David Stearns

David Stearns

• School Harvard University

• Born February 18, 1985 in New York, NY USA

Biographical Information

David Stearns has been a General Manager and senior executive.

Stearns was an intern for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2005-2006 and worked for the Arizona Fall League in 2007. After graduating from Harvard University that year, he was an intern with the New York Mets in 2008. He then was in the office of the MLB commissioner from 2008-2011. In 2012, he was Director of Operations for the Cleveland Indians. He was assistant GM of the Houston Astros from 2013-2015. He became the GM of the Milwaukee Brewers in the fall of 2015 at age 30. Following the Brewers' very successful 2018 season, when they came within one game of reaching the World Series, he was given a promotion, being named President for Baseball Operations in addition to his GM duties. Following the 2020 season, he relinquished the GM duties to concentrate on his functions as President, promoting his assistant, Matt Arnold, to General Manager. This was likely done to ensure Arnold would remain with the Brewers, as there were a number of GM vacancies around Major League Baseball for which his name was under consideration. Following the 2022 season, he gave up more of his responsibilities to Arnold, who took on the title of President of Baseball Operations. Stearns stayed on as an adviser to owner Mark Attanasio.

In September of 2023, he was hired by the New York Mets to become President of baseball operations. He immediately dismissed manager Buck Showalter on the final day of the season, then on October 5th, GM Billy Eppler handed in his resignation. Eppler was not replaced as Stearns took over GM duties as well. After the Mets gave the eventual World Champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a run for their money in the 2024 Postseason, he took out his pocket book the following off-season to sign free agent OF Juan Soto to a huge contract. However, the Mets missed the postseason by a whisker in 2025, and Stearns followed that disappointing year with a very busy off-season. He completely re-vamped the Mets' infield by signing free agents Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco and trading for Marcus Semien, and also pulled off trades for Ps Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers and OF Luis Robert Jr. He also signed two potential closers in Devin Williams and Luke Weaver, both as free agents. Some of this churning was forced by circumstances, as two stalwarts from previous seasons, 1B Pete Alonso and closer Edwin Diaz, left via free agency and had to be replaced.

Source: 2018 Brewers Media Guide

Preceded by Doug Melvin

Milwaukee Brewers General Manager 2015-2020

Succeeded by Matt Arnold

Preceded by Billy Eppler

New York Mets General Manager 2023-

Succeeded by current

Further Reading

• "Stearns becomes Mets' first president of baseball operations", mlb.com, October 2, 2023. [1]
• Adam McCalvy: "Brewers' quick rebuild built on strong foundation: GM Stearns retained organizational core, made savvy signings and trades to build winner", mlb.com, October 2, 2018. [2]
• Steve Megargee (Associated Press): "Brewers' president of baseball operations Stearns steps down", Yahoo! News, October 27, 2022. [3]
• Manny Randhawa: "Mets exec Stearns strikes twice in deals for Peralta", mlb.com, January22, 2026. [4]