Brewers deny New York Mets permission to interview David Stearns (Report)

The New York Mets are running into some roadblocks in their search for a president of baseball operations. Namely, other teams. 

According to Jon Morosi of MLB Network, the New York Mets were denied permission to interview Milwaukee Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns.

Sources: #Mets denied permission to interview #Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns. Story: https://t.co/QUqoK2CCZS @MLB @MLBNetwork

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) November 17, 2020

The Mets’ interest in Stearns shouldn’t come as a surprise. He’s a New York native who grew up a Mets fan and got his start in MLB as a Mets intern. The ties to the organization run deep, and given that Stearns is one of the top executives in MLB, the Mets reaching out to him makes sense

The Brewers were never going to let him leave though. Under Stearns, Milwaukee has made the playoffs in three straight seasons — a first in franchise history. He’s built a deep farm system and a Brewers team that carries the potential for sustained success.

He orchestrated the trade for Christian Yelich, signed Lorenzo Cain, and has been very successful in the draft. The Brewers have become one of the best teams in the National League because of Stearns.

The ballclub loves what he’s done so much that it promoted him from general manager to president of baseball ops in 2019. That may not seem like much, but it keeps teams like the Mets from being able to poach him.

The Mets are running into similar problems around the league: The Rays aren’t allowing Erik Neander to interview for jobs, and neither are the A’s with David Forst. Chris Antonetti isn’t interviewing for jobs even though the Indians already have his replacement on the payroll.

The Mets are going to need to descend a tier in the search for a new president of baseball operations. Two names that make the most sense are Indians general manager Mike Chernoff and Twins general manager Thad Levine.

Both Chernoff and Levine are second in command despite their title, and they’re among the top executives in the league. The Mets possessed interest in them in 2018, but the pair of individuals declined to interview. However, they likely wouldn’t decline if given a promotion and a raise.