Even if David Stearns is only entering the early stages of Year 2 as the New York Mets’ president of baseball operations, he is quickly showing preferences for how to build his team. And one of them is risky, but it’s not for how much it will cost owner Steve Cohen.
The signing of Frankie Montas this week represented the third such signing of Stearns’ tenure of a starting pitcher to a short-term deal. Montas received a two-year, $34 million deal that includes an option for the second season after Luis Severino (one year, $13 million) and Sean Manaea (two years, $28 million with an opt out) signed last offseason. Severino and Manea are now free agents.
Stearns is banking on his coaching and analytics staff to extract the most production out of pitchers with something to prove (on lesser contracts), a savvy way to construct a roster when it succeeds, but one that comes with innate concerns because these players are taking less money for a reason — they aren’t the best available.
“It’s hard to do that every year, no matter how good your process is,” one team executive told SNY. “Nobody likes having to commit to long-term deals for pitchers because of the obvious risks, but it’s the cost of doing business unless you’re developing a ton of young pitching.
“The Mets need more certainty in their rotation. I can see their thinking on Montas: He was better the last two months after going to Milwaukee, and (Stearns) probably has some intel on that, but it would be a stretch to say Montas gives them a lot of certainty.”
Stearns has usually bought from the bargain bin of pitchers in free agency, though that might have been out of necessity when he was leading the mid-market Milwaukee Brewers before he joined the Mets. He showed a willingness to spend big on a pitcher last season, however, offering Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto 10 years, $325 million when he came over from Japan. The difference is that Yamamoto entered MLB at 25 years old compared to most free agent pitchers becoming available past their primes, in their late 20s or early 30s.
The executives and scouts who spoke to SNY reiterated multiple times the Mets’ need for more reliability, with one saying they need “two more quality starters” on top of Montas, who posted a 4.84 ERA in 150 2/3 innings 30 starts, his first full season after missing most of 2023 after shoulder surgery.
The Mets’ rotation currently comprises Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Paul Blackburn, Tylor Megill and Montas. A lot of work remains, but it’s only Dec. 3 and Stearns is now operating under the richest owner in baseball.
