and Willy Adames and helped construct rotations and bullpens that were often dominant, reaching the postseason with the tiny-market club in each season from 2018-21.
Building contenders on shoestring budgets is his reputation around the game. His reputation around players, Narvaez said, includes strong communication skills.
“You can talk to him,” said Narvaez, who has a 2024 player option he will pick up. “Whatever you want to talk about, he’s open to anybody.”
When Narvaez learned Tuesday that Stearns, who had moved to an advisory role with Milwaukee in the last year of his current contract, would be coming to Queens for next season, he sent a congratulatory text message.
Stearns responded, Narvaez said, because, “He always responds.”
That type of communication is appreciated by players, who can be (and often are) seen by front offices as assets.
Current Diamondbacks pitcher Zach Davies witnessed the same trait in Stearns’ early years with the Brewers.
The righty debuted with Milwaukee in 2015, shortly before Stearns was hired to lead the organization.
In 2016 spring training, Davies said, Stearns introduced himself during a clubhouse meeting but would seldom thereafter be seen around clubhouses, which are sacred spaces for players.
“He told us that clubhouses are for you guys, but I’m here if you need me,” Davies said from the visiting clubhouse at Citi Field.
Davies spent five seasons with the Brewers and saw Stearns as a quiet leader unless a player needed an ear.
Davies left following the 2019 season in a typical Stearns trade with the penny-pinching Brewers: Davies, two years away from free agency, and outfielder Trent Grisham were sent to the Padres for a more controllable starter, lefty Eric Lauer, and young infielder Luis Urias.
The 30-year-old Davies does not begrudge Stearns and acknowledged that his methods with the Brewers often worked.
“He’s an intelligent guy that put together some good rosters over the years with a lower-market team,” Davies said. “The budgets [were] a little bit different than a place like the Mets. It’ll be interesting to see what he does over here.”
Both Davies and Narvaez felt Stearns was honest with them, another quality that players value greatly.
“He’s a good dude,” Narvaez said. “You’re going to like him.”
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