Brewers Rumors: David Stearns On “Short List” For Mets Pres. Of Baseball Ops

David Stearns has done an excellent job leading the Milwaukee Brewers. The New York Mets have taken notice of that.

It seems like every fall for the past two or three years, there’s reports that other teams are interested in having David Stearns lead their baseball operations departments. The problem is, he is currently under the Brewers employ and they very much like to keep it that way.

Mark Attanasio has blocked previous attempts by other teams to interview Stearns for their vacant positions and has since promoted Stearns and extended his contract, likely with a pay raise.

Stearns is at the top level of baseball executives, holding the title of “President of Baseball Operations”, which is a fancy new title that has been created over the last decade or so that is a step above a General Manager, but still essentially is the same role.

Teams can block interview requests of their employees for lateral moves, which led to the creation of a title above GM to allow teams to interview other candidates, and other teams have responded by internally promoting their GMs to this title.

The New York Mets have a short list of candidates for their head baseball executive position this fall and Brewers President David Stearns is on it.

There’s three known names on this short list of candidates for the Mets President of Baseball Operations job. One had a movie made about how he changed the game of baseball, one is known as a “curse-killer” and broke two longtime World Series curses for franchises, and the third is our own David Stearns.

Stearns doesn’t have a movie about him or a World Series to his credit (yet, anyway), but he is on this shortlist with two legendary names in the baseball world.

Would David Stearns actually leave the Brewers for the Mets?

We’ve covered this a little before when the first reports of interest came out about whether or not Stearns would leave. Yes, it’s well documented that Stearns grew up a Mets fan and was an intern in their front office several years ago. It’s also well documented that owner Mark Attanasio doesn’t want Stearns to leave and won’t allow interview requests to go through.

The only chance that seems plausible right now for a Stearns departure is if the Brewers win the World Series this season. Then, he could feel his job here is done and want to move on to the next challenge.

Even then, he still may not want to leave, even for his childhood team. Stearns got married here, started a family here, and has planted his roots down in Milwaukee. Childhood team or not, with where he is at in his life right now, that’s a tough decision to make.

Really, it comes down to a willingness from both Stearns and Attanasio to keep him in Milwaukee. Attanasio is going to want to keep him as long as he can. As long as Stearns wants to stay, he’s welcome to.

The Mets obviously want him, and if Stearns were allowed to interview, he’s extremely likely to get offered the job. He could walk into that interview in a cut-off t-shirt, baggy jeans, and flip flops, and sneeze into Steve Cohen’s hand and still be offered that job.

Reports will continue to come out about the Mets wanting Stearns. But as long as Attanasio can block, he will. Stearns may end up getting another contract extension and a pay raise out of all this, but that’s perfectly fine. He’s more than earned it.

All these rumors are a pretty clear indication that the Brewers are doing something right and Stearns is one of, if not the best executive in the game of baseball today.