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The 2023 MLB season saw the New York Mets ship off both Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander via trade amidst a massively disappointing campaign. For many observers, New York signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto was a logical offseason move, but it wasn't meant to be. New Mets GM David Stearns, however, isn't discouraged by Yamamoto's spurning of his team.
“Look, we gave it our best shot and I think as an organization did pretty much everything we could. I thought it was a good process, a fair process, and ultimately the player chose to go to LA, which we respect,” Stearns said on Foul Territory.
Yamamoto landed a massive 12-year, $325 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency. Despite missing out on the coveted right-hander, Stearns vowed to pursue big name free agents in the future.
“We're gonna go through these types of pursuits in the future, and there's gonna be times when we land the player. And that will certainly be exciting for us.”
Stearns getting used to Mets role
Although Stearns only became the general manager of the Mets after the team's 2023 season ended, he acknowledged that he was already plenty familiar with Yamamoto. The team also had laid plenty of groundwork to help Stearns in the courting process.
“I was fortunate that the Mets have done a great job of scouting Japan. …I felt very well-informed of the type of player (Yamamoto) was when I showed up. … And it's not like this was a player that just sort of jumped on the baseball scene for the last couple of months. This was clearly a very well-known player over the last couple of years.”
As Stearns pointed out, coming from the Milwaukee Brewers organization, big game hunting wasn't something he did much of. Now, armed with owner Steve Cohen's riches, he better learn how to secure high-priced signatures, or Mets fans will start asking questions.
