David Stearns and Craig Counsell Skip Town

I wrote last November about David Stearns stepping down from his position as the President of Baseball Operations of the Brewers.  The speculation at that time was that he would quietly wait out the remaining year of his contract in 2023 and then sign with the Mets in 2024 since he is from New York, and that proved to be exactly what happened.  On literally the first day of the offseason, the Mets held a press conference for his signing.  One of Stearns' first orders of business was to fire manager Buck Showalter, who was only one season removed from a 100-win season but led the Mets to a very disappointing 2023.  This all led to further speculation that Stearns and Brewers manager Craig Counsell would be reunited in New York, as Craigers' contract expired after the end of this season.  However, no matter who is at the helm, history has repeatedly shown that "the Mets are gonna Met."  They instead went the route of hiring a manager with zero experience for practically nothing to lead the largest payroll in North American sports.  The Cubs immediately swooped in and signed Counsell - despite already having a manager - to a 5 year, $40 million contract, which now makes him the highest paid manager in baseball.

Now that I've had some time to reflect on both of these signings, I can't objectively say I'm super surprised nor do I blame either of them.  Am I disappointed?  Of course.  But in both Stearns and Counsell's cases, both of them had reached kind of the pinnacle of what they were going to achieve in Milwaukee.  That's just the sad and honest reality of being in the smallest market in baseball.  To both be in cities with seemingly endless resources, coupled with their talent, is going to give them the best chance to consistently win and most importantly to win the World Series.  For a team like the Brewers to not only remain competitive for such a long period of time - pretty much the entirety of the Stearns/Counsell era - but also to make the playoffs in 5 of the past 6 years is nothing short of remarkable, and a lot of that credit is owed to those two men.  I had heard a stat on a podcast shortly before Counsell signed with the Cubs in which they were trying to quantify a WAR-type number for what Counsell as a manager contributes to a team in terms of wins, and the number he came up with was 6 WAR.  I'm not going to pretend that I understand how WAR is calculated, but accounting for 6 wins by yourself is the difference between making and not making the playoffs just about every year.  Stearns is going to be able to help Steve Cohen spend money responsibly and efficiently given his background, and Counsell is going to be able to steer the ship for the Cubs and masterfully manage their bullpen.  I think I was a little bit more surprised with the Counsell signing than Stearns, only because I thought he would either step aside or remain with the Brewers given his family situation, but looking back at it objectively now, the Cubs make a ton of sense.  It's 90 minutes away, he knows the division, they have a huge payroll, and Chicago is actually closer to some of his kids in college than Milwaukee is.  He's able to have kind of the best of both worlds in being close with his family, while also setting the market for what managers deserve to make and proving he can win on the big stage.  Counsell is now the highest paid manager since Joe Torre in his years with the Yankees, and in today's age of $300, 400, 500 million contracts, that is kind of astounding.

I wish anyone reading a very happy, healthy, and safe holiday season!  Pitchers & Catchers report in 72 days, and I expect I'll have an announcement on my/our 2024 trips around that time.