Mets' Stearns returns to Milwaukee with his new team's playoff hopes on the line

MILWAUKEE (AP) — New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns finds himself in an unusual situation this weekend as he returns to American Family Field for the first time since leaving the Milwaukee Brewers.

His current team is trying to clinch a postseason berth by beating the annual playoff contender he helped build.

“I think at this point I have enough distance for it,” Stearns said before the Mets' 8-4 loss to the Brewers on Friday night. “That roster has turned over pretty considerably since I’ve been in the seat here. I certainly know a lot of the people over there, I know a lot of the players over there, but I think there’s been enough distance at this point.”

Stearns joined the Brewers in October 2015 as general manager and was promoted to president of baseball operations before the 2019 season. He stepped down after the 2022 season and remained with the Brewers in an advisory role while Matt Arnold — his former right-hand man — took over as president of baseball operations. Stearns left Milwaukee entirely last fall to run baseball operations for the team he rooted for as a kid growing up in New York City.

He believed this was his first time back at American Family Field since August 2023. The Brewers opened the season by sweeping the Mets in New York, but the teams hadn’t faced each other since.

Now they’re meeting again with the Mets’ season on the line.

The Mets are competing with the Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks for the NL's final two wild-card spots. The Mets' loss and the Braves' 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday left them with identical 87-71 records. The Diamondbacks fell to 88-72 with their 5-3 loss to the San Diego Padres.

As Stearns noted, the Brewers’ roster has changed quite a bit since he departed. Milwaukee's starting lineup Friday included only four players — second baseman Brice Turang, right fielder Sal Frelick, left fielder Jackson Chourio and shortstop Willy Adames — who joined the organization when Stearns was in charge.

Even so, Stearns played a major role in helping the Brewers put together the longest sustained run of success in franchise history. Milwaukee clinched the NL Central title last week and will be making its sixth playoff appearance in the last seven years. That run of postseason bids came shortly after Stearns engineered the blockbuster acquisition of Christian Yelich, the 2018 NL MVP.

Milwaukee had made the playoffs just twice in a 35-year stretch from 1983-2017.

“It’s fun being back here,” Stearns said. “I’m glad I’m back here when games really matter for us. We’re playing for something that’s really important, so we have to go out and have a good series.”

Stearns is now trying to get back in the playoffs with the Mets, which could result in a return to Milwaukee next month. But that path just got quite a bit more complicated.

The Mets face the possibility of playing a doubleheader in Atlanta on Monday — the day after the scheduled end of the regular season — for the right to begin a Wild Card Series on Tuesday. That scenario developed because New York's scheduled Wednesday and Thursday games in Atlanta were rained out.

“Nobody wants to play a doubleheader on Monday,” Stearns said. “The Braves didn’t want that outcome, MLB didn’t want that outcome and certainly we didn’t want that outcome. I think it’s easy in retrospect to say that we could have done things differently to get there. It’s also really tough in the moment to predict exactly what the weather is going to do. There are a whole host of considerations that everyone is working through in order to make the best decision possible.

"The reality is we may have to play a doubleheader on Monday, and if we do, we’ll do the best that we can.”

Stearns was asked if he believed the start of a Wild Card Series should be pushed back a day if that Monday doubleheader takes place. The twinbill would only happen if the Mets’ and Braves’ playoff fates aren’t settled by then.

“That’s not my decision, and so I’m not really thinking about it,” Stearns said. “Whenever we play, we play.”

If New York ends up as the third NL wild card, Stearns would be seeing his former team again with even more at stake as the Mets and Brewers square off in a best-of-three series.

“Our focus is on to get into the playoffs,” Stearns said. “If we get into the playoffs, we’ll play whoever we need to play.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Steve Megargee, The Associated Press