There is no team more needy than the Mets. Or maybe there is no team that has created more flexibility than the Mets.
However you spin it, David Stearns — as has become his wont — has created a lot of work (or maybe a lot of freedom) for himself.
After an early-offseason bloodletting, the Mets’ 40-man roster is the emptiest in all of baseball, sitting at 28. No other team has fewer than 31 players.
Stearns came in and turned over the coaching group and back half of the roster in a fashion that might look unprecedented, though he himself has done this once before.
When Stearns was hired as Brewers general manager in Sept. 2015, he cleaned house, firing five of seven coaches and ripping apart the roster. Half of Milwaukee’s 40-man — 20 players — were exchanged by the start of 2016 spring training, using every method he could: the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tabulated it took nine trades, five waiver claims, two Rule 5 picks and just one major league free-agent signing to rebuild half the ballclub.
“I think it’s helpful that I’ve gone through it once before [with the Brewers],” Stearns said at his Oct. 2 introductory news conference with the Mets, as he commenced a second round of clean-up.
He has followed the same blueprint. Even before he officially grabbed the reins, several department heads were fired, and then Buck Showalter was dismissed, too. The exodus continued into this offseason.
Infielders Jonathan Araúz and Danny Mendick, outfielders Tim Locastro and Rafael Ortega, catcher Michael Pérez, righties Elieser Hernandez, Vinny Nittoli, Denyi Reyes and lefty Anthony Kay were waived.
Adam Ottavino — who had signaled during the season he would opt in to the final year of his contract — tried to talk with the Mets about redoing his deal and said he offered to take less than the $6.75 million that was on the table. Stearns’ crew was not interested, so he opted out and became a free agent, too.
Last week, Stearns had several toss-up calls on whether he should extend contracts to useful but flawed players — and just about all of those calls wound up as rejections. There were strong cases to be made (really!) to bring back Daniel Vogelbach and Luis Guillorme. It is not hard to imagine Jeff Brigham, Sam Coonrod and/or Trevor Gott being solid relievers next season. Yet, all five were non-tendered.
After a few weeks of free agency, the Mets have replaced the 15 aforementioned 40-man roster members with … outfield prospect Alex Ramirez, who was protected from the Rule 5 draft, and infielder Zack Short, who was claimed from the Tigers.
New White Sox general manager Chris Getz, in his first weeks on the job, told reporters at the GM Meetings: “I don’t like our team. And we have to make some adjustments to improve in 2024.”
Stearns has not been quite as transparent in his words, but has betrayed the same sentiment in his actions: He clearly did not like the back of the Mets’ roster (or their coaching staff) and has had to tear down before he can build.
He has plenty of time. From tiny roster-building moments such as the Rule 5 draft to monstrous contracts at the top of free agency, the Mets will be busy at each stage of this offseason — because they have to be. Stearns — who also is helping new manager Carlos Mendoza fill out a coaching staff; who also is filling a growing front office; who also is alone at the top of the hierarchy because he does not have time to pick a general manager — has to fill out a remarkable 30 percent of his 40-man roster.
Stearns’ first remodeling took some time to stabilize, and his 2016 Brewers finished 16 games under .500. But that ballclub also was the cheapest in all of MLB, and here’s guessing he will have plenty more payroll space using Steve Cohen’s wallet. (And after that rough 2016, Milwaukee won at least 86 games in each full season on consistently shoestring budgets.)
Maybe Stearns’ approach works immediately and the Mets’ reinforcements on the outer layers of the roster will be better equipped to help than they were in 2023.
Maybe it doesn’t, and Stearns will need to do some heavy lifting again this time next year.
What is clear, though, is the Mets will need name tags at spring training.
James Dolan rarely speaks publicly, which makes any words leaking from the Knicks owner noteworthy.
What Dolan lacks in press conferences he makes up for in court documents and memos, which are demonstrating that the billionaire is angry with the Raptors and perhaps even more furious with Adam Silver.
The past two days have been filled with words Dolan probably did not want public, but have become so as he fights both opponents and the league itself.
First it was a 24-page court filing, as The Post’s Stefan Bondy reported Monday, in which the Knicks allege Silver is compromised by his buddy-buddy relationship with Raptors minority owner Larry Tanenbaum. The Knicks are suing a former employee (and seeking more than $10 million from the Raptors) for allegedly stealing proprietary information from the franchise and bringing it to Toronto. The Knicks (i.e. Dolan) want the court to handle the dispute rather than Silver, who the Knicks argue cannot fairly handle the squabble.
“Among other things, Tanenbaum has been described as ‘a close ally of Commissioner Adam Silver,’” the Knicks’ filing reads. “Silver himself described Tanenbaum as ‘not just my boss as the chairman of the board of governors, but he’s very much a role model in my life.’”
A day later, word seeped out that Dolan has been bashing Silver more directly, too. Before the lawsuit was launched, Dolan resigned from his positions on the NBA’s board of governors’ influential advisory/finance and media committees, according to a memo that ESPN obtained.
“Given all that has occurred lately, I have come to the conclusion that the NBA neither needs nor wants my opinion,” Dolan wrote in a July memo to Silver, which also went to the 29 other owners in the league.
According to the report, Dolan has become “increasingly critical” of both Silver and the NBA on several matters, including the revenue-sharing system in which the big-market Knicks help out smaller-market teams.
Add in the fact that Dolan’s plans to build another Sphere arena in London has been vetoed by the city’s mayor, and Dolan is fighting with just about everyone these days.
The Yankees news of the day: Brad Ausmus will be Aaron Boone’s bench coach.
Ausmus, who succeeds Mendoza, grew up in Connecticut, was a 48th-round pick of the Yankees in 1987 and played 18 years in the majors, though never in pinstripes.
The former catcher managed the Tigers from 2014-17 and Billy Eppler’s Angels in 2019 before he was most recently the A’s bench coach in 2022.
It is difficult to glean too much from hirings like this, and most of a bench coach’s work is done behind the scenes.
But the experience on the Yankees’ staff — particularly if Luis Rojas returns, which would give them a seventh-year manager and two former managers in the dugout — stands out. If the season goes awry and Boone is let go, the Yankees might not have to look far for a replacement with managerial experience.
???? Tim Boyle did his best Iceman talking about his first start as Jets quarterback: He wants to feel “dangerous out there.” Zach Wilson said he understood his benching, because, well, yeah.
???? The Post’s Mike Vaccaro ranked all 51 Jets quarterbacks since Joe Namath. Check out his list.
???? Tommy DeVito vs. Bill Belichick is an all-time, on-paper NFL mismatch. The Giants rookie quarterback isn’t backing down from the challenge.
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???? Pacers 157, Hawks 152. In regulation.
⚽ Chaos in the stands at the Brazil-Argentina World Cup qualifier.