The New York Mets Finally Get Their Wish, Hiring Brewers Executive David Stearns

At long last, the New York Mets have been patiently waiting for their opportunity to hire David Stearns away from the Milwaukee Brewers and now they've finally done it.

On Tuesday it was reported that the Mets will indeed be hiring former Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns to fill the same position in New York.

Because Stearns' contract with the Brewers runs through the end of the season, he won't start early in New York. He'll remain an advisor with the Brewers for just a couple more weeks but once October 1st hits, he'll be running things in New York, which means he probably won't be doing much work in the Brewers front office these final weeks as he begins preparing to move his family with him to Flushing.

This is the outcome that many anticipated with David Stearns. The Mets have been after him for years. Stearns grew up a Mets fan and relishes the opportunity to be in charge of his hometown team, as anyone would. When Stearns stepped down at the end of last season, his claim of "burnout" was likely legitimate as running a baseball team is a 24/7 job. But everyone could see the writing on the wall.

While Stearns didn't accomplish his goal of a World Series in Milwaukee, he came pretty darn close to it. The Brewers made it to Game 7 of the NLCS in 2018, then made the postseason each of the next three years, but ultimately fell short each year. Still, that's four postseason berths in four years for a franchise that had just four postseason berths in the 48 prior years of it's existence combined.

The Stearns Era will always be looked upon favorably in Milwaukee. He pointed the franchise in the right direction, and kept them in the right direction, something that hadn't really been done before. He proved that you can build a consistent winner in a small market with limited resources like Milwaukee. There doesn't have to be continual rebuilding and tearing down cycles. While some may focus on the fact that he didn't bring home a World Series, we can't take for granted where this franchise was before his arrival.

Stearns stepping down a year early allowed the Brewers to transition to Matt Arnold while still having their architect around the organization. Now it's Arnold's show in Milwaukee and so far things are looking good. The Brewers knew they weren't going to keep Stearns around forever, and properly prepared themselves, and now it's time for Stearns to take his talents back home.

With the deep pockets of Steve Cohen behind him, Stearns should be able to build exceptional rosters in New York and perhaps the Mets will finally get out of their purgatory. After all, they've been waiting on Stearns a long time, and now he's finally there.

Now the question is, how many members of the Brewers front office is he going to take with him? There could be a bit of a brain drain from Milwaukee. While Matt Arnold is staying, executives, analysts, and scouts, could potentially be on the move.