Displaying items by tag: David Stearns

With the Baltimore Orioles signing Pete Alonso to a free agent contract, it puts the final stamp on the dissolution of what had been the core of the New York Mets. With Edwin Diaz signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Brandon Nimmo traded to the Texas Rangers, Mets management has made a statement about the thought process within the organization. Although what that thought process is…

The late great Ralph Kiner used to tell the story that the old general manager Branch Rickey, the famous baseball executive, once said to him when negotiating a contract, “We came in last place with you, we can come in last place without you.” And Kiner was gone.

So are now three players who were the core to the New York Mets for the last seven-plus seasons – Nimmo since 2016, Diaz and Alonso since 2019.

So this one puzzles me…letting Edwin Diaz go to sign a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers  just seems like an epic fail on the part of New York Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns.

I got the news thanks to a text from my dear friend John Delduca asking, “Can you please tell me what the Mets are trying to accomplish?”

The report is that Diaz accepted a three-year deal worth $69 million dollars. The report is also that the Mets had offered three years at $66 million but were “willing” to go higher.

For one, I can understand that you can’t “bid against yourself” so when asking why didn’t you go higher in the first place, well, I guess you wait to see what the person comes back as a counter offer. But I also can’t see that Diaz, who made it public that he wanted to remain with the Mets, would leave for $3 million, or at least not allow the Mets to increase their offer.

Thankfully it’s over. And if I were Buck Showalter, I would want it to be over. Nobody REALLY wants to leave a managing job, or head coaching job. I know I didn’t…even when I thought it was no longer a workable situation for me. You always have that competitive spirit believing you can turn things around, that this is YOUR baby and you don’t want to let go. But sometimes it is best to move on.