NL East news: Nationals, Mets make moves at General Manager

The Atlanta Braves have one of the best general managers in the game in Alex Anthopoulos, who has led the team to five National League titles and won the 2021 World Series since becoming the general manager prior to the 2018 season.

"AA", as he's known by the fans, has drawn appreciation for how he's been able to lock up key players earlier in their careers and givan Atlanta an impressive core to build behind as they appear to have one of the largest competitive windows in Major League Baseball.

Some other organizations in the division are making moves of their own to try and get back into contention with Atlanta.

New York Mets find a new top man

On Tuesday, reporting emerged that the New York Mets will be hiring former Brewers executive David Stearns as their general manager and president of baseball operations, Stearns, 38, resigned from his role with the Brewers in October of 2022 after a seven year run considered to be one of the more successful in the team's history.

The team, typically run with a smaller budget, relied on quality starting pitching and good defense to make the playoffs four consecutive years, from 2018 through 2021, as well as producing an MVP award in Christian Yelich's 2018 season.

Despite some missteps, like trading closer Josh Hader at the deadline last season (a move Stearns would go on admit had a more pronounced impact than I thought it would at the time, and the surrounding moves didn't adequately fortify the team in Josh’s absence"), Stearns was a well respected executive around Major League Baseball when he stepped down in October of 2022, remaining under contract with the organization through the conclusion of 2023.

His first task will be to rebuild a Mets team that sported the highest payroll in baseball history this season, at a record $353.5 million, but also dealt with such terrible performance and injury luck that they were sellers at the deadline, trading away six veteran players and paying their salaries down to acquire better prospects in return. Max Scherzer discussed with the media how it all went down and explained he was told the team's next competitive window was 2025 or 2026, a timeline the front office later didn't dispute.

The Mets are currently 66-78 entering Wednesday, officially 28.5 games back and mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Washington Nationals keep the course with Rizzo

At the same time, the Washington Nationals have given general manager Mike Rizzo a multi-year extension that will extend his 15-year tenure as head man in Washington.

Terms of the deal, namely length and money, were not immediately disclosed.

Under Rizzo, the franchise won the 2019 World Series, their first since relocating from Montreal to our nation's capital in 2005. They had eight consecutive winning seasons from 2012-2020 and reached the postseason in five consecutive years during that span.

Recently, the Nationals have struggled after the departures of several key players, with Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon walking in free agency and Max Scherzer, Treat Turner, and Juan Soto all being traded when it was obvious they would not re-sign with the franchise.

Rizzo's been criticized for some painful long-term contracts that have proven to be poor values, namely Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg, but has also been praised for his talent accumulation in trades and free agency that has stocked their farm system with highly-rated prospects and raised the spectre of a championship contending window in the next few seasons.

The Washington Nationals are currently 65-80, 30 games back and last place in the National League East. However, giving their fans hope, August was their first month with a winning record this season, going 17-11 (albeit it with a -15 run differential).

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