00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Craig, there are teams with their sights
00:07 on a post-season race trying to hunt down a divisional title
00:10 or a wild card spot and other teams
00:13 that already have their eye on the future.
00:15 That includes the New York Mets,
00:17 a wildly disappointing 2023 campaign,
00:21 but maybe hope springs eternal in December for New York
00:26 or even here in September as they hire David Stearns.
00:30 Craig, he will be the new president
00:32 of baseball operations for the Amazons.
00:35 This was a move that was rumored for quite some time
00:38 but could not be made official until yesterday.
00:41 David Stearns, who had worked in the front office
00:44 for Milwaukee over the past few years,
00:46 Craig, is highly regarded
00:47 as one of the best front office executives
00:50 in all of Major League Baseball.
00:54 How significant is this for the New York Mets
00:57 as an organization?
00:58 - Well, look, I think it's significant in the sense
01:02 that you want someone who has proven that they can win
01:06 even with the payroll that the Brewers
01:08 have been able to have for many years.
01:10 The other thing about some executives,
01:13 and I think Stearns goes down as one of those,
01:15 is that, yes, the name on the back of the jersey
01:17 is important, but you have a culture
01:20 and a system of winning,
01:21 which the Brewers have done year after year.
01:23 Right now, even though he's not with the Brewers,
01:26 Ben, you can see how well they're playing right now.
01:28 There was so much made of Josh Hader going to the Padres.
01:31 Remember that discourse that happened?
01:33 Meanwhile, right now,
01:34 Devin Williams doing a phenomenal job.
01:35 Everybody that they got out of the bullpens
01:37 doing a great job too.
01:38 And look, I think it's gonna be important
01:41 for Stearns to kind of be that hybrid guy,
01:43 which is work with a payroll that you're not used to,
01:46 having $300 million to spend potentially,
01:49 but also understanding there's a lot of value
01:51 if you don't spend money as well.
01:52 And so I think that there's gonna be a combination of that,
01:54 maybe some getting used to.
01:56 I think there's some other questions in play.
01:58 Billy Epler, who was hired to be the GM,
02:00 certainly could still stay there,
02:01 but Stearns now is gonna have the final say on all things.
02:04 And then at the end of the year too,
02:05 I think that, guys, the one thing that I think
02:07 is probably the most compelling
02:09 is will Buck Showalter be back
02:11 as manager of the New York Mets?
02:13 I know it's been a disappointing season,
02:14 but Buck is coming off a great season two years ago.
02:18 So I think there's kind of like a 50/50 shot there.
02:20 I think that Buck could come back,
02:22 but I also could see Stearns wanting to bring in his own guy.
02:25 Would Craig Council leave Milwaukee to go to the Mets?
02:27 Like, I mean, these are interesting questions
02:29 that I think that we'll have to answer
02:30 at the end of the year.
02:31 (upbeat music)
02:34 (bells chiming)
Comments