The New York Mets made a shocking decision to fire Buck Showalter after just his second managerial year.
When the team brought in new president of baseball operations David Stearns, he quickly wanted to make some changes.
Those changes, however, don’t start with using the “reset” term toward the 2024 plans of the team.
“I don’t know that I would ever say that a year here should be a reset year,” Stearns told media Monday, including Fox Sports’ Deesha Thosar. “We have some pretty good players on the Major League roster right now. We got some young guys who broke into the big leagues who have a chance to be good. I don’t know if I’d use the word reset. What I will continue to focus on is making as competitive a team as possible in 2024 while understanding that the long-term goal and the way to win a World Series is to have truly sustainable competitiveness where you’re competing for championships.”
Stearns, who officially was introduced into his new role on Monday, sitting next to owner Steve Cohen, will come in and hope to create a winning team. A team that had a record $355 million payroll when the first pitch of the season was thrown.
The team finished the season with a 74-87 record, fourth place in the NL East.
Stearns offered up some positive news with the team’s star first baseman Pete Alonso. He said he expects the three-time All-Star to be playing at that position coming Opening Day 2024.
“Pete is a great player, he is also good in the clubhouse, and he is also homegrown,” Stearns said. “All of that matters. I know over the summer there was some trade speculation and I’ll just say, I expect Pete to be the Opening Day first baseman next year. Pete is an important member of this team, he’s an important member of this organization, and we’re really fortunate to have him.”
Stearns has his sights set on a strong campaign come next season.
“You need to be strong across your entire organization because weak links will be found,” he said. “There’s really strong competition out there. The organizations that are doing what we want to do — what we are striving to do — they don’t have any weak links.”
