Milwaukee Brewers: GM David Stearns Deserves An Extension

The Milwaukee Brewers are back in the NLCS mostly because of the work done by GM David Stearns. Now other teams are trying to take him away from Milwaukee.

It’s always an awkward situation when another team tries to interview your current General Manager. According to Ken Rosenthal, that happened with the San Francisco Giants and Brewers GM David Stearns.

It comes as no surprise that Attanasio would deny permission to the Giants as he clearly loves his GM and doesn’t want to lose him. If the feeling is mutual, we could see Stearns sign an extension this winter.

Possible Extension

As Rosenthal mentions, Stearns has at least one year left on his deal. That means there could be more. If his contract is up after 2019, now is the perfect time to sign him to a long term deal. Generally, only GMs that are on the hot seat go into a regular season having it be the last year of their contract. With the way Stearns has built this team, he’s certainly earned an extension.

If there are two years left on his contract, then we could see something like a promotion to President of Baseball Operations, which the Milwaukee Brewers don’t currently have. Or he could simply get a raise with more money as a way to entice him to stick around.

Stearns has clearly earned all of the outside praise and attention with what he’s done in Milwaukee. He rebuilt a club without an extended and painful process being at the bottom of the league for several seasons. Other teams are looking at a couple of Brewers employees for open positions across the board.

But he hasn’t finished what he started in Milwaukee. There’s still work to be done to ensure the Milwaukee Brewers remain a consistent competitor, which is Stearns’ ultimate goal. He doesn’t seem like someone who would leave before the job is done.

Mark Attanasio won’t allow Stearns to leave and will do whatever it takes to keep Stearns in Milwaukee long term. Now that other teams are approaching him about interviews for their open positions, the pressure goes on Attanasio to keep Stearns happy and prevent him from wanting to leave.

The Milwaukee Brewers have thrived under Stearns’ guidance. He’s as beloved a GM as you’ll find in baseball. Letting someone like that go is nearly impossible for an owner.