{"id":736432,"date":"2026-06-26T23:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T23:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/736432\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T23:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T23:27:14","slug":"mets-david-stearns-talks-about-accountability-but-doesnt-back-it-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/736432\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets’ David Stearns talks about accountability, but doesn’t back it up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hours after firing his handpicked manager, Carlos Mendoza<\/a>, the Mets\u2019 handpicked president of baseball operations, David Stearns, stated that the team\u2019s shortcomings fell squarely on his shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not felt we have an accountability problem,\u201d Stearns said Friday at Citi Field. \u201cWe have an execution problem. We haven\u2019t played good enough baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mets might be one of the most expensive teams in baseball, but talk is cheap.<\/p>\n

A team with World Series aspirations and a World Series payroll is crumbling under the weight of the expectations this season, currently sitting in last place in the NL East with a 34-47 record, the third-worst in the NL and the seventh-worst in baseball.<\/p>\n

Stearns might be too.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t exactly back up his words as he fielded questions about the direction of the organization, and he didn\u2019t even inform most of the players himself. Some received a text from Stearns, but many saw the news on social media before receiving calls from other front office staffers.<\/p>\n

Francisco Lindor did what any team leader is supposed to do in that situation by saying the team\u2019s failure to execute this season is what cost Mendoza his job. Considering he\u2019s only played 25 games this season, it almost felt unfair for him to be the team spokesman. Lindor only returned to the team Wednesday after missing the last two months of the season with a calf strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe failed Mendy,\u201d Lindor said. \u201cI failed Mendy. I didn\u2019t play up to my capabilities to help the team win as many games as we could, and this one is on us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Juan Soto, the team\u2019s highest-paid player who signed a $15-year, $716 million contract before the 2025 season, was nowhere to be found. In the past, fans could reliably count on hearing from long-tenured homegrown Mets, like Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, or even Jeff McNeil. But Stearns rid the Mets of all of them, plus others, in an attempt to dismantle a core that he didn\u2019t think could win.<\/p>\n

In their places are talented players who haven\u2019t been posted the kind of numbers they have with other teams, and who have little connection to the team, the city, or the fans. Bo Bichette looked shellshocked when asked for his thoughts on the managerial change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were playing better, he\u2019d still be here,\u201d Bichette said. \u201cSo yeah, it\u2019s just unfortunate he had to take the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bichette is one of those underperforming players, though he has looked more like the player he\u2019s been throughout his career as of late. The former Toronto Blue Jays shortstop signed a three-year contract worth $126 million as a free agent in January, with the caveat that he would play third base for the first time in his professional career. That meant Brett Baty had to play elsewhere. Jorge Polanco, an injury-prone veteran, was signed to play a new position as well, and made it two games before he was injured again.<\/p>\n

The one switch that has worked out is moving Soto to left field from right.<\/p>\n

The team has been hit hard by injuries this season, something Stearns has repeatedly cited as a reason for the team\u2019s struggles, but he shouldn\u2019t be surprised since he was the one who acquired them. The Harvard-educated analytics wiz put together a team that, on paper, was projected to win more than enough games to reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n

What he failed to account for is the human element of the game. Any human who has watched the Mets this season can tell you there is a lack of chemistry, cohesion, fundamentals and personality.<\/p>\n

He sidestepped questions about the players he brought in this season, and he sidestepped questions about where Mendoza failed. All of those fancy formulas and the Mets still haven\u2019t been able to identify, or at least articulate, any tangible reasons as to why they have played so poorly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the talent that\u2019s in our room,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cBut belief on its own does not lead to results.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he did communicate clearly was that Andy Green will only be an interim manager. The Mets\u2019 farm director since 2024 and a former manager of the San Diego Padres, Green willl return to the front office after the season concludes to be able to spend more time with his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis felt more like a responsibility than an opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stearns, a 41-year-old New York City native and lifelong Mets fan, still thinks he is the best person to lead the Mets, and he said he has owner Steve Cohen\u2019s full support. It\u2019s not clear who decided to fire Mendoza, but Stearns said the two were \u201caligned\u201d on it.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t make it any easier to fire a well-liked manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think sometimes a new voice, a new perspective, a new view helps,\u201d Stearns said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s really difficult to explain why or how, but at this point it was time to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one can argue with that.<\/p>\n

Stearns sets the tone for the baseball side of the organization as the chief executive. The Mets have many problems at the moment, but if they aren\u2019t the players, the coaches or the preparation \u2014 he insists it\u2019s not the preparation \u2014 then maybe he\u2019s one of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hours after firing his handpicked manager, Carlos Mendoza, the Mets\u2019 handpicked president of baseball operations, David Stearns, stated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,1443,9411,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203],"class_list":["post-736432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-mets","tag-baseball","tag-carlos-mendoza","tag-david-stearns","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkmets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116819004258611923","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}