In some ways, a new season has just begun for Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, but that doesn't mean he's gotten over the old one.
“It still hurts, it's going to hurt for a while, and it will,” Stearns said Wednesday at Citi Field, three days after the Mets lost to the Dodgers in Game 6 of the NL CS. “I mean, we're focused on that. That we were doing something important. That we got far enough that it really hurt. It means.”
Stearns expects the organization to build on this season's success, but there's no guarantee that will actually happen.
Exhibit A could be a losing season in 2023 after the Mets won 101 games the year before.
With much of the starting rotation in flux, Mets officials have a lot of work ahead of them.
“We are acutely aware that nothing is predetermined,” Stearns said. “This year's success doesn't mean anything about next year's success. We have a job to do and we're energized by that work. As an organization, we're in a really good position and ready to go. I feel that there is.”
Some areas Stearns touched on during his 30-minute session with reporters:
Starting rotation: Sean Manaea (opt out), Luis Severino and Jose Quintana are headed to free agency. Kodai Chiga, David Peterson, Jose Butt, Tyler Megill and top pitching prospect Brandon Sprout are among the internal options, but additions will be needed.
“This is nothing new for us, we faced similar challenges last offseason,” Stearns said, referring to the additions of Manaea, Severino and Adrian Houser. “We need to change innings. Potentially some of that could be from guys coming back, or we might look elsewhere. But we need to add starting pitchers. Multiple. We need to add a starter. We came into this last offseason with the same needs, so we believe we can do that.”
Payroll calculation: Stearns could remain in the same stratosphere as the Mets' $336 million payroll this season, which includes significant dead money from players like Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and James McCann. He declined to say whether or not.
“I don't think it's fair to speculate anything at this point in the offseason,” Stearns said. “We expect to be active in free agency. We expect to work to improve this team, but we don't know where the salary will ultimately land.”
bull-pen: Edwin Diaz, Reid Garrett, and Butt (who could also be in the rotation) are the top names returning. Dedoniel Nuñez is back from a ligament injury that required PRP injections, forcing him to be out of action near the end of the regular season.
Stearns has spent much of the season finding his right-hander and expects next year to be no different.
“The bullpen is tough,” he said. “The bullpen evolves over the course of a year. Ideally, I think there would be a little more continuity from the beginning of the pen to the end. I never expected to turn more than 80 percent of the bullpen in one year, but… , that was where we got to. But I think there are some weapons that can complement Edwin that came out this year and stabilize the force, but then we need to add pieces as well.”
