Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns is widely considered one of the best executives in baseball. This past fall, the Mets reportedly made a strong push toward hiring Stearns away from the Brewers, but any potential deal was blocked by Stearns' current contract with the Brewers.
Monday, Andy Martino of SNY reported that there's an interesting clause in Stearns' deal with the Brewers. From Martino:
If Milwaukee wins the National League pennant in 2022, Stearns will become a free agent after the season. If Milwaukee does not advance to the World Series, Stearns will remain under contract to the Brewers through the 2023 season.
Pretty intriguing. If the Brewers going to the World Series for the first time since 1982 could also mean losing the architect of the team.
The Mets' interest in Stearns went beyond him being an incredibly talented executive. He was born and raised in Manhattan, grew up a Mets fan and worked in the Mets' baseball operations department fresh out of Harvard. Stearns has never given specific indication he's interested in Mets job, but there's certainly enough here for the Mets to believe there's a realistic chance they could land him at some point.
Stearns took over as Brewers' general manager in 2015 at age 30. The 2015 Brewers won 68 games. They won 73 in 2016, 86 in 2017 and 96 in 2018. The Brewers have now gone to the playoffs in four straight seasons for the first time in franchise history. They had only gone four times total in the franchise from 1969-2017.
Along the way, Stearns has acquired the likes of Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Willy Adames and Mike Moustakas while his front office oversaw the development of pitchers like Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and Josh Hader.
Whether the Brewers win the National League pennant in 2022 and Stearns becomes a free agent then or if his deal runs through 2023, he'd certainly be a hot commodity on the open market.
