Ranking the Mets' 5 Worst Moves in the David Stearns Era

New York better hope that its President of Baseball Operations has learned from these blunders.

President of Baseball Operations David Stearns has made several moves that Mets fans would love to have back. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Mets are in a bad spot thanks in part to some bad decisions from David Stearns. Owner Steve Cohen firmly backed Stearns in a podcast interview on Wednesday, committing to him through the remainder of his five-year contract, a move that makes sense despite being unpopular with the team's fan base.

A doomed April cost the Mets in 2026, setting the stage for Stearns to begin his latest attempt to build a winner around Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor. Cohen said in the same podcast interview that he likes Stearns's ability to learn from mistakes and accept input, which would lead one to hope he doesn't duplicate some of his worst moves again.

With that in mind, here are five of the worst moves Stearns has made during his time in Queens.

5. Betting too heavily on bounce-backs in 2026

Much was made about Stearns's decision to move on from the core of the 2025 Mets, letting Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz walk as free agents while trading away Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo. Change was certainly warranted after an unfathomable disaster from a group that didn't win as much as fans thought they would, but Stearns made a bizarre choice to replace the top of the group without addressing some of the underachieving players behind them.

Pitching was a huge issue for the 2025 Mets, yet Stearns only added Freddy Peralta while betting on two of David Peterson, Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga to seize rotation spots. The Mets also essentially handed jobs to inconsistent young players like Brett Baty and Mark Vientos instead of adding more proven veterans as depth, decisions that have all backfired and left the Mets lacking once injuries started to decimate the team.

There was a justification on each individual bouce back candidate since each had shown flashes of brilliance to contribute to winning teams. The problem, however, is asking all of them to recapture their old form at once left the Mets vulnerable to underachieving.

4. Re-signing Sean Manaea

The 2024 playoff run came thanks to a conflux of factors, not the least of which was a breakthrough showing from Sean Manaea. After being inspired by watching Atlanta's Chris Sale during an outing, Manaea dropped his arm slot and became the Mets' ace down the stretch, finishing the year 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA while setting a career high with 181 2/3 innings pitched.

In a market where there were numerous big name pitching free agents, including Max Fried and Corbin Burnes, Stearns made a calculated bet that Manaea's new form was for real and handed him a three-year deal worth $75 million. Even with the inclusion of deferred money, Manaea's deal was highly risky because his track record prior to the arm slot change was quite average.

Despite being solid overall, Sean Manaea's contract hasn't lived up to the Mets' expectations. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

An injury torpedoed Manaea's 2025 season and he was highly ineffective upon his return, notably getting pulled after one inning in a do-or-die Game 162 as part of a bullpen game. The Mets are getting average results from Manaea now after putting him back in the rotation in June, but he is overpaid at his current rate and that deal has prevented them from building an ideal pitching staff since they want to get some kind of return out of that investment.

3. Failing to adequately replace Pete Alonso at first base

Pete Alonso certainly had warts as a player, but the one thing the Mets could bank on was his ability to hit 30-plus home runs and 100-plus RBIs while playing nearly every day. Stearns was hesitant to give Alonso a long-term commitment due to concerns over how his bat (and especially defense) would age, which is now Baltimore's problem after the Orioles gave Alonso a five-year deal.

Letting Pete Alonso leave the Mets is one regret that David Stearns should have. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The bigger miscalculation Stearns made was in terms of Alonso's replacement, betting that converting the injury-prone Jorge Polanco at first base in tandem with Vientos and Baty would allow the team to cover Alonso's production in aggregate. Polanco's Achilles issues have had him out since April while both Vientos and Baty declined, leaving journeyman Jared Young in possession of the majority of the playing time at first.

Simply adding a solid veteran with a track record, such as Ryan O'Hearn or Paul Goldschmidt, on short term deals could have made a big difference here. Instead, the Mets are left without a long-term plan at first and no easy way to solve it with prospect Ryan Clifford failing to progress this year.

2. Waiting too long to promote Nolan McLean in 2025

The Mets' starting rotation got off to a hot start in 2025, but there was significant regression risk in the group. Once injuries started to claim pitchers from it, including Senga, Griffin Canning, and Tylor Megill, the Mets had an easy out in the form of top prospect Nolan McLean.

McLean rapidly emerged as the Mets' best pitching prospect and was performing well at Syracuse from the jump, but Stearns waited until Aug. 16 to promote him to the majors. The Mets instead used their huge start to the season to kick the can down the road, using journeymen like Brandon Waddell and bullpen games to make starts in what could be conceived as an attempt to manipulate McLean's service time to protect the possibility he would win Rookie of the Year in 2026.

That decision looked foolish when McLean came up and was immediately the Mets' best starter, with now-fired manager Carlos Mendoza indicating he would have started Game 1 of a Wild Card series if the Mets got there. Given that the Mets missed the postseason by just one game, having McLean make two extra months worth of starts probably means they make the postseason and Mendoza still has a job at this point.

1. Signing Frankie Montas

When the entire fan base thinks a move is bad the second it is made, that is a pretty big indictment on the organization that thought it knew better. Following the success of pitching reclamation projects with Manaea and Luis Severino in 2024, Stearns struck quickly in free agency that winter by signing Frankie Montas to a two-year deal worth $34 million.

The Frankie Montas signing headlines David Stearns's worst decisions since becoming Mets President of Baseball Operations. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

There was immediate skepticism about the deal given Montas's so-so results with Milwaukee and his poor track record in New York as a Yankee. Montas didn't help matters by getting hurt in spring training and struggling upon his return, but the Mets dragged his rotation spot out far too long, trying him behind openers and in easier spots to get return on their investment.

The experiment ended when Montas needed Tommy John surgery, clearing the rotation spot for McLean to fill in down the stretch. He finished the 2025 campaign with a 3-2 record and a 6.28 ERA across nine games (seven starts).

Considering how the above situation compounded the Mets' lack of aggression with McLean, Montas's signing makes sense for it to be the clear worst move of Stearns's tenure so far.