Houston Astros General Manager Addresses Stearns Report

Houston Astros general manager Dana Brown responded to reports that the team has interest in David Stearns, who currently works for the Milwaukee Brewers, as the team’s president of baseball operations.

The Athletic reported the Astros’ interest in a story that also reported that the New York Mets were interested in bringing the Manhattan native home once his contract with the Brewers expired after this season.

Reportedly, his contract allows him to speak to teams now, even though he’s working for the Brewers as a consultant. The Mets and Astros were two of the teams that reportedly had reached out.

Sunday, Brown spoke to reports about the reported interest. He said no one in the organization had approached him about the potential of hiring Stearns, who would potentially be Brown’s boss in that scenario.

“In fact,” Brown said, “I read these articles and I thought, ‘This is weird to me.’”

Brown joined the Astros’ organization in the offseason, replacing James Click. At the time the Astros had no president of baseball operations, which meant that Brown had a direct line to team owner Jim Crane.

That’s something he’s said in the past that he values. But, if the Astros want to hire a new president of baseball operations, Brown sounds like he’s all for it.

“If Jim wants to hire a president, I’ll be fine,” Brown said. “I enjoy being able to go directly to Jim. I’ve always worked under presidents in my entire career, but I just enjoy being able to go to Jim. I think that’s a good thing, but if he decides to hire a president, I’d understand it.”

It may not matter. Since the original report, the same outlet reported that the Mets are “down the road” with Stearns.

The Astros may have two things going for them in a pursuit of Stearns. He used to work for the Astros before he took over in Milwaukee and his wife, Whitney, is from Houston.

UPDATE: Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that Stearns has been hired by the Mets to be their president of baseball operations. It's unfortunate that Brown had to address these rumors after no one approached him about the possibility of the hire.