Laura Albanese: Mets' David Stearns showing he's learned from his mistakes
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns speaks to the media before a game against the San Francisco Giants at Citi Field on Sep. 4, 2026. Credit: Jim McIsaac
When Steve Cohen was quizzed last month about the job his president of baseball operations has done thus far, he was measured in his assessment.
There’s no world where it would be acceptable for a Mets team with a payroll this large to miss the playoffs two years in a row. But Cohen said he still believed in the processes David Stearns had put in place and wanted to see him execute his vision.
One of Stearns’ most promising attributes, said his boss? “He learns from mistakes.”
The Mets’ record (72-85, entering Wednesday) is proof enough that Stearns has acquired a lot of data to learn from. And it was of little surprise this past weekend when Cohen told the SNY broadcast that he intended to “add certain voices into the front office that I think could be helpful.”
Two things happened then: The Mets lifted the interim tag off manager Andy Green Tuesday, signing him to a three-year deal. And then, Wednesday, reports surfaced that they were closing in on hiring deposed Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey, who was instrumental in reviving that franchise while serving in various front-office roles from 2017-2026.
This isn’t really too much about Falvey’s legacy in Minnesota, which is a touch murky. He started off strong, helping a team that went 59-103 in 2016 earn a wild-card berth in 2017; in fact, he led four Twins teams to the playoffs in his eight seasons there. The end, though, was not as good, culminating in a brutal 2025 fire sale that was highly influenced by purse-tightening team ownership. He’s been characterized as a methodical but aggressive executive, with a keen eye for pitching.
Though it’s unclear what role he’ll play, his hiring is interesting in a way that goes beyond his skill set.
Green does not strike me as a docile pawn — he’s a baseball lifer with front-office experience who appears unafraid to share his perspective. And Falvey, too, has been doing this too long, and has too much experience to become another panel in an echo chamber.
Sure, Stearns and Falvey have a long-standing relationship, having served as co-directors of baseball operations with Cleveland in 2012. But their equal roles then should have meant that no one voice was louder than the other, presumably making the tenor of their rapport collaborative rather than hierarchical.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s one of the mistakes Stearns has learned from. Sometimes you need new voices, and sometimes, they’ve got to be loud.
The Mets’ front office hasn’t had much new blood since Stearns made a slew of significant appointments in 2023. But though there’s little doubt about Stearns’ intelligence, even the smartest guys in the room have blind spots. It just so happened that these last two seasons have highlighted those blind spots with a neon glitter marker.
He failed at risk assessment. He instituted too much change, too quickly. He needed more pitching depth. And it appears he underestimated the significance of Pete Alonso’s impact — something that went beyond the projections that presume the first baseman’s relatively imminent decline in production.
Some of this could have been predicted, and some of it was the result of a team whose ceiling was astronomically high and whose floor resided somewhere near Dante’s eighth circle (incidentally, that’s the one most likely to punish intellectual hubris).
The floor won.
But these recent changes are a start. By not waiting until the offseason to make Green’s hiring official, the Mets’ new manager can begin laying the foundation for next year in a palpable way, help inform on signings and trades, and speak to his players before a likely lockout prohibits team personnel from speaking to athletes until negotiations are resolved. Falvey, meanwhile, can leverage his years of experience and analytical mind to help Stearns complete an audit of what went wrong and why.
Frankly, no one can predict how he’ll do in whatever role he’s assigned. But he’s another voice, and one that should have enough force to push back when needed.
That’s not an easy thing to admit or accept. Nobody likes to have their failures on full display. No one wants to feel like they don’t have the answers to do the job they’re hired to do.
But baseball is a humbling game, and that’s true whether you play it, or run a team that does. Stearns may not have had too much of a choice but to heed his owner’s recommendation, but at the very least, the appointment is a testament to his ability to learn from his mistakes. It’s something that very publicly says, “I don’t know it all.”
For the “Fire Stearns” contingent, this is cold comfort because, let’s face it, the Mets’ .459 win percentage has kind of shown that already. But Cohen already has said Stearns is not going anywhere, so even for that crowd, building a strong team around him should at least feel like the next best thing.
Stearns learns from his mistakes. That’s what Cohen said. And sometimes, the mistake you’ve got to learn from is that you still have more to learn.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
