Monday ticked off the final two big names of the New York Mets’ initial list of candidates for its president of baseball operations (PBO) vacancy.
The Milwaukee Brewers have denied them an opportunity to interview David Stearns for their president of baseball operations (PBO) vacancy, as first reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, before Oakland Athletics executive vice president of baseball operations, Billy Beane, withdrew his name from consideration, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Brewers owner Mark Attanasio made the call this weekend regarding Stearns, ensuring that the 36-year-old would see out the final year of his contract with his current team.
Stearns — who grew up in Manhattan as a Mets fan — has become a hot commodity across Major League Baseball after his meteoric rise through the ranks in Milwaukee. At just 30 years old, he was named the Brewers’ general manager before being promoted to president of baseball operations four years later.
The Brewers have made the postseason in each of those four seasons, which is the same amount of times the small-market club made the playoffs in their first 48 years of existence from 1969-2017.
Beane was regarded as the last of the three major candidates that had been linked to the Mets job entering this offseason. Reports last week suggested that Beane would be “open” to the idea of joining the Mets’ front office before he withdrew his name on Monday. Beane was drafted by the Mets as a prospect in 1980 and would spend five years in the organization before getting traded.
The 59-year-old has spent 31 years with the Athletics, first joining as a scout in 1990 before he was named general manager after the 1997 season. He was promoted to executive vice president in 2015.
He has continuously built contending baseball teams under the strict financial limitations that come with a small-market club like the Athletics. Since he took over as GM ahead of the 1998 season, the Athletics have posted records over .500 16 times and have made the playoffs on 11 occasions.
The Mets continue to struggle to find a bona fide PBO — a position that they were unable to fill last year, which put further stress on team president Sandy Alderson.
Such a position is the first domino that is expected to put the Mets’ offseason in motion, allowing the team to hire a general manager and manager before trying to build a legitimate playoff contender that fell woefully short of high expectations in 2021.
