WEBVTT - Can We Trust David Stearns? | 625 0:00:00.030 --> 0:00:03.150 Can we trust David Stearns? That is the question we 0:00:03.270 --> 0:00:05.809 are attempting to answer in today's episode of the Mets 0:00:05.830 --> 0:00:08.070 The Podcast. If you guys like talking about the New 0:00:08.090 --> 0:00:10.110 York Mets or the content that you're seeing here, make 0:00:10.130 --> 0:00:12.329 sure you are subscribed to our YouTube channel. And if 0:00:12.350 --> 0:00:15.020 you're listening to us, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, drop us 0:00:15.050 --> 0:00:17.500 a ring, drop us a review, download and subscribe wherever 0:00:17.550 --> 0:00:19.760 you get your podcasts. Big shout out to all our 0:00:19.780 --> 0:00:22.440 members who get access to the episodes early on YouTube. 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.100 Just got to click the join button. We appreciate you guys. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.080 This is a little bit of playing into the fan 0:00:28.100 --> 0:00:28.800 base one, I think. 0:00:29.500 --> 0:00:31.140 It's a little bit playing to the fan base, a 0:00:31.140 --> 0:00:33.590 little bit of our play on the press conference last week. 0:00:33.909 --> 0:00:36.310 Tim Britton wrote a great article on The Athletic last week, too. 0:00:36.330 --> 0:00:39.229 This is just a nice moment to talk about this 0:00:39.270 --> 0:00:42.790 because we have a lull right now of playoffs are happening. 0:00:42.810 --> 0:00:44.430 It's very fun to watch. Lots going on. 0:00:44.870 --> 0:00:47.650 We're kind of all teaming for the offseason, especially because 0:00:47.690 --> 0:00:50.050 we're going to have a one-month chaos offseason before the 0:00:50.090 --> 0:00:53.770 lockout begins. So the second it happens, it's going to happen. 0:00:53.790 --> 0:00:55.450 There's going to be tons of player moves, way more 0:00:55.490 --> 0:00:59.090 than we usually get for early November. So it's kind 0:00:59.110 --> 0:01:00.890 of worth having this discussion because I think a lot 0:01:00.910 --> 0:01:02.690 of Mets fans are questioning whether or not they should 0:01:02.730 --> 0:01:04.670 have that trust at the moment. Yeah. 0:01:04.830 --> 0:01:09.070 I mean, we've seen what three, three seasons now with 0:01:09.110 --> 0:01:11.870 David Stearns. Cause he came here in 2024 and there's 0:01:11.910 --> 0:01:13.930 definitely been a lot of good. There's definitely been a 0:01:13.950 --> 0:01:17.090 ton of bad, which feels like it probably outweighs all 0:01:17.110 --> 0:01:18.970 the good. This is not going to be necessarily me 0:01:19.010 --> 0:01:22.170 and James pleading for you guys to trust almighty David 0:01:22.190 --> 0:01:24.550 Stearns and that he is boy genius and all this 0:01:24.590 --> 0:01:26.730 good stuff. But I think it's more so trying to 0:01:26.780 --> 0:01:30.240 look at him through a, unbiased lens and just, like, 0:01:30.780 --> 0:01:33.000 unequivocally telling you, like, what moves were good, what moves 0:01:33.020 --> 0:01:35.620 were bad, and what probably needs to change for this offseason. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.620 Because you can't keep doing the same thing. That's all 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:37.920 I know. 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:40.640 I mean, I think there's no doubt that in the 0:01:40.690 --> 0:01:43.590 whole league he's probably under the most pressure of any executive. 0:01:43.750 --> 0:01:45.730 I'd say he– I'm not saying that in the sense 0:01:45.750 --> 0:01:47.350 of he has the hottest seat. He probably has one 0:01:47.370 --> 0:01:49.510 of the hottest seats. But he just has the most– 0:01:49.810 --> 0:01:51.350 he's got the most shit he's got to get right 0:01:51.430 --> 0:01:54.460 in the near future because– There's just been a lot 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.540 of change in the last year, and almost every single 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:01.400 replacement for longtime players was the incorrect decision. Not saying 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:03.400 that all the decisions of letting guys go were right 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:03.770 or wrong. 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:05.140 Some of them were. Some of them weren't. 0:02:05.630 --> 0:02:07.230 But almost every single guy that was brought in to 0:02:07.290 --> 0:02:10.090 replace those guys that left was completely incorrect. And then 0:02:10.110 --> 0:02:12.610 you're kind of left right now with, as we told 0:02:12.650 --> 0:02:14.290 you guys last episode, basically the Mets have like half 0:02:14.330 --> 0:02:15.220 a baseball team right now. 0:02:15.230 --> 0:02:17.149 And that's being generous. But that half is a good half. 0:02:17.460 --> 0:02:20.410 Amazing half. That half is poor. It's a legit good core. 0:02:20.450 --> 0:02:22.470 But for some reason, the things that David Stearns was 0:02:22.510 --> 0:02:25.010 supposed to be the best at, which was filling out 0:02:25.050 --> 0:02:28.810 these roster fringes, kind of doing well on the bargain shopping, 0:02:28.889 --> 0:02:30.820 trying to avoid the middle tier that always seems to 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:35.320 fail this Mets organization, it's completely backfired every single time. 0:02:35.780 --> 0:02:39.450 And also... the expensive guys too, outside of Juan Soto, 0:02:39.610 --> 0:02:42.270 like the times where the Mets have spent money, they 0:02:42.389 --> 0:02:44.650 kind of haven't worked either, which is kind of crazy. 0:02:44.770 --> 0:02:46.990 It's been, it's been the middle. It's been the middle 0:02:47.030 --> 0:02:49.820 of like that middle ish spending. And we'll, we'll go 0:02:49.860 --> 0:02:51.940 through the years and we'll name some guys. And we're 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.419 definitely gonna do a more in-depth thing on like most 0:02:54.460 --> 0:02:56.419 of the moves that David Stearns has made, or actually 0:02:56.460 --> 0:02:58.320 all the moves that David Stearns has made throughout his 0:02:58.340 --> 0:03:00.109 tenure with the New York Mets. But when talking about 0:03:00.130 --> 0:03:04.990 the 2026 version, I think it probably starts and stops 0:03:05.510 --> 0:03:07.850 simply with Jorge Polanco. We could talk about him for 0:03:08.230 --> 0:03:11.490 half an hour and how that was probably the move 0:03:11.710 --> 0:03:14.630 that made the Mets as bad truly as they were. 0:03:14.790 --> 0:03:16.750 Like if you could look at one move in particular. 0:03:17.350 --> 0:03:20.570 I think it's a very fair critique that sometimes this 0:03:20.710 --> 0:03:23.720 Mets front office says like, this is our guy. We 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:25.579 have to get our guy. But a lot of times 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.109 it seems like that guy could be wildly incorrect. 0:03:28.430 --> 0:03:28.829 It's bad. 0:03:29.430 --> 0:03:32.330 Yeah, like getting Jorge Polanco, like getting our guy, that 0:03:32.350 --> 0:03:33.869 doesn't seem like it was right. There was a piece 0:03:33.889 --> 0:03:36.730 from the Britain article that started out with a stanza 0:03:36.770 --> 0:03:38.740 that everyone get the athletic, and I think it was 0:03:38.780 --> 0:03:40.060 a gift article, so it was free to everyone. 0:03:40.100 --> 0:03:41.960 Really just good. Tim Bird's a great writer. Good in-depth 0:03:41.980 --> 0:03:43.280 look at the whole Stern's tenure. 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.300 One executive familiar with Stern said he relies on a 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:48.280 model about as much as any. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.600 Other modern head of baseball operations. It's good. 0:03:50.970 --> 0:03:53.770 The executive pointed to the trade for Freddy Peralta as 0:03:53.990 --> 0:03:57.900 one in which subjective ideas including Peralta's clubhouse energy, pushed 0:03:57.940 --> 0:04:00.400 the Mets to value the pitcher more than objective measures. 0:04:00.820 --> 0:04:03.560 So this is something that I think David Stearns gets 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.710 ridiculed for sometimes, like too much data, too much model. Like, no, 0:04:06.750 --> 0:04:09.950 this was real life, pure sense. I think it just 0:04:09.990 --> 0:04:13.470 maybe was incorrect because Freddy Peralta, he was a good pitcher, 0:04:13.490 --> 0:04:16.029 he wasn't an ace. And then you push over the 0:04:16.050 --> 0:04:18.450 top for clubhouse energy. He had great clubhouse energy, sucked 0:04:18.510 --> 0:04:18.830 at pitching. 0:04:19.250 --> 0:04:20.890 Sucked at pitching. It was horrible this year for the 0:04:20.930 --> 0:04:22.950 New York Mets. And whether that was their fault, his fault, 0:04:22.970 --> 0:04:25.600 whatever it was, We can debate that for hours and hours, 0:04:25.660 --> 0:04:27.940 but Freddie Peralta came here and was an absolute failure. 0:04:28.220 --> 0:04:31.310 And then similarly, I think Jorge Polanco and Marcus Simeon 0:04:31.330 --> 0:04:33.230 were supposed to be kind of similar guys like that 0:04:33.270 --> 0:04:37.370 on the offensive side, where maybe overlooking some of the 0:04:37.430 --> 0:04:39.690 things that have gone on over the last few years 0:04:39.750 --> 0:04:42.710 and taking more of the intangible route of these guys 0:04:42.750 --> 0:04:44.719 and the things that they bring to the table outside 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.360 of being a baseball player. And it was two of 0:04:47.420 --> 0:04:50.540 the grossest overestimations that the Mets have ever made, where 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.980 Jorge Polanco was knowing his injury history, something that we 0:04:54.020 --> 0:04:56.180 talked about as soon as the move got made, we 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.719 were flabbergasted from how quick the move was made seemingly 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.230 out of nowhere. And to play a new position, we 0:05:04.290 --> 0:05:07.730 were like, the math isn't really mathing. It's kind of 0:05:07.770 --> 0:05:10.010 crazy to look at. And then Marcus Simeon too, like 0:05:10.029 --> 0:05:11.990 we know we had to get off the Brandon Nimmo contract. 0:05:12.350 --> 0:05:15.430 That was good process. The problem was that the contract 0:05:15.470 --> 0:05:17.529 and the player that we took was one of the 0:05:17.550 --> 0:05:20.290 worst in major league baseball this year and had almost 0:05:20.290 --> 0:05:23.150 600 plate appearances. So The fact that, this is a 0:05:23.150 --> 0:05:25.690 crazy sentence, but like the fact that Marcus Simeon, Jorge 0:05:25.730 --> 0:05:29.690 Polanco combined for 600 plate appearances this year and had 0:05:29.710 --> 0:05:33.610 an OPS, I think that probably starts with a five. That's, oh, 0:05:33.650 --> 0:05:35.450 that's a spectacular failure. I don't even know if it 0:05:35.470 --> 0:05:37.100 was a five. I think the OPS might actually start 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:37.560 with a four. 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:39.779 But again, the same thing where it's like, that's, I 0:05:39.820 --> 0:05:41.220 got to get my guy or I got to get 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:43.300 off my guy. Like, here's the move I have to make. 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:45.220 And it's like, why is that the move you have 0:05:45.260 --> 0:05:47.820 to make? And even the one that's the most in 0:05:47.860 --> 0:05:50.500 our faces right now, just because a decision needs needing 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.080 to be made soon in Bo Bichette The idea of 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:57.300 giving Bo Bichette one of the absolute most player-friendly contracts 0:05:57.339 --> 0:05:59.480 in the history of the sport to play a new 0:05:59.500 --> 0:06:02.190 position as well, to be the guy who's replacing Pete Alonso, 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.650 a completely different skill set, and a player that was 0:06:04.750 --> 0:06:07.330 not simply just not consistent. 0:06:07.650 --> 0:06:08.770 He was mostly consistent. 0:06:08.850 --> 0:06:11.510 Two years ago, he had a horrific season, and one 0:06:11.570 --> 0:06:14.210 that you saw signs on the wall that this could 0:06:14.250 --> 0:06:17.080 happen again. This is in Bo Bichette's range of outcomes, 0:06:17.220 --> 0:06:19.160 and he did that in the first year of the team, 0:06:19.180 --> 0:06:20.739 and that was one of the big moves that sunk. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:25.810 Even even communication things. Like, we don't know how much 0:06:25.870 --> 0:06:28.360 validity there ever was to this. It was alluded to 0:06:28.380 --> 0:06:30.380 by Jeff Passan at the time, but the way they 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:32.460 went after Devin Williams and how that may have felt 0:06:32.540 --> 0:06:35.540 disrespectful to Edwin Diaz, if that's the case. Again, we 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:37.800 said it then. Edwin Diaz could have kicked rocks, and 0:06:37.820 --> 0:06:39.480 he did. Now let's see if he continues to pitch 0:06:39.500 --> 0:06:40.520 really well this postseason. 0:06:40.540 --> 0:06:41.620 Looked pretty good in his one inning. 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.430 Looked pretty good in the first inning package after a spell. 0:06:44.450 --> 0:06:45.930 Whatever the Dodgers do when they send the guy to AAA, 0:06:45.950 --> 0:06:47.929 I don't even know. They inject him with philosophy serum. 0:06:48.150 --> 0:06:50.950 It's freaking crazy. Yeah, but... And then. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.640 There's another thing, too. So Jared Seiler, baseball prospectus, he did. 0:06:54.580 --> 0:06:58.920 A huge series ranking all 30 front offices. Don't want 0:06:58.940 --> 0:07:00.669 to give away secret sauce. Not going to say where 0:07:00.690 --> 0:07:02.830 the Mets were, but he said a big critique of 0:07:02.870 --> 0:07:03.980 David Stearns and pointing it out. 0:07:03.990 --> 0:07:05.690 I was like, oh, I didn't even realize this. Wait, 0:07:06.029 --> 0:07:08.050 tell me and I'm going to beep it out. Okay. 0:07:08.270 --> 0:07:10.670 It was number 10. 0:07:10.670 --> 0:07:14.120 Okay. That's actually, I'm surprised. I'm not going to tell 0:07:14.140 --> 0:07:15.540 you which way I'm surprised. I'm just going to tell 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:16.120 you I'm surprised. 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:16.710 For sure. 0:07:16.740 --> 0:07:18.560 But reading through it, I think it made sense. 0:07:18.580 --> 0:07:21.940 And again, get Baseball Perspectives memberships, amazing content over there. 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:23.400 Jared's a great writer, good podcaster. 0:07:24.660 --> 0:07:26.360 Something that he said, I didn't realize it, but then 0:07:26.380 --> 0:07:28.160 looking back, I'm like, oh, this does happen all the time, 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.400 is that the Mets feel like they make these godfather 0:07:31.500 --> 0:07:33.490 offers that are final cut. 0:07:33.570 --> 0:07:34.950 This is the one. This is the deal. You're going 0:07:34.970 --> 0:07:35.480 to accept it. 0:07:35.790 --> 0:07:37.970 And then a player takes it somewhere else and one-ups them. 0:07:38.090 --> 0:07:40.730 And again, that comes back to communication between players and agents, 0:07:40.770 --> 0:07:42.050 this thing that we talk about all the time in 0:07:42.070 --> 0:07:44.570 the Mets world of being used as leverage to to 0:07:44.690 --> 0:07:47.130 drive up contracts and just let the other team get 0:07:47.150 --> 0:07:48.790 these players. Anyway, it feels like that does happen a 0:07:48.810 --> 0:07:51.600 lot because this team, I mean, also it's hard to 0:07:51.620 --> 0:07:53.220 look at the Mets and the Dodgers and unless you're 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.460 getting so much more money, say, I'm going to choose 0:07:55.500 --> 0:07:58.200 the Mets. I'm going to choose the worst franchise, the 0:07:58.220 --> 0:08:00.860 team that wins less consistently, the team with worse weather, 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:02.980 worse quality of life for me as I moved there 0:08:03.020 --> 0:08:04.140 with my family for a long time. 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.380 It's hard to beat the sunshine and rainbows. Honestly, it's 0:08:07.420 --> 0:08:10.000 just as simple as that. Like if if I'm getting 0:08:10.300 --> 0:08:12.720 handed this much from both, I'm going to pick the 0:08:12.780 --> 0:08:14.720 one that's just got a little bit better things on 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:16.680 the outside than New York city. You kind of have 0:08:16.700 --> 0:08:18.060 to be a different beast to want to go to 0:08:18.100 --> 0:08:19.800 the New York Mets, which I guess is a little 0:08:19.820 --> 0:08:22.240 bit different too. But I think another thing to talk 0:08:22.260 --> 0:08:25.100 about too, like with just the 2026 season in general, 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.240 and you mentioned it a little bit earlier is the 0:08:27.260 --> 0:08:29.660 guys on the fringe too, have been really bad that 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.400 the Mets have been bringing in this year. I counted. 0:08:32.420 --> 0:08:35.470 So I think 27 different Mets took a plate appearance 0:08:35.510 --> 0:08:38.150 for the New York Mets. And I think 13 of them, 0:08:38.190 --> 0:08:43.440 according to baseball reference, had a negative war that's unfathomable 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.660 like some of these guys took 16 plate appearances and 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.829 were worth negative half a win i know that like 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.030 negative half a win is relatively zero and zero the 0:08:53.050 --> 0:08:55.350 semantics of all of it but just from a saying 0:08:55.410 --> 0:08:59.089 it out loud standpoint that's crazy to me how do 0:08:59.110 --> 0:09:02.090 you find that many bad players that get an opportunity 0:09:02.110 --> 0:09:03.370 to play at the major league level. 0:09:03.900 --> 0:09:05.740 The opportunity is the problem too. Like sure. There were 0:09:05.780 --> 0:09:08.120 lots of injuries this year, but we didn't have the 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.280 necessary reinforcements that should be out of 40 men roster 0:09:11.300 --> 0:09:13.150 to cover for those injuries. And then you could flip 0:09:13.170 --> 0:09:15.230 the other side of this, that the Stern stands that 0:09:15.270 --> 0:09:15.930 are still out there. 0:09:15.970 --> 0:09:17.770 They would say when he took over this organization, this 0:09:17.790 --> 0:09:18.370 part is true. 0:09:18.929 --> 0:09:22.530 This team process wise was definitely in shambles still. We 0:09:22.550 --> 0:09:25.660 got through, it was four executives in five years just 0:09:25.700 --> 0:09:28.140 because of the, because of the triple threat in 2021, 0:09:28.140 --> 0:09:29.800 which probably shouldn't be counted, but still is the case. 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:30.380 It did happen. 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.440 We had, Lots of turnover. We didn't have very modern processes. 0:09:33.460 --> 0:09:35.100 We were getting there a little bit with Steve Cohen 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.100 in the way. You know, some development was happening. 0:09:37.140 --> 0:09:38.860 Some scouting was happening. Drafting was happening. 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.099 But it does feel like those are the things that 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.660 I'm so much more confident in this organization now. Like, 0:09:43.740 --> 0:09:46.300 I am ready for this player development machine to start 0:09:46.340 --> 0:09:47.449 churning out bodies. 0:09:47.470 --> 0:09:48.400 And we saw that this year. 0:09:48.450 --> 0:09:51.270 Like, the fact that this core now has Benjamin Ewing 0:09:51.370 --> 0:09:54.930 in it, I'm like, oh, building blocks, dudes. Like, having 0:09:54.970 --> 0:09:57.610 those guys absolutely written in Sharpie for the next. 0:09:57.970 --> 0:09:59.890 Five seasons is a huge deal. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.880 It can't go without saying that Benj was the first 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:03.719 Stearns draft pick. 0:10:03.740 --> 0:10:05.819 So I think that's a relevant factor right here. 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.059 Then McLean and the other side, how much better he got. 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.020 Everything that's gone on with Christian Scott, that he's a 0:10:11.140 --> 0:10:13.920 valuable mid-rotation piece now. This kind of stuff is there. 0:10:14.059 --> 0:10:16.280 And again, that stuff takes time to build. I wish 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.100 it would have existed two years ago, more so than now, 0:10:19.179 --> 0:10:20.300 but hopefully it's all there this year. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.580 It's just, these things have to be bridged. 0:10:22.660 --> 0:10:24.900 And I just, I still just can't believe how bad 0:10:24.940 --> 0:10:28.240 of a major league baseball team building front office, David, 0:10:28.380 --> 0:10:30.460 David Stearns, executive David Stearns has been. 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:31.100 Over the last two years. 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:31.460 Yeah. 0:10:31.500 --> 0:10:36.210 Because his combinations also packaged in with some of the horrible, 0:10:36.230 --> 0:10:39.270 horrible players that came from the previous regime as well. Like, 0:10:39.450 --> 0:10:41.530 I mean, it's, it's tough when you're committing 20 plus 0:10:41.570 --> 0:10:43.730 million dollars a year to Sean Mania and he was 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:46.340 Not good. It's tough when you're committing that money to 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.830 Kodai Senga from the old regime, and he was one 0:10:48.850 --> 0:10:50.949 of the worst pitchers in the entire league. Well, he 0:10:50.970 --> 0:10:52.910 re-upped Minaya himself. That was him? 0:10:52.929 --> 0:10:57.170 Yeah, that was after 24. We gave him that extension. Oh, 0:10:57.210 --> 0:10:57.630 my God. 0:10:57.670 --> 0:11:01.339 He did. Oh, my God. That's what I'm saying. I 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.160 was trying to give him benefit of the doubt. That's bad. 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.300 The thing that's funny, too, is that a lot of 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.360 these moves that would be critical of, like in the moment, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.559 I was like, hmm. You know what I mean? But 0:11:09.820 --> 0:11:11.600 a lot of them, and we admit in the moment, too, 0:11:11.700 --> 0:11:15.520 felt sound process-wise. Like, Devin Williams felt very sound process-wise. 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.210 Fuck you. Don't put me in that category. In that moment, 0:11:19.230 --> 0:11:21.210 I was more negative than you were. That's not true. 0:11:21.250 --> 0:11:23.189 What are you talking about? No, you were trying to 0:11:23.250 --> 0:11:25.370 be positive because you figured he was a set-up guy 0:11:25.390 --> 0:11:26.950 for Edwin Diaz. And I came on here and told 0:11:26.970 --> 0:11:28.370 you exactly. One, I have a pit in my stomach 0:11:28.390 --> 0:11:29.709 about this. I know I should like it, but I 0:11:29.770 --> 0:11:32.160 don't like it. And it was the head versus the heart. 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.020 Rewatch that. And I was like, this means Edwin Diaz 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.930 is 100% God. Devin Williams sucks. I hate him. 0:11:38.690 --> 0:11:42.550 But again, if you're looking pure process-wise, that contract for 0:11:42.570 --> 0:11:45.570 that quality of that kind of stuff you get feels good. 0:11:46.010 --> 0:11:48.390 Like Bo Bichette, we were like, this feels odd. The 0:11:48.500 --> 0:11:51.410 Bo one we were not a fan of. I think 0:11:51.550 --> 0:11:54.220 I saw the clip the other day of us, I think, 0:11:54.300 --> 0:11:58.260 live reacting in podcast to Bo Bichette being signed. I 0:11:58.280 --> 0:11:59.640 was like, look at your phone. Look at your phone. 0:11:59.660 --> 0:12:00.440 Oh, because it. 0:12:00.420 --> 0:12:02.429 Was on the wind-up. Look at the wind-up. What are 0:12:02.490 --> 0:12:04.750 we doing? Why do we do that? Same thing with 0:12:04.770 --> 0:12:05.240 Jorge Polanco. 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:06.939 Again, maybe it was just the time of day because 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:08.679 it was Saturday at 9 a.m. and it was in 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.980 between our friends' night before wedding party and wedding party. 0:12:12.059 --> 0:12:14.920 But we were both like, what just happened? Even the 0:12:14.940 --> 0:12:16.330 showman and I were like, I think this is good. 0:12:16.350 --> 0:12:17.850 It feels okay. 0:12:17.890 --> 0:12:20.790 But some of this feels like a lot of these 0:12:20.830 --> 0:12:24.970 major league roster moves, again, are bad. This isn't unfair, 0:12:25.030 --> 0:12:27.200 but those are things that look way more clear to 0:12:27.220 --> 0:12:27.670 the public. 0:12:28.059 --> 0:12:29.320 Yeah, I mean, it's just. 0:12:29.929 --> 0:12:33.470 And evaluating underlying processes. That's where the boy genius comes in. 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:34.940 That's where people start to be like, he thinks he's 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.000 smarter than everybody else because you see some of these 0:12:37.059 --> 0:12:41.160 things that it feels like from 1,000 feet away, 10 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.020 feet away, feel like the wrong thing to do at times. 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:45.020 I mean, the biggest thing is you have to be 0:12:45.059 --> 0:12:46.780 prepared for uncapped downside scenarios. 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:47.660 You just got to be ready for it. 0:12:47.660 --> 0:12:48.420 They weren't ready. 0:12:48.740 --> 0:12:51.670 They weren't ready for that. That was this offseason and 0:12:51.730 --> 0:12:55.130 last offseason he was talking about, it was about the defense, right? 0:12:55.170 --> 0:12:55.660 What was it? 0:12:55.970 --> 0:12:56.890 What was his line for defense? 0:12:57.350 --> 0:12:58.270 Yeah, oh, run prevention. 0:12:58.330 --> 0:13:00.710 How'd you forget run prevention? Someone's screaming at you right now. 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.020 How could you forget run prevention? 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:04.820 First off, I woke up 20 minutes ago, so my 0:13:04.860 --> 0:13:07.080 brain is clear. Don't advertise that. Why? 0:13:07.140 --> 0:13:07.600 It's fine. 0:13:07.660 --> 0:13:09.340 Everyone knows I wake up like a piece of shit. 0:13:09.540 --> 0:13:10.219 Like, it's okay. 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:14.120 But two, I'm really just trying to black everything out 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:17.089 of my brain from this past year. It's just what 0:13:17.150 --> 0:13:21.310 a disgrace of a season the Mets had. And we're still, like, 0:13:21.710 --> 0:13:23.450 one of the ten best scorers in the league, and 0:13:23.470 --> 0:13:25.710 that's not even our take. That's a take that national 0:13:25.730 --> 0:13:27.050 baseball writers are also having. 0:13:27.580 --> 0:13:29.719 The same National Baseball Riders that were giving Davis Stern 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.160 so much credit for remaking the team last offseason. That's 0:13:32.179 --> 0:13:34.510 where our Dark Horse World Series pick, but those people 0:13:34.550 --> 0:13:35.670 will not have you remember that. 0:13:35.770 --> 0:13:36.330 Absolutely not. 0:13:36.370 --> 0:13:38.810 I mean, also, like, think about fringes of the other years. 0:13:38.830 --> 0:13:41.730 It's like the Jose Siri trade. Let's go to 2025, yeah. 0:13:42.130 --> 0:13:42.709 Jose Siri. 0:13:42.809 --> 0:13:49.910 Why'd we trade for Jose Siri? Big swings and good defense. 0:13:50.550 --> 0:13:51.250 Yeah, I guess. 0:13:51.309 --> 0:13:53.410 Even just, like, looking at that trade. He was okay 0:13:53.429 --> 0:13:55.850 with the Angels this year. He was okay with the 0:13:55.910 --> 0:13:56.830 Angels this year, I guess. 0:13:56.929 --> 0:13:59.469 I mean, would he have, like, a hairline fracture and 0:13:59.490 --> 0:14:00.709 let him out for, like, six months and then he 0:14:00.730 --> 0:14:01.870 got cut immediately? Yeah. 0:14:01.970 --> 0:14:04.730 I mean, we could also– I guess, like, it's worth noting, too, 0:14:05.110 --> 0:14:06.630 we haven't talked about, like, some of the guys that 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:11.580 just let go as well last year. Like, the Pete 0:14:12.860 --> 0:14:15.820 contract in the conversation is, like, way more nuanced than 0:14:15.860 --> 0:14:19.160 people make it. I wish Pete Alonzo was back. So 0:14:19.220 --> 0:14:20.859 do you. I don't think that there's a Mets fan 0:14:20.900 --> 0:14:22.680 on the planet that's like, I did not want Pete 0:14:22.700 --> 0:14:25.330 Alonzo back. The problem was that the Pete Alonzo contract 0:14:25.350 --> 0:14:28.590 that he was offered is fucking insane. It was. You 0:14:28.610 --> 0:14:32.720 could see the Baltimore Orioles when you commit $ 155 million 0:14:33.030 --> 0:14:35.040 to a dude who plays first base. It's like it 0:14:35.060 --> 0:14:37.020 doesn't really turn out well. Look at all the massive 0:14:37.060 --> 0:14:39.060 contracts that have happened to first basemen over the history 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:43.100 of baseball. They don't really age particularly gracefully, and I'm 0:14:43.140 --> 0:14:44.660 talking about some of the best players to ever play 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.340 the game like Albert Pujols and guys like Mark Teixeira. 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:49.100 There's just guys that did not really play as well 0:14:49.140 --> 0:14:51.700 once they got these big monies and got older. That 0:14:51.740 --> 0:14:53.800 was the problem with Pete Alonzo. I think as the player, 0:14:54.140 --> 0:14:56.380 of course we want him back. He's the man. I 0:14:56.420 --> 0:14:58.860 love Pete. It was the money, but that's, again, the 0:14:58.900 --> 0:15:02.950 process versus different things. But then you give this money 0:15:03.010 --> 0:15:07.070 to Bobachette and Jorge Polanco and these guys, and you're like, well, 0:15:07.470 --> 0:15:09.230 probably would have rather just had Pete at that point. 0:15:09.250 --> 0:15:11.250 I'm just saying the whole difference is the fact that 0:15:11.270 --> 0:15:13.390 the Mets didn't replace well. If the Mets made the 0:15:13.430 --> 0:15:16.630 playoffs this year, if the Mets won 91 games and 0:15:16.650 --> 0:15:18.369 we're just like in hot pursuit with the Phillies and 0:15:18.390 --> 0:15:18.830 the Braves. 0:15:18.850 --> 0:15:19.550 And it was fun time. 0:15:19.590 --> 0:15:21.490 They're possibly playing an LDS right now. None of these 0:15:21.530 --> 0:15:24.170 conversations will be happening. We'd be like, look, look what 0:15:24.190 --> 0:15:25.890 boy genius did. Look how we remade the core in 0:15:25.970 --> 0:15:27.910 one shot, but he didn't. It's not how it happened. 0:15:28.010 --> 0:15:30.260 And to share his interesting comp that came to me 0:15:30.340 --> 0:15:33.000 after like in the last few weeks, actually, I mean, 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:34.380 Mark shares the. 0:15:34.340 --> 0:15:35.840 News right now. We haven't talked about that. I just 0:15:35.860 --> 0:15:37.420 brought that up. Like out of nowhere. 0:15:37.770 --> 0:15:39.290 I talked about that literally with my uncle at the 0:15:39.310 --> 0:15:41.750 Yankee game last week. I checked out Mark Teixeira's baseball 0:15:41.790 --> 0:15:44.170 reference recently just because he's in the news right now. 0:15:44.220 --> 0:15:44.700 Just a little. 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:45.620 Just a little bit. 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.240 I wanted to remember Mark Teixeira as a player. And 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.540 he just stopped playing good baseball when he turned 34 0:15:49.540 --> 0:15:52.120 years old. It was over. He had one more pretty 0:15:52.140 --> 0:15:54.640 good season at 35, and he showed up the next year, 0:15:54.740 --> 0:15:55.540