Mets' Cohen on firing Stearns: 'Not gonna do it'
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Steve Cohen told the New York Post he is not considering dismissing David Stearns despite a second straight disappointing season: 'the change that's not gonna be made is moving David out at this point.'
- Stearns is in year three of a five-year contract, and Cohen said they will 'live that contract out,' arguing that constant turnover would deter future free agents from trusting the organization.
- The Mets entered their series finale against the Blue Jays at 36-50, 14.5 games behind the first-place Braves in the NL East and 10 games out of the final NL wild-card spot, with FanGraphs giving them a 3.8% chance of reaching the postseason.
- Stearns' 2024 Mets reached the NLCS, falling two games short of the World Series, but the 2025 team collapsed from the best record in baseball in mid-June to out of the postseason in Juan Soto's first year on his 15-year, $765 million deal.
- After the 2025 collapse, Stearns overhauled the veteran core: trading Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil, losing Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz to free agency, then signing Bo Bichette (3 years, $126 million) and Jorge Polanco (2 years, $40 million) among other additions.
- Cohen bought the Mets in November 2020 and had targeted Stearns for years before hiring him in late 2023, framing the hire as a Dodgers-style organizational rebuild rather than a short-term fix.
Why it matters: Cohen's public commitment locks Stearns in for the remaining two years of his deal, a rare show of patience from a $765-million-payroll owner whose own stated timeline called for a World Series within three to five years of purchase — a deadline that has now arrived without a title.
