The New York Mets are set to hire Milwaukee Brewers executive — and native New Yorker — David Stearns as president of baseball operations, according to multiple reports Tuesday.
The contract is reported to be for five years.
Stearns, 38, stepped down from his president of baseball operations post with the Milwaukee Brewers last October and took on a club advisory role with his contract not set to expire until the end of this season. Matt Arnold took over as Brewers president.
Stearns was denied a request to speak to other teams about possible job opportunities until after the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
Named Brewers general manager at the age of 30 and with two division titles under his belt, Stearns has been highly coveted by teams looking to fill executive positions in the league, with the Houston Astros reported to be in the mix as recently as Monday.
Stearns was an assistant GM with the Astros under Jeff Luhnow from 2012-15 when he joined the Brewers organization.
Growing up in New York City as a Mets fan, Stearns graduated from Harvard and held a baseball operations internship with the Mets in 2008.
Stearns is known for being able to develop competitive rosters despite restricted budgets, and his tenure in both Houston and Milwaukee involved impressive turnarounds.
With the Astros, he helped the team put together an especially dramatic turnaround, going from 51 wins in 2013 to 70 in 2014 and 86 in 2015, when they clinched an AL wild-card spot for their first trip to the postseason in 10 years.
In Milwaukee, he helped engineer moves that brought the Brewers to the postseason in four consecutive seasons (2018-21) for the first time in franchise history. A highlight of that stretch was the 2018 season in which the Brewers won a franchise record-tying 96 games, earned the NL Central Division title and came within a game of reaching the World Series.
His prior experience also includes internships with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ front office, as well as work for the Arizona Fall League and the MLB commissioner’s office. He also worked in baseball operations for the Cleveland franchise for just under a year before joining the Astros.
–Field Level Media