Houston Astros Top Target for Baseball Operations Hired by Mets

The Houston Astros were reportedly looking for someone to become their president of baseball operations and had their top target in mind.

This forced first year general manager Dana Brown to address those rumors that the franchise was looking to hire an executive to become his boss, which is something that no one told him was being looked into.

Their top target was current Milwaukee Brewers president of baseball operations, David Stearns, who had served as the Astros' assistant general manager for three years starting in 2012.

Houston won't be able to get the reunion that owner Jim Crane was looking into as ESPN's Jeff Passan reported that the New York Mets have hired Stearns to be their next president of baseball operations.

The executive left the Astros in 2015 to take over the general manager role of the Brewers before being promoted to his current role in 2019.

In 2022, he announced he was stepping down from his role and would stay on as an advisor through the remainder of his contract that is up in 2023. This allowed him to speak with other teams across the league, including the Mets and Houston.

Stearns has been one of the most coveted executives in baseball after overseeing what's considered to be the most successful stretch in Milwaukee's history, which saw them make the playoffs in four consecutive seasons.

It's not surprising the Astros would be looking to bring their former executive back into the franchise to fill an open position, however the circumstances surrounding the communication with their current general manager was strange.

Brown told reporters about the reported interest Houston had in Stearns, "I read these articles and I thought, ‘This is weird to me.'"

With their top target now off the market, some questions will arise about the relationship between general manager and ownership moving forward and if they're still looking to hire an executive above Brown.