The Mets will not be permitted to interview Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns for their comparable position, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Sherman relays that Brewers’ owner Mark Attanasio officially denied the request over the weekend, thus eliminating Stearns from the running for the job in New York.
Stearns has been with the Brewers over six years now, originally being hired as the general manager in September of 2015. He was signed to an extension and promoted to his current presidential position in January of 2019. It had been speculated by some that he might be a good fit for the Mets job on account of his Manhattan roots and because 2022 is the last year remaining on that extension. However, teams generally have to grant permission for other clubs to interview their front office employees, unless there’s a promotion involved. Since Stearns already possesses the president title being offered by the Mets, that’s not the case here. There was also a recent report that there is a vesting option in the contract for 2023, though that is unconfirmed and the conditions that would cause the option to vest are not known.
The Mets’ search will now continue with one more name off the list. The three most-cited names rumored to be in the running for the job over the past few months have been Stearns, Theo Epstein and Billy Beane, with the former two now both out of the running. The Mets could turn their attention to Beane, although it’s unclear if the Athletics’ executive vice-president is interested in the position, or if the club would allow him to be interviewed for it.
