Can New Prez Save New York Mets From Old Bumbling Ways?

The saying goes something like 'you can take the New Yorker out of New York but you can't the New York out of...' Well, you get the idea. Now let's apply that same philosophy to the "Charlie Brown" of major sports franchises, the New York Mets. Can anyone really save the Mets from themselves? David Stearns, a Mets fan from Manhattan, will be next up to have that unenviable task.

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New York Mets' owner Steve Cohen has coveted the services of the young baseball exec, essentially since he acquired the team from Fred Wilpon in September of 2020. Like most business transactions, when you have $16+ billion in the bank, Steve Cohen got his wish. Now Stearns must continue to change the ways that the Mets do business. It's gotten better under Cohen's ownership but even he has some room to grow. Stearns appears to be the proper choice to build a sustainable winner in Queens. He knows the fan-base. He understands an incredible desire to win.

According to friend of 'The Drive with Charlie & Dan' Deesha Thosar of foxsports.com noted that since 2017 under Stearns, Milwaukee has finished first or second in the NL Central every year. World Series or not, Mets' fans would do anything to be in the playoffs and/or first place that many times in a 6 year span. Steve Cohen knows that.

Cohen uses the Los Angelas Dodgers as an organizational role model for success, instead of paying homage to them like Brooklyn Dodgers' super fan, ex-owner Fred Wilpon did. Andrew Friedman has made the Dodgers a playoff machine since joining the organization in October of 2014. Prior to that, Friedman was an analyst for a New York City-based investment firm Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. Friedman has the Dodgers running like a Fortune 500 company, whose business is making the playoffs and winning the World Series.

Cohen is hoping that Stearns can do the same thing. It's not easy in New York. Just ask Brian Cashman. The Yankees' GM has 4 rings and 22 trips to the playoffs under his belt in 25 seasons. Pinstripes' fans call for him to be fired every year. Mets fans wouldn't know what has happened to their lives with that kind of success. They'd carve statues of the person that brought that level of happiness. The hope is that Harvard graduate David Stearns understands that. It won't be easy. The Mets have tripped over themselves for decades but sustainable success is attainable and it may just take a born-and-bred Mets fan to turn the historically dysfunctional franchise around.