Milwaukee Brewers deny permission to New York Mets to interview David Stearns

The New York Mets are once again looking for someone to head up their baseball operations department, but it doesn’t sound like they will be able to land any of their top-3 candidates for the position. Theo Epstein and Billy Beane haven’t exactly seemed thrilled to be under consideration and don’t appear to be very interested in the position. The Mets won’t even have the option to interview the other executive they covet — David Stearns of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Slingin’ Stearns — a Manhattan native — has been linked to the Mets several times in previous offseasons. Each time, however, New York has been denied permission by Milwaukee owner Mark Attanasio to even speak to Stearns. When the Mets were looking for a new GM during the 2018-19 offseason, the Brewers rejected their request to interview Stearns, then turned around and gave him a contract extension and a promotion to President of Baseball Operations. Last offseason, the club again denied New York’s request to interview Stearns. On Monday, the Mets tried for the third time in four offseasons to get a meeting with the Brewers’ top exec, and were turned away once more.

The Brewers have enjoyed an unprecendented run of success for the franchise since Stearns took over the reigns from Doug Melvin after the 2015 season, quickly rebuilding and making the last four postseasons in a row. Stearns is under contract through at least 2022 and a recent report suggests that he may also have a vesting option for 2023, although it is not yet confirmed or clear what the option triggers may be. Without a doubt, Milwaukee’s owner would like to work out an extension to keep him in the Cream City even further into the future.

That same report suggests that Matt Arnold — who the Brewers formally promoted to General Manager last offseason — “could be in the mix” for the Mets job. Like Stearns, Arnold has been considered for several other front office jobs around the game in recent seasons. One other Milwaukee connection who isn’t being considered is Doug Melvin himself:

The Brewers have a lot of work ahead of them this offseason to reimagine an offense that ranked 11th in the National League with a collective 91 OPS+ and came up woefully short in the NLDS against Atlanta. At least Brewers’ fans can rest assured that David Stearns will still be the man calling the shots this winter, even if he might have to tap a new top lieutenant to work alongside him.