Steve Cohen was quick to give Buck Showalter a vote of confidence in late June as the wheels fell off the New York Mets’ season.
A team that had World Series aspirations is playing out the remainder of their schedule with eyes solely fixed on the future rather than a second consecutive playoff berth — a streak that has been so rare in franchise history, that it’s happened only twice in the franchise’s 62-season existence.
“I’m a patient guy,” Cohen said at the time. “Everybody wants a headline. Everybody says ‘Fire this person, fire that person.’ I don’t see that as a way to operate… I know fans want something to happen. I get it. But sometimes, you can’t do it because you have a long-term objective.”
But what about next season?
The Mets are retooling and 2024 is not going to carry the same expectations as the previous two seasons did. General manager Billy Eppler said it himself shortly before the trade deadline: “I don’t think we will be walking into 2024 with the same preseason odds that we did in 2022, 2023,” he admitted.
With it might come the need for a new voice in the clubhouse, even if Showalter is deemed a player’s manager and held in high regard by his team.
While he’s one of the most seasoned managers in baseball, he’s also never won a World Series — and he was unable to steer the Mets further into the postseason despite a 101-win season in which they simply ran out of gas down the backstretch.
Overseeing a roster in 2023 that was full of holes thanks to Eppler, Showalter’s Mets never lived up to the high potential that awaited them after acquiring Justin Verlander to pair with Max Scherzer. The offense took a notable step backward under new hitting coach Jeremy Barnes and starting pitching was unreliable while the bullpen was chaotic, another indictment of Eppler but also on pitching coach Jeremy Hefner.
That alone will obviously call Showalter’s future in Queens into question, but those uncertainties are only strengthened by Cohen’s opportunity to finally catch his golden goose.
Former Milwaukee Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns is finally available — his contract expiring at the end of the season with the NL Central club allowing him to speak with other teams about potential jobs on Aug. 1 — after a three-year pursuit by the Mets.
To the surprise of few, he’s already spoken to the Mets and the Houston Astros, according to Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic.
Cohen has expressed his desire to bring on a president of baseball operations to slot in above Eppler, a move that would stabilize the front office and provide the Mets with one of the top young executives in baseball. The 38-year-old New York native helped build the Brewers into a perennial playoff contender, making the postseason four times in seven seasons. By comparison, the Mets have only made the playoffs four times since 2000.
Should the Mets land Stearns — and if he wants to bring in “his guys” — then a managerial change feels almost certain.
Brewers manager Craig Counsell’s contract is set to expire at the end of this season and could very well follow Stearns to New York to join the Mets. The 53-year-old led the Brewers to the playoffs each year from 2018-2021 before missing out by a game last season. They currently lead the NL Central with a 77-62 record.
Granted, Counsell will have an abundance of interest within the open market should he get there — or if he wants to continue managing — but the path certainly seems clear for Cohen if he does want to go this route, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for Showalter.
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