Steve Cohen expects the Mets’ president of baseball operations to learn from his mistakes this season.
What were David Stearns’ mistakes that contributed to the team’s dismal showing this season?
“I can argue, taking too much risk,” the Mets owner said Wednesday at Citi Field. “When you look at the changes that were made and whenever you make significant changes sometimes it takes a while to integrate.”
The risk included signing Jorge Polanco, a player with injury history, to a two-year contract worth $40 million as Pete Alonso’s replacement at first base. Polanco missed most of the season’s first half and was placed on the injured list Wednesday as he awaits surgery on his left ankle.
Stearns also almost completely overhauled the coaching staff following last season’s second-half collapse that kept the Mets from reaching the postseason.
“When you add new players, add a new coaching staff, adding players with an injury history, you add risk upon risk,” Cohen said. “You can have a dispersion of results. It doesn’t mean it would have had to turn out bad and maybe the possibility of an undesirable results is more of a possibility because of the risk you are taking.
“I equate it to running a portfolio. The more risk you take in a portfolio you can have major upside, but also your downside can be bigger and so you can have bigger variance in those zones. I think that is what happened here.”
Cohen indicated he’s encouraged by the team’s recent play, which had included 10 victories in 14 games entering Wednesday, and he’s optimistic about the farm system following Stearns’ selling at the trade deadline.
Previously, Cohen committed to not firing Stearns, whose contract runs through 2028.
“It’s a process,” Cohen said. “I don’t think there’s any magic bullets out there. But I am a process guy and if you think the processes are good and repeatable processes that generally produce good results over time, I think that’s all you can do. You can’t manufacture players in your farm system overnight, free agency as we have seen can be dicey. All you can do is make the best decisions you can and then build from that.”
Interim manager Andy Green has said he plans on returning to the front office after this season. Cohen was asked what he would like to see in the next manager.
“I want a manager that can really relate to players,” Cohen said. “I love the idea of a manager that motivates the players. As we know baseball is an up and down. People have great moments and go into slumps. And so, how do you get the best out of your players? I think that is pretty important.”
