Earlier this month, an article titled “Executive Perspectives: How Analysis Is Affecting the Work of General Managers?” Published in Fangraphs. Featured are Ross Atkins, Brian Cashman, Jerry Dipoto and John Mozeliak who share their perspectives on this evolving aspect of their shared status.
Shortly after the work was run, the two suggested David Stearns as the subject of the follow-up interview. That is understandable. Now, in his second season as president of the New York Mets baseball business, the 40-year-old Ivy League product has two decades of experience in the industry, almost all in the front office.
Stearns graduated from Harvard in 2007 with Pittsburgh Pirates before working in the central office of MLB, then worked with Cleveland as co-director of baseball business, becoming assistant general manager for the Houston Astros, and in 2015, he hired general manager by the Milwaukee Brewery. His data-driven approach is the common point of the whole process. Additionally, he has been loyal to his analytics since taking his current position after the 2023 season.
Last week, Stearns was at Fenway Park when the Red Sox hosted the team at the front desk he now led, so I took the opportunity to take his opinion at hand. This is our conversation, edited for clarity and ease.
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David Laurila: I will start with the question I asked Atkins, Cashman, DiPoto and Mozeliak: How does the ongoing growth in analysis affect work?
David Stearns: “In the scope of my career, we are overwhelmed by more and more information sources – more and more grainy sources of information are related to the process of playing baseball, not necessarily the result or result of playing baseball, the results or results of these people are increasingly tending toward increasingly complex algorithms and models that require wiser people and are real analysts and are a boundary person and a boundary person and a boundary, and that is a boundary, and that is a boundary, and that is a field scope. Baseball has grown to be huge, and we need more and more people to manage this is my first thing.
Laurila: The GMs I spoke with earlier all emphasized the importance of the recruitment process. This not only attracts enough people, but also introduces people with high expertise.
Stearns: “Yes. It does in the analytical space. I think that’s the case in general throughout the baseball operations. Again, these groups get bigger throughout the baseball operation, so recruiting is very important. Ultimately, the people in the group decide whether a particular organization’s success or failure.”
Laurila: Are you making most recruitment decisions or are you delegating certain responsibilities within different departments?
Stearns: “You have to delegate.
Laurila: Is this your situation?
Stearns: “I think I’m increasingly aware of the importance of the hiring process throughout my career. I think when I first started, I didn’t really think about how the people you hire in certain positions really impact the entire organization. Now, I have a keen sense of that. So that really changes that, although I think the experience in some aspects is not just about any particular position, but about getting more accomplished in any particular position.”
Laurila: Does the way you look at the analysis change over time?
Stearns: “So, I think analysis…when high-level information, model, first
Entering the field of baseball, with a wide range of blows, they looked at most of the players’ acquisition space. They will help you get players. Now, we are analyzing the sources of information within the umbrella that affect everything we do. It affects acquisitions, the development of the entire organization, the medicine, and the psychological skills. In our operational foundation, there is no team that does not affect the analysis and information sources.
“As time goes by, it’s definitely my time in baseball.
Laurila: Assuming you were as knowledgeable as most analysts at first, I would be right, but considering that this is no longer the case with the explosion of information?
Stearns: “Yes. When I first started in the industry, as an assistant general manager throughout the process, as a general manager, at first – I think I had a very clear understanding of how our models were made. I might not have a background to create our models, but I can certainly connect the situations of how a particular equation solves. To get better and better…our modeling techniques are getting so complex that what we do now is with what we do on Wall Street or any business that is working on a lot of data.”
Laurila: It’s important to keep a talented group of people you trust, but at the same time, if you don’t introduce new voices into the equation, will the group stagnate?
Stearns: “Organizations will definitely stagnate. You keep trying to prevent this, whether it’s with new voices, through brainstorming meetings, being very aware of what competitors are doing, trying to understand the situation in different industries. Yes, yes, stagnation and complacency are certainly something that organizations need to overcome.”
Laurila: How do you bring people to what you know will add value?
Stearns: “Well, you don’t know. You’re just trying to sort out your own best recruiting process. The advice is very, very important. But, of course, I haven’t been 100% in the recruiting process throughout my career. I’m lucky to be able to work with some really talented people, but sometimes it doesn’t have the way you expected.”
Laurila: What are the examples you have had problems with you over the years? Not in recruitment, but a way you get close to one aspect of the game?
Stearns: “Here, I think we’re constantly learning different skills, different attributes in the game, how to contribute to victory. That’s all we have to do – win the game – I think we’re constantly learning the balance of different elements that win. In my opinion, the balance of these elements starts with the first time I started the game.”
Laurila: The former players live in the front desk, some of which are at the highest. How valuable are the skills they bring?
Stearns: For those in positions or similar leadership positions, I think playing games at a major league level or playing a straight forward credibility at a very high level, maybe someone like me didn’t have one like me in the beginning. More and more. As our model becomes more complex, as our data becomes more complex, we become more complex, which can make it more actionable, I can enable myself to achieve a certain level of understanding of my scope. Taking it in the hands of someone who can actually help players perform better, not just the odd models living in the Baseball Action Office. ”
